separated from her by my mortal frame, and, not being a water-spirit, which is the mode of getting into the dragon palace? Must I go, according to the Lew-e tradition, to the pavilion of the valley, seek out a red orange tree, bow down thrice, and then approach the dragon palace? Should I not hear of Keung leen after I have entered its precincts, what will be the use? shall I be benefited by her good intention? But ought I to abandon this marriage, after the pledge I have received, till it is perfected? Why not go to the seashore, and endeavour to keep her; for, having selected me for a husband, she will certainly have the means of telling me how to get there?' He departed immediately to the Sha-mun island, and not regarding whether it was the middle of autumn or not, as a proof of his constancy, went to the sea-shore; but he only saw the boiling sea, turbid with the white foam of its waves; and as for a young lady being there, together with Tsuy-ho, there was not even the shadow of her.

"Perhaps you exclaim, Chang yu was a great fool!' but he remained at the sea-shore till the close of day, invoking heaven and earth, and exclaiming 'Oh Keun leen! lady, you put into my hands this fillet of the pearl-dropping fish, promising to become my wife, and bidding me come in the autumn to perfect the marriage: how is it that I do not perceive a glimpse of you? Have you forgot your troth?' He invoked and bowed incessantly, and while he was in the height of his raving and tearing, and invoking and bowing, he moved one of the divine genii. This spirit was a Pung taou che genius (of the Isles of Bliss), and he hastened to the Yaou pool, and immediately passed over head in mid-air, and hearing a student at the sea-shore, worshipping and bowing, and at the same time weeping, murmuring, and incessantly exclaiming, the fairy let down from out of the clouds three amulets: a silver caldron, a gold coin, and an iron spoon. 'Take,' he said, to Chang yu, some seawater with the iron ladle, and put it into the silver caldron; take the gold coin, put it into the water, and melt it; as soon as it has melted a fun, the sea-water will depart ten cubits, and on the second fun being melted, it will depart twenty cubits; if the caldron is boiled dry, the bottom of the sea will be perceptible; the dragon king, struck with astonishment, will offer you to be his son-in-law !' He then departed in his cloudy car. Chang yu knelt down upon one knee, and bowed his head to the ground.

He went to the rolling billow of the eastern ocean,

And boiled its water in the silver caldron.

Such was the magic charm of the divine spirit,

In order to fulfil the marriage of the lovely woman.

When Chang yu had taken up the three amulets of the fairy, he placed his caldron on three fragments of stone, and taking up some sea-water, put it into the caldron, threw in the gold coin, and lit his fire. When the fire began to glow, the salt water boiled and gradually diminished. The crystal palace then began to melt like a sheet of fragrant water boiling in a temple, and the sensation of the vapour alarmed the soldier-crabs, who having informed the fish of it, and at the same time acquainted those within, the dragon king, in alarm, ordered out one of his satellites, an examiner of the sea, who reconnoitred about, and only saw Chang yu, very busy at work. The satellite of the sea said to him, 'Student, not having quarrelled with me of the dragon palace, what are you melting it for?' Chang yu replied, "You have in the palace a young lady, named Keung leen, who came to the Shih-fuh temple,

and listened to my lute. She bestowed upon me a fillet of the pearls of the pearl-dropping fish, promising me that, on the night of the autumnal equinox, she would complete the marriage. Speedily tell the dragon king to accept me for his son-in-law. If he utters a tone of dissent, I will boil the sea dry, and you will all die in one nest.' The satellite of the sea replied, "How did you acquire possession of these things, with this necromantic art?' 'From the Pung taou che genius,' answered Chang yu; 'he gave them to me, and taught me how to use them.'

"The satellite hastened into the crystal palace, and narrated all to the dragon king. The wife of the dragon king sent to inquire of Keung leen, who did not dare to say a word about her wanderings, but came forth, along with Mei heang and Tsuy ho. The dragon monarch then sent his nobles to act as mediators, and accepted Chang yu as his son-in-law. Chang yu then packed up his talismans, and the waters as of old flowed into the crystal palace.

"The red twine of silk bound and concealed their united hair; the bridal chamber, the flowers, and candles were prepared, and they were made man and wife. Two verses of the Haou leu tradition narrate:

The dragon lady listened to the lute, at the Shih-fuh monastery,
And at the Shah mun island, Chang yu boiled the sea.'

CHINA.

