Lo no other circumstances are all the evils and inconveniences to which a, for eigner is subjected in his sojourn in China more attributable than to his ignorance of the language of the country. Nor is this obstacle, with the light of the present day, one that ho could reasonably be expected to overcome. There was a time i the history of western intercourse China when the acquirement of the native tongue was a matter of comparative ease. But the study of Chinese, in these days, ins been raised into a science, with Sinology for a name, and with the advancement of this science, innumerable barriers in the shape of systems, grammars, and other complications, the most abominable of all of which being the tones, have been called into existence and plentifully strown in the student's path. We donot profess to be an authority in this science of Sinology, but we cannot help remarking the singular absence of this system of tones in the works of the earlier yet able Sinologu No one would venture to say that Morrison or Medhurst were less pro fow their erudition for the—insigi ficant place which the tones held in their estimation, and yet a modern student loses caste if he'should be found wanting in this department of the knowledge. No wonder then that, with this formidable foo always staring them in the face, few foreigners our day attempt to do battle with the Eh nese language, and still less of them who, having conquered, come out victors with their mental faculties unimpaired. Some there are of this class, who, actuated by a mistaken sympathy for the struggles of the Jess valiant of their cunfrdres, or impelled by that hallucination peculiar to their study, of imagining that others would care to scale the ladder if they only knew of shorter method of accomplishing the task, have rendered the study more intricate by the numerous paths and bye-ways which they have cut across the main road in their endeavours to lend a helping hand These attempts have not met with ieees anticipated, and taipans still remain the tools of their compradors, and masters those of their servants. This state of things must continue to exist unless "foreigners, as a body, are in a position to meet the Chinese on their own ground, which can only be done by an'acquisition of their language. Till then, the Mixed Court will continue day after day to disclose the perfidy of Chinese servants, We are not sanguine as to any speedy salvation from-this unsatisfactory state of affairs, but we at least expect to see the lessons so often impressed upon the minds of employers, of the faithlessness of those about them, bear good fruits. Strange as it might appear, there are still foreigners in this model Settlement, who have such implicit confidence in their Chinese servants, that nought but an open robbery would convince them of their untrustworthiness and there are yet others with whom not even. disclosures wider ciremnstances that left no doubt of breach of trust, would shake their faith in their "boy."" We need hardly exemplify our first remark. The records of the Mixed Court and isolated eases which have from time to time appeared in print, abundantly testify to the correetness of it. It was only the other day that 'a compradore of a respectable hong ixas prosecuted for a systematic swindling. that jeff his employer short of some is. 3,000, when the latter came to suspect his' employs's honesty. The compradore had been in the habit of being entrusted with Chinese Bank orders for the purpose of ascertaining their sound: ness. They were invariably brought back as good orders, and it was only in the end that they were discovered to have been exchanged for others, drawn by the compradore on himself, which turned out of course unnegotiable. The employer's confidence in tleman was 0 strong that the cheat was not discovered for a length of time. But we can give " remarkable instance in illustration of our second remark. A case was instituted at the Supreme Court a short time ago by a El against a British subject, was not reported at the time,' but for the correctness of our present account of its main features we can vouch. The inti sued the defendant for the lance of a of money entrusted to the latter during a visit to Japan, by a correspondent of the plaintiff, for convoyance to him in Shanghai. The defendant pleaded non-indebtedness, on the ground that he had conveyed the money without hire, and therefore was not liable, as a com-mou-carrier, for the misfortune which betel the packet of dollars. He had entrusted it, with the knowledge of the plaintiffs correspondent, to his Chinese boy- the son of a blue-button mandarin—together with other monies of his ow: These monies were placed in two portman-teans, both of which, were in the boy's charge. On arrival at Shanghai, the boy was left to convey the two boxes to the de-fondant's house, and it was reported to him by the son of the blue-button mandarin, that in carrying the portmanteau which contained the packet of dollars in question, from the steamer to the wharf, the weight of the mexicans severed the bottom of the box, and clothes and money were precipital ed into the mud, It was discovered on recovering some of these things that a sum of §182 was missing. In verification of his story, the boy showed the defendant the condition of the box and some of the Tinen. The defendant added that, having had the boy in his service for " number of years, during which period he had accompanied him in various travels extending between the Great Wall and Saigon, and had had charge of his exchequer sometimes to a greater amount than the packet of dollars, he was inclined to credit his story. The plaintiff, on the other hand, disbelieved the boy, inasmuch as when he was informed of the accident, he had repaired to the Wharf, and could find no one of the number of people he saw about the place, who was a witness of it. The case was adjourned for the production of the boy and the portmanteau, and during the interval the fertile brains of the boy had concocted another version of the misfortune, necessitating the defendant correcting his statement of his servant's report. This new_ version we will allow the boy to relate, He transferred the two boxes safely into a small sampan, one on top of the other, for conveyance from the steamer to a jetty in the English Settlement. About thirty yards after leaving the P, M.S. Co.'s wharf, and while near a cargo boat, a steamer passed down the river, -causing such a commotion of the water, that the sampan colli-dod with the cargo-boat. The concussion was so severe that the topmost box, which contained the packet of dollars, was thrown overboard. The boy was so frightened by the loss of the box and the money he know it contained, that fora minute he was helpless, until a friend suggested that a fisherman could easily dive for the missing box. The boy looked about him and spied a fisherman's boat lying at anchor on the Pootung side, He went over and Drought the man tothe spot. 'The fish man dropped his anchor, and by the assistance of the chains went down, He came up again directly after, and said' the box was too heavy to be carried. The boy then gave hint the key, and bade him open it, and bring up the packet of dollars, for that was the most important reason why he was anxious to recover the box. The isherman again went down, but was not suecessful in manipulating the key. Lhe boy now ordered him to out the lid open. This the fisherman did, and carried the packet safely up to the surface; but on taking it out of the water, the paper, which had got soaked, gave way, and some rolls of the dollars fell into the water again, The fis erman dived after them, and recovered a roll containing about $50, and brought the box. The part of the river where this operation went: on was stated to be about twenty feet deep; and no-one on the wharf or on board the steamer appeared to take any particular notice of the evident. OF course, the fisherman could not be found when wanted. The story was connected only, a8 the defendant admitted, it was rather too " full of incidents," an the Judge called in the assistance of the police to investigate the matter. The "story," however, was too nich for, the teamed faith of the police, and after on-quiring into it, they unhesitatingly denounced it as a tissue of fulschoods, more Darefaced than any that had ever come within their knowledge. The water wshero the box fell, was said by the boatmen who were regularly the jetty near which the accident was alleged to have happened, to be twenty fathoms deep, and it was moreover that part of tue river where the current ran the strongest, Nor were the boatmen cognisant of Ute accident. It was monstrous to believe that the boy should have been so exact in his calculation that when he returned from Pootung with the fisherman, without having left any marks to identify the spot, the latter should, as it were, have dropped his anchor on the box, to say nothing of the action of the current in the matter. Judgment was given against the defendant, but the Intter intimated that as there was a doubt whether his boy's story was not the true one, he would give him the benefit of that doubt, far from ruining his prospects by dismissal and prosecution, he would take him to India, whither he was about to travel,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.