theirs which "skirts the bay and scrambles upwards and onwards over the hill behind." Victoria, or Hong Kong, as it is universally called in ordinary converse, is, though not a moral town, a comparatively quiet one. There are already, among the one hundred and forty thousand Celestials on the island, forty thousand of British birth. A disorderly Chinaman is uncommon, and a lazy one probably does not exist. He is rarely out of employment, for he will turn his hand to anything: hence beggars are seldom met with in the streets; hence, also, unhappily, among their other industries, that of picking pockets is included. In this pursuit they are very adroit, and in the allied art of asking half as much again for anything than they intend taking they are perhaps equally skilled and unprincipled. "The houses and shops are most curiously constructed, and just as strangely fitted up; not one, however small or poor, but has its domestic altar, its joss, and other quaint and curious arrangements known only to these peculiarly strange people. Look where you will there are evidences of the customary industry and enterprise of the surprising sons of Shem. Up every alley and in every street we see crowds of little yellow faces, and stumble against brokers or merchants hurrying on to their business, clad in the universal blue jean jumper and trowsers, cotton socks, and shoes of worked silk with thick wooden soles; some with and others without hats; the shaven face and pigtail so typifying the class, that to note a difference between Sun Shing or Wang Heng is sometimes most embarrassing. The dress of the women differs little from that of the men. The curious, built-up style the married ladies have of wearing their hair gives them a strange appearance; while the younger lasses allow theirs to hang down their backs in tresses, or wear it bound tightly over their foreheads, and secured au chignon. Their cheeks are tinted bright pink, and with their neat little feet and clean and loose clothing they make a very pretty picture. Although great numbers of other nationalities are to be seen, the Chinese are most conspicuous and interesting to the stranger; and when once the business of the day has begun, the din and traffic are enormous, for crowds of men of all creeds and coloursJew, Pagan and Christian, Buddhist and Parsee, Chinese, Japanese and European-fill the streets, while gangs of coolies chant to keep step, as they press on beneath their heavy burdens. The merchants, whose places of business lie along the Queen's Road, are so similar in appearance that a description of one will apply to all. He is generally a fat round-faced man, with an important and business-like look, wearing the same style of clothing as the meanest coolie-but of finer material-and is always clean and neat; his long tail, tipped with red or blue silk, hanging down to his heels." Lest the reader may, after reading the graphic description of Mr. Spry, imagine that Hong Kong is a model town, it may be as well to remark that though the Europeans are no worse than their neighbours, and rather more sociable than Europeans usually are, nearly everybody in the small community knowing each other, and to some degree being "in the same boat," are not so addicted to that "snobbery" which in the East is the prevailing vice of our esteemed countrymen, the Chinese are even worse in some respects than when under their own rulers. They are certainly not idle-the Government sees to that-but many of them are roguish to a degree that is embarrassing to the Hong Kong jailer, whose duty it is to find house-room for them. The freedom and protection afforded to all nationalities by our laws, attracted to the colony the scum of the neighbouring Chinese towns, and though

many of these ruffians have become reformed characters, a good many of them still give active employment to the police. Gambling-houses and music-halls-with other even more questionable resorts are common; and though the Government tries, by licensing vices which it is impossible to suppress, to get the vicious elements under its control, it does not always succeed, partly owing to the prevalence of the evil, and partially also no doubt owing to the inefficiency of the police and the temptation which they meet with—but do not always shun-to accept bribes. At one time the Government licensed the gamblinghouses, and drew a revenue of 14,000 dollars a month from them; but though the system was productive not only of a large increase to the Colonial income, but of an improvement in the morals at once of the police and their charges, public opinion, which even in Hong Kong is not without a vague, arbitrary kind of conscience, was against it, and the plan was abandoned, though from what we can learn the vice has not gone with it.

The town-both British and Chinese quarters-swarms also with low dens kept by English and Chinese, frequented by the seamen in port, and the habitués of which give endless trouble to the police and the police magistrate. That Hong Kong contains in its midst even yet some of the elements which in pre-Britannic times gave it a piratical reputation, is demonstrated by the fact that a few years ago a number of pirates shipped as passengers on board the steamer going up the Canton River, and at a convenient opportunity rose and captured it, murdering the officers and some of the passengers, and after ransacking it of what they wanted, ran it ashore not far from Macao. Since then the Chinese passengers of the lowest class are carefully secured within a padlocked enclosure, guarded by a sentry, and in the cabin are several stands of arms, so that, if need be, the more respectable passengers can be armed against the possible pirates. Like every other place on the face of the earth where there is anything worth preying on, Hong Kong is periodically visited by adventurers of all nations. But, as it might be expected, the people are shrewd enough to amuse themselves with such specious characters, and if they do not recommend them to the attention of the police, usually send them on their way-not rejoicing. There are, in Hong Kong, specimens of almost every commercial people on the face of the earth, but the English and Americans are the chief merchants. Living need not be dear, for nearly all necessaries are about the same price as at home, but the habits of the residents make it so. Large numbers of servants are requisite, either for comfort or because conventionality demands it; and the ideas of the people having been formed on a scale graduated when money was more abundant than it is now, it is found that to live in Hong Kong takes an income about twice what it would in England. The English are especially noted for their extravagance in housekeeping. Even the "junior messes" in their mercantile establishments are the wonder of the fresh arrivals. The assistants are lodged and maintained in the most luxurious fashion, though now nothing compared with what they were before competition became too brisk to allow of waste, and hence a long residence in Hong Kong 'is not calculated to promote that thrift, or even regularity of habits, essential to the complete British merchant, however much the talk and habits of these bachelor establishments may enable the novice to acquire sound notions on the subjects of wines and cuisine. Next to the English and Americans come the Germans as commercial claimants for the trade of the

port. They are usually better educated than the English. They speak two or three languages, are keener, less extravagant, and conduct their establishments with more regard to economy than do the English. Hence they are rather sneered at, though it is just possible that in commercial transactions the Teutons stoop to artifices which the English scorn to practice. But their competition has resulted in the reduction of the English establishments, for it was found that if the latter were to keep the lead which they had obtained they could do so no longer with the old habits, which were entirely unsuited for hard times, when money is no longer almost thrown at the merchant, but has to be laboriously struggled for with new and eager rivals, whose ideas are the ideas of the era of telegraphs and steamers, and who care nothing for the traditions of the good old times,

over which at Hong Kong, as at Shanghai, the ancients grieve with what is doubtless an unaffected sadness. Hong Kong is, however, still a most hospitable colony. He must be a very unobtrusive visitor indeed who does not learn this fact, and the " cheese-paring," about which the old residents talk so much, has not yet extended so far that an Englishman is ever left in Victoria city in want.

The climate is a sore point with the Hong Kongers, and indeed, if all the tales told are true, there is more in the request to "go to Hong Kong" than would at first sight appear in that contemptuous ejaculation. Its evil reputation we have already noted. For six months in the year the island enjoys dry and rainless weather, but when the heat and the wet come together "the sky seems to descend and rest like a sponge on the hill," which in itself would be a matter of no great consequence. But as always happens, the sponge is squeezed, and the contents descend in torrents which wash the streets, and as soon as the sun rises envelop the town and island in a hot unhealthy vapour. Then