OUR brief review of the official correspondence relating to China, last month, closed with the expression of a confident hope that the discussion of this important subject in Parliament, then approaching, would enable us, in returning to it, to supply that dearth of information in the Parliamentary papers, of which there is so much reason to complain. We have been disappointed. The motion of Sir James Graham, on the 7th April, seems to have been purposely framed so as to reduce the issue to a mere party question, on which to try the relative strength of the ministerialists and oppositionists, and an inspection of the lists of the division on that occasion will show that the only question really decided was, that the latter were not quite strong enough to turn the former out of their places. All the great moral parts of the subject, and especially the justice of the war into which we are about to plunge the Chinese, were but lightly and incidentally noticed by the principal speakers, or entirely overlooked. We have given elsewhere a digest of the three nights' discussion, in which so little was evolved, and there we leave the ungrateful theme.

It is gratifying to observe that the public are not satisfied with the result of that discussion, and that attempts are making, by the means of public meetings and the organization of associations, for arresting, if possible, the progress of what we hold to be a most iniquitous war. We lament, indeed, that it should be necessary to invoke the aid of the public voice in this manner, by a species of agitation, because it is impossible not to see that improper means are employed, often with the best motives, under a notion that they are sanctified by the rectitude of the end. Much misunderstand

ing, unfortunately, still prevails upon the subject of the opium trade, and of the proceedings of our superintendent at Canton with relation to it, and most of the publications which issue from the press, instead of enlightening the public mind, tend rather to embarrass and delude. Interested partisans, heated enthusiasts, and "Canton merchants," who did not disdain to deal a little in the drug themselves, upon the principle lucri bonus odor ex re quâlibet, have wasted much paper to no other purpose than to propagate much misinformation. Having ourselves had no interest in this trade other than a moral one, eschewing all partisanship, and having had our attention fixed upon this traffic ever since the abolition of the Company's commercial privileges,-being persuaded, with the late Mr. Marjoribanks, that it would, sooner or later, affect the security of our trade,"—we are, perhaps, in a condition to offer a few observations that may direct public feeling into a proper channel.

One very general misapprehension upon this subject, which, for obvious reasons, it is the interest of many persons to encourage, is, that the evil is to be traced to the East-India Company, who grew the opium expressly for the Chinese market, and that the drug is smuggled into China under their sanction. If this were the fact, it exhibits in the strongest colours the oppressiveness and iniquity of our conduct towards the Chinese. But the fact is not so, although it is of great importance that the parties seeking indemnification for their opium surrendered to the High Commissioner-some of whom are influential-should be furnished with such a ground for fastening upon the Indian revenues.

In our Journal for November last, we examined this part of the question fully, and showed the principle upon which the Company's "monopoly❞ of the opium was based; that it was merely a mode of realizing the revenue upon a product the growth of which could not be prevented, whereby alone its quality as a medicine could be secured, and its cultivation and preparation could be diminished and restrained. We adduced the express declarations of the Indian Government and of the Court of Directors to the effect, that their object was to confine the cultivation of the plant, to disregard revenue in the endeavour to deal with its pernicious effects, and we cited the solemn language of the Court, in its directions to the Bengal Government, in 1817, as follows: "Were it possible to prevent the use of the drug altogether, except strictly for the purpose of medicine, we would gladly do it, in compassion to mankind; but this being absolutely impracticable, we can only endeavour to regulate and palliate an evil which cannot be eradicated." We further showed that, had the Indian Government been guilty of the tyranny of prohibiting the growth of the poppy in their territories, the supply from other parts of India not under their control would have been increased, and that their efforts to reduce the opium cultivation in Rajpootana were arrested by the warning of our Resident, that "complete success could only be attained by such a mass of evil as must make every good and wise man shudder." All these facts, and many others important to be known, we expressly mentioned, are contained in an Appendix

