convicts, must be a perfon of the moft unblemished character, or he will lean on the fide of cruelty; and when once the work of injuftice is begun, it is impoffible to tell how far it will proceed; it is faid of the Hyæna that naturally it is no way ravenous, but when once it has tafted human flesh, it becomes the moft voracious animal of the foreft, and continues to perfecute mankind ever after: a corrupt magiftrate may be confidered as a human Hyæna; he begins perhaps by a private fnap, he goes on to a morfel among friends, he proceeds to a meal in public, from a meal he advances to a furfeit, and at laft fucks blood like a vampyre.

Not into fuch hands fhould the adminiftration of juftice be entrusted, but to those who know how to reward as well as to punish. It was a fine faying of Nangfu the emperor, who being told that his enemies had raised an infurrection in one of the diftant provinces, Come then, my friends, faid he, follow me, and I promise you that we fhall quickly deftroy them; he marched forward, and the rebels fubmitted upon his approach. All now thought that he would take the moft fignal revenge, but were furprized to fee the captives treated with mildnefs and humanity. How! cries his first minifter, is this the manner in which you fulfil your promife? your royal word was given that your enemies fhould be deftroyed, and behold you have pardoned all, and even careffed fome! I promifed, replied the emperor, with a generous air, to destroy my enemies, I have fulfilled my word, for fee they are enemies no longer; I have made friends of them.

This, could it always fucceed, were the true method of deftroying the enemies of a ftate; well it were if rewards and mercy alone could regulate the commonwealth; but fince punishments are some

times neceffary, let them at leaft be rendered terrible, by being executed but feldom, and let Juftice lift her fword rather to terrify than revenge.

Adieu.

I HAVE as yet given you but a short and imperfect defcription of the Ladies of England. Woman, my friend, is a fubject not eafily understood, even in China; what therefore can be expected from my knowledge of the fex in a country where they are univerfally allowed to be riddles, and I but a ftranger?

To confefs a truth, I was afraid to begin the description, left the fex fhould undergo fome new revolution before it was finished; and my picture fhould thus become old before it could well be faid to have ever been new. To day they are lifted upon ftilts, to-morrow they lower their heels and raise their heads; their cloaths at one time are bloated out with whalebone; at prefent they have laid their hoops afide and are become as flim as mermaids. All, all is in a state of continual fluctuation, from the Mandarin's wife, who rattles through the ftreets in her chariot, to the humble femftrefs, who clatters over the pavement in iron-fhod pattens.

What chiefly diftinguishes the fex at present is the train. As a Lady's quality or fashion was once determined here by the circumference of her hoop, both are now measured by the length of her tail.

Women

Women of moderate fortunes are contented with tails moderately long; but ladies of true tafte and diftinction fet no bounds to their ambition in this particular. I am told, the Lady Mayorefs, on days of ceremony, carries one longer than a bell-wether of Bantam, whofe tail you know is trundled along in a wheel-barrow.

Sun of China, what contradictions do we find in this ftrange world! not only the people of different countries think in oppofition to each other, but the inhabitants of a fingle ifland are often found inconfiftent to themselves; would you believe it? this very people, my Fum, who are fo fond of seeing their women with long tails, at the fame time dock their horfes to the very rump!!!

But you may eafily guefs that I am no way difpleafed with a fashion which tends to increase a demand for the commodities of the Eaft, and is fo very beneficial to the country in which I was born. Nothing can be better calculated to increase the price of filk than the prefent manner of dreffing. A lady's train is not bought but at fome expence, and after it has fwept the public walks for a very few evenings, is fit to be worn no longer: more filk must be bought in order to repair the breach, and fome ladies of peculiar œconomy are thus found to patch up their tails eight or ten times in a feason. This unneceffary confumption may introduce poverty here, but then we fhall be the richer for it in China.

The man in black, who is a profeffed enemy to this manner of ornamenting the tail, affures me, there are numberlefs inconveniences attending it, and that a lady dreffed up to the fashion is as much a cripple as any in Nankin. But his chief indignation is levelled at thofe who drefs in this manner, without a proper fortune to fupport it. He affures me, that he has known fome, who would have a

tail, though they wanted a petticoat, and others, who, without any other pretenfions, fancied they became ladies merely from the addition of three fuperfluous yards of ragged filk. I know a thrifty good woman continues he, who thinking herfelf obliged to carry a trait like her betters, never walks from home without the uneafy apprehenfions of wearing it out too for every excurfion fhe makes gives her new anxiety, and her train is every bit as importure, and wounds her peace as much as the bladder we 18metimes fee tied to the tail of a cat.

Nay, he ventures to affirm, that a train may often bring a lady into the moft critical circumstances; for fhould a rude fellow, fays he, offer to come up to ravifh a kifs, and the lady attempt to avoid it, in retiring the muft neceffarily tread upon her train, and thus fall fairly upon her back, by which means every one knows,-her cloaths may be fpoiled.

The ladies here make no fcruple to laugh at the fmallness of a Chinese flipper, but I fancy our wives at China would have a more real caufe of laughter, could they but fee the immoderate length of an European train. Head of Confucius! to view a human being crippling herfelf with a great unwieldy tail for our diverfion; backward fhe cannot go, forward the must move but flowly, and if ever the attempts to turn round, it must be in a circle not fmaller than that defcribed by the wheeling crocodile, when it would face an affailant. And yet to think that all this confers importance and majefty! to think that a lady acquires additional refpect from fifteen yards of trailing taffety!VI cannot contain; ha, ha, ha; this is certainly a remnant of European barbarity; the female Tartar dreffed in fheep-1kins, is in far more convenient drapery. Their own writers have fometimes inveighed against the abfurdity of this fashion, but perhaps it has never been ridiculed fo Y

VOL. III.

well

well as on the Italian theatre, where Pafquarielo being engaged to attend on the countefs of Fernambroco, having one of his hands employed in carrying her muff, and the other her lap-dog, he bears her train majeftically along by flicking it in the waistband of his breeches ni Adieu.

A DISPUTE has for fome time divided the philofophers of Europe; it is debated, whether arts and fciences are more ferviceable or prejudicial to mankind. They, who maintain the caufe of literature, endeavour to prove their usefulness from the impoffibility of a large number of men fubfifting in a finall tract of country without them; from the pleasure which attends the acquifition; and from the influence of knowledge in promoting practical morality.

They who maintain the oppofite opinion, display the happiness and innocence of thofe uncultivated nations who live without learning; urge the numerous vices which are to be found only in polifhed fociety, enlarge upon the oppreffion, the cruelty and the blood which muft neceffarily be fhed, in order to cement civil fociety, and infift upon the happy equality of conditions in a barbarous ftate, preferable to the unnatural fubordination of a more refined conftitution.

This difpute, which has already given fo much employment to fpeculative indolence, has been managed with much ardour, and (not to fupprefs our

fentiments)