Tue expression, China Hands, has become.ahousehold word. It is the recognized. phrase whereby we designate ourselves, and in time no doubt it will be the appellation bestowed apon us by our friends at Home. Now a very interesting social question suggests. itself when we hear the two words. How fire the aforesaid China Hands, when at Home, distinguished from the rest of their follow creatures? We all know how the Nabob of the Old East India Company was recognized, as he is a familiar figare in old plays and novels. His characteristics were pretty strongly marked. Profuse liberality, violent temper, a yellow skin, and a tendency to interlard his conversation with allusions to'pagodas and begums, howd: hs and kitmagars, were the salient features in the'character. Scott, with inimitable art, portrayed the ide: man of the East, when he delineated Touchwood, in St.-Ronan's Well. Now no figure like this rises before the mind's eye when we think of a China Hand. osses and bad years have prevented him from exhibiting any-the profuse istingaislied the Old Chutney, as he genoronily that Was called, of bygone days. The ameliorating influences of the age have softened that raggedness of temper, Which a long residence under a blazing san, and a diet of fiery curry, were supposed to produce. Thus it happens that the Shanghai merchant is not celebrated for the exasperating violence of-his language, or specially addicted to the commission of savage personal as-saulls upon his domestics. He is in fact, unless we are mach deceived, very hho is believed to addict himself to. suymuch like other people. Sometimes
ing "chop chop" when he gets into a hansom, cab, and he now and than indicates to a waiter at an hotel, that he may keep the odd sixpence in half a crown, in the pure and expressive vocable "maskee." Ho affec: s theatres and places of public resort. There is hardly a new piece produced at the " Prince of Wales" or the "Gaiety" at which he is not present, He has a thorough appreciation for the refined art.of Hare and sands. his "modern susceptibilities boldly encountered" as the Times ox-presses it, by witnessing Mrs. Rousby son'the faneral pyre. Later in the evensing, rumour reports that be may/ be: seen at the Alhambra, now that the praiseworthy exertions of Lord Sidney have léngthetied the skirts of the dau-seers. ° His' favourite residence is the *Tiiatched'Honse, and he is fond of a Shooting Box in the Highlands, if he can -find a congenial companion to halve the expense. He wears a belltopper hat, under protest, and objects to dining out where cigars are not allowed. Such is the " China Hand" at Home, as "he appears to the world la general. There is a variety of the species, however, that requires to be noticed. This *Hand is not found at places of public amusement. He is sternly devoted to improving his time. He labours under disease not mentioned by medical writers, entitled China on the brain.
He attends the Houses of Parliament, and is amazed at the attention bestowed on such paltry subjects as an Irish Church Bill or Army reform, when the teeming millions of the Middle Kingdom are craving and yearning to be clothed in Manchester cottons. He works like a negro to get introductions to M. P.s, and finds no words to express his surprise, when they turn an inattentive ear to his passionate pleadings. The iguorance of the Home public appeals him. They do not know anything about Szechuen, rather inclining in fact to the belief that it is a town; and when he talks of Hangchow,'Haukow and Hongkew, they labour under an impression that he means the same place. He discharges at their unimpressible he: whole sheaves of statistics, he talks about the mineral wealth of Shantung, and the coal-fields of Chinkeang, but they are' deafer than the adder of the Psalmist. Yo the ardent propagandist of the gospel of piece goods, this apathy is utterly unintelligible. To his enthusiasm, the account of the surrender of Sedan seemed the only event of late years that could compare in interest with one of the Riverine Commissioners' trade reports. Bat alas! Such is the culpable obtuseness of England, ti her sons would rather talk about a sham fight in Surrey, than about any conceivable incident in Shanghai, The "dellls" they want at present are of a military, not a commercial, character. When the orator talks of the opening of the country, it is clear that, in their inmost hearts, his listeners desire that he would shut up. It is sad to address men so deaf to th owa interests, He despairs at last, and takes a passage board a PY & O, steamer for the "Sink of Iniquity."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.