to one of the Parliamentary Reports, accessible to all; yet not a single writer appears to have given himself the trouble of referring to this body of important documents. We, moreover, showed that the question of the opium monopoly, in all its bearings, was most attentively considered by the EastIndia Charter Committees, who came to the conclusion that it could not be meddled with; that there was nothing, morally or politically, either in itself abstractedly, or regarding it as a source of revenue, which called for interference. We showed further, that the evil was confined within moderate limits whilst the East-India Company's factory was at Canton, by the care taken by the Company to abstain from all participation in the traffic, and, as far as they could, by discountenancing it. By figures, we proved that the augmentation of the traffic had taken place since and in consequence of the abolition of the Company's factory (as we predicted long ago), and that the great ratio of increase had been in the Malwa opium, with which the Company have nothing to do, and the cultivation of which, to any extent, they could not prevent. The responsibility of the Company, therefore, for the smuggling of opium into China, can be made out only in a way which might convict the maker of a gun-lock at Birmingham of being thereby the murderer of a man at the North Pole. If the well-meaning individuals, who join the smugglers in their outcry against the East-India Company on this score, believed that this body, by collecting a revenue upon opium, were virtually smuggling it into China, why did they not raise their voice against the system when the Charter was in question? Many are the charges, real and imaginary, laid against the Company in the thousands of petitions manufactured at that epoch; but in all, there was a complete silence upon this head. Yet that was the time to have remedied the evil, if an evil it be.

The Chinese government, therefore, is not entitled, as it otherwise would be, to say to our Government, "You are the virtual violators of our laws, and therefore we are absolved from any regard to international law with respect to you or your officers and subjects," which would put its justification on high ground. The authorities of China, however, can find an ample defence of what they have done, independent of this plea.

What is the simple state of the case? It is only for the purpose of mystification that writers and speakers go beyond the ABC of the question. Let us, to obviate cavil, view China first as an independent nation, forming a part of the civilized world, the people of which recognize a certain set of rules and principles, called the Law of Nations. Can it be seriously contended that such a nation has not an undoubted right to prohibit the introduction of any commodity into the country, à fortiori a poison calculated to corrupt the health and morals of the people? If proclamations and warnings, reiterated year after year, fail to have any effect in preventing the people of another country from evading the prohibition, and, in concert with its own venal officers and people, introducing the poison even by force of arms, if the representative of the nation to which the smugglers belong is not empowered to interfere, or, if authorized, stands aloof, or countenances the smugglers, can it be maintained that the government so bearded and

insulted has not a just right to seize and confiscate the contraband article, and, in furtherance of its measures, to place the smugglers and all who aid and abet them in temporary durance, till the object is attained? Has it not the power to prescribe the terms on which the trade with its own subjects shall be carried on, and in the event of any nation rejecting these terms, particularly if the recusant nation be that to which the illegal traders belong, to interdict that nation from trade altogether? China has done nothing more, and yet the British nation, which prides itself upon its respect for the law of nations, has fitted out an expedition against China, and is about to batter down its forts and villages, and shed more blood in addition to that which has been already spilt in this most unrighteous cause.

Let us take another view of the question, and suppose that China is out of the pale of civilized nations; that it never has recognized, and cannot by implication be subjected to, the European law of nations; how stands the case then? Are we emancipated from all ties, and justified in treating China as it suits our convenience, so long as we can salve appearances? Are not the moral obligations of the law of nations binding upon us, whether the people with whom we deal recognize them or no? One branch of the law of nations is the law of individuals, and it is with a view to this principle that writers on general jurisprudence have considered states as powers; "a mode of expression," Sir James Mackintosh remarks, "which has been called a fiction of law, but which may be regarded with more propriety as a bold metaphor, used to convey the important truth, that nations, though they acknowledge no common superior, and neither can nor ought to be subjected to human punishment, are yet under the same obligations mutually to practise honesty and humanity, which would have bound individuals, even if they could be conceived ever to have subsisted without the protecting restraints of government."

Throughout their whole proceedings, the local authorities, and espe cially the Imperial Commissioner, have, in the execution of a very difficult measure, evinced a combination of firmness, gentleness, and straightforwardness, which offers a mortifying contrast to the vacillation, intimidation, and hesitation, which have marked the conduct of the British Superintendent from first to last. The proclamations of the Commissioner, even making no allowance for the peculiar arguments and forms of expression which are the offspring of a system of civilization wholly different from our own, and seen through the distorted medium of a mode of translation elaborately barbarous, are pregnant with sound sense and irresistible reason. Let us take as a specimen the last proclamation, issued on the 18th December, in return to an application of Capt. Elliot that the trade may be re-opened-for it would appear that this gentleman, who had actually prevented British vessels from trading, has now, after wantonly attacking the Chinese fleets, and destroying some hundreds of the people, humbled himself and his office so far as to become a suitor for leave to trade:

⚫ By this solecism we mean to convey our strong suspicion that the Chinese edicts are purposely translated in a manner to render them ridiculous; why, otherwise, should they not be rendered into English, instead of a jargon?