has been a standing reproach levelled at our Municipal administration by the Chinese authorities that whereas opium-dens and other places of ill-fame are strictly forbidden in the Chinese city of Shanghai they both exist and flourish Settlement. We. believe that of has been a source of constant jon to the local mandarins, who however have been quite unable to pat down what is, in their eyes, a grosso discredit to their authority and a scandal which would not be permitted had they supreme jurisdiction in the matter, The subject has now been taken up by the Censor Liu En-pu, who in a Memorial to the Throne draws Attention to the existence of opium-brothela in Shanghai—sinks of iniquity and stand i The: Gousor draws a very ugly pictaro of the dant on this vid system. Most of the places.in qu tion are kept by women, whose hi bands fatten ov their ill-gotten gains, and who reap a rich harvest by levying blackmail on their customers, A coroles of well-known viragoes commonly called "white ants" are employed to kidnap respectable girls, and openly sell them to these establishments in defiance of propriety and order, Official proclamations which the Mo. morinlist well stigmatised as meaning. Joss' are occasionally launched og this state of things, but are simply Jaughed at by those for whom they are intended. The Censor therefore proposes that the law which permits female criminal to commute her proper banishment for a money five should be abrogated, in order that. a stop may be put the abuses which now proval that all women found gullly of these wicked practices should be itnprisoned for a term of years. We notice, however, that although Shang.
appears to possess an une: notoriety for villanies of this no means stands alone, The cri question are rife in the Cnpital itself while Soochow and Hangchow are also mentioned as hotbeds of kiduappery and vice, We believe that in most instances opiam-dens and other sinks of iniquity' are situated outside the city-walls, somewhere in the suburbs, Such is the gase at Peking, where the Tartar City is very rigorously looked after, while the Chinese City, or, as it is always called, ch'éng wai. tou, " outside the city (proper)" toms with disreputable houses. It is an-fortunate that the suburbs of Shunghai, which are ander the jealously-guarded control of foreigners, should be open to the same reproach, There are streets within a bowshot of where we are writing which are notorious throughout the Empire. This is no figare of speech. The westera portions of the Canton and Foochow Runde and the ity, with their theatres, restaurants, brothels, and opiam.dens, are as well known to young mon from the countryes the most garish thorough. faren in the West-end of London are to Englishmen, Respectable parents in the provinces are beginning to dread their sons' paying a visit to our Model Settlement, whether for purposes of business or pleasure. Surely such fa state of things is little oreditnble to us as Westerns, and it behoves na for our own sakes to try remedy it, There wre, constantly ari flicte of jarindioti and foreign authorities in the Sottlemonte, These will i and the deter to have a sxy in the strongly necentunted, us long as any of their countrymen and country women are permitted to carry on a nefarious trafic, under the wgis of Municipal protection, which are against the lame "tot China; and it will not be for foreigners to protest against it, The re. presentations of the Censor Lin En-p'a have been submitted by the Emperor to the Board of Punishment for report. "This, of course, has especial reference to the proposed amplification of the law as it regards female criminal bat the Decree will have a retie: fluence upon the provincial authorities, and our own among th Tf, ther: fore, the mandarins of Shanghai Galen chose to make energetic protests against a system by which " recuguixed breach of the laws affecting pablic is onrrird on under foreign jurisdiction at the very gutes of the city, we do nob see very well how the opening-up of certain very serious qnes-tious is to b A QuestioN bus been mooted by a Correspondent in the Pall Mall Gazett and taken up in a lending article in the Standard, which can scarcely fail to find an echo in the Exst. The writers appear desirous of heading a system revolt aguinst the universal, of providing champagne for guests at a dinner-purty, and virtanlly debarring them from drivking anything cive before dessert. Cham. pagne," says the writer in the Standard, is offered you with the firat entree, and accompanies your course through une repast till practically its close. No doubt there is sherry for you if you want it, but who wants sherry after the soup has disappeared? Or there is a this hock, or vinegar sauterne, which can be dispensed with under any circumstances. There is also claret of a sort hail; but it is, if not quite petit Bleu, what is irreverently known as Gladstone's claret; no English hatier feeling authorised, unless particularly enjoined, to pour out real good vintage claret during dinner." The contention of both writes is that fine clarets, such as Lafitte, Lévville, and Mouton Roth-child, should be served in success after the soup, the Bul, the entrees, and the joint; for if x mau cannot judge of the flavour of Bordeaux wines ander such conditions, one wonders when his paiute would be likely to be in " proper or adequate condi Here, on one point at nny rate, we join issue with the reformers. Everybody knows that claret after fish is as nauseous as cod-liver oil, Nor do we think that the substitution of fiat red twine for cool and exhilarat. ing champagne is by any moans likely to find general favour, A man who sits down to dinner, tired and exhausted with his day's work, tecla a craving for a glass of sparkling wine, the gratification of which is absolutely necessity to his due. enj solids, The conversation at a dinner. table daring the first two courses often flags, and is carried on with effort; but when once the skim' has gone round it assumes an livelier, together, and a fillip is given without which the most accomplished talkers would often fail to appear at their best, We are gind of an opportuni cording our pr which prevails in diplomatic circles in this country, Is seems to be part of the etiquette ata Minister's table to save the champagne for the last course bat one. As soon as the sweet are brought on, each guest receives a glass of champagne; that is, after he has been drinking red wine with all the savoury courses, when he fede he really wants no more, when the opportunity for producing " feeling of exhilaration has long since pensed awny, and when the wine cannot. but appear to the worst possible advantage, A man who profers champagne with sweets to cham. pagne with ® grouse or a spring a does not deserve to be regaled with any one of them. He is on a par with the schoolboy who thinks nothing is luscious as.thick, blue, treacly- port, If champagne is to be drank at all, let it be at the begining of dinners A couple of glasses then will be far more oynble than at the oluse, when stomach is probably fully landed with three or four different kinds of, Bordeaux, as suggested by the writers equated, Afterthe first draught matters little to the true di may be sent round next, so long as ho is careful not to mix vintages with a disposition to "fight it out between vhemscives afterwards." But the sugs
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.