Church of England is much the best provided for. There is, however, no distinction in the legal standing of the various religious societies. The Roman Catholic cathedral will be a fine structure, but the nave is not yet completed. The chancel and transepts are however shut in by a wooden partition, and thus made available for the performance of service. The cathedral is surrounded by a collection of schools, nunneries, &c.

Sydney has two club-houses, both fine buildings. There are several theatres, but none so fine as one of those at Melbourne, which is as large as, and handsomer than, the Metropolitan Theatre on Broadway.

The two Sydney newspapers are well written, well printed, and remarkably good specimens of antipodean journalism. They are the only rival papers I ever heard of that did not abuse one another.

Emigration to Australia had, when I was there, been for sometime very slack, and the want of labour was much felt. Salaries of all kinds were enormously high, and servants hard to get at any wages. While I was in Sydney I sent an umbrella to a tailor's to have a small hole repaired. The tailor sent it back unrepaired, with the message that while he was making half a crown mending my umbrella he might be making a guinea at something more profitable.

On account of the great expense of the passage to Austra lia, immigrants have usually been assisted by the colonial governments, either gratuitously or else a note was taken for the whole amount of the passage money or a part. The former of these systems has been so badly managed as to bring out to the colonies the refuse male and female population of the large cities-the most undesirable class possible. The following fact, which I had from the American consul, gives a good idea of how this thing was managed. It seems that some one left money, or some money was collected, to bring to New South Wales a number of "destitute Irish orphans." When the "orphans" arrived, the colonists, who had engaged them all as servants, were equally surprised and disgusted at finding them women of thirty or forty years, almost all enceintes, and the rakings and scrapings of the worst and most degraded class.

The necessity of emigration is made more urgent by the character of the black race, on whose labours the settlers cannot rely. They will work perhaps steadily for some time, and then leave, without notice, to attend a palaver, or fight with a hostile tribe. If they have no excuse of this kind, they will allege, on their return, that they have been "taking a walk,” which means wandering over the country for five or six months. They are a cheerful, harmless race, but all attempts to civilize them, or permanently improve their condition, have failed. Such has also been the fate of all missionary efforts among them. They are, in fact, rapidly dying away, and disappearing before the white race. The few that I saw were wretched looking objects, begging in the streets of Sydney, but they, I suppose, like the Indians one sees at Saratoga, were not fair specimens. The blacks, however, are not the only beggars in Sydney. I saw some sturdy Irish mendicants, who begged rather than take eight or ten shillings a day, which they considered too low for their services.

Australia, though in time it may become a place of great importance, can never become a rival to America. It is too far from the mercantile portions of the world for its productions to have a ready market, when in competition with what can be produced equally well here. Secondly, access to the interior is difficult, and must continue so, as there are no great navigable rivers, and the mountain chains run in such a way as to be a great obstacle to the construction of railways. Thirdly, it is not by any means certain what may be the effect on the English race of a residence in so warm a climate for several generations, but if we may judge of the ultimate result from what we can now see, it will tend to its deterioration. Fourthly, so long as the present system of land apportionment continues, no considerable and permanent immigration can ever take place. Nearly all the present inhabitants of Australia are only there temporarily, and intend to return. home sooner or later; and this will continue to be the case, until immigrants have facilities afforded them for purchasing land to cultivate, and securing a homestead, however small, which shall be their own.

CHAPTER IV.

NORTH CHINA.

The Passage from Australia-Making the Chinese Coast-The Yang-tze-kiang-The Foreign Settlement-Dress and Life of the Resident Europeans-Chinese SoldiersNatural Characteristics in Northern and Southern China-Native Town of Shanghae -Streets-Pawnbrokers-Public Buildings-Temples, and Worship-Phonographic Writing-State Visit of the Taootai-A Chinese Café-Romish Mission-Executions and Torture-Indifference to Pain shown by Orientals-Captain Marryatt's Story-The Battle of Shanghae."

WE had a delightful passage of about sixty days from Sydney to Shanghae. The sea was so smooth that we might have come in safety in a small boat, and the light winds and fair weather made our long passage seem short by allowing us to amuse ourselves on deck, by reading in the day time, studying astronomy at night, and an occasional game of shovel-board, the standard amusement of ennuyés on shipboard. Our only excitements were the occasional violent squalls prevalent in that part of the ocean, which, as they give no warning, sometimes caught us with everything set and laid us right over on our side, frequently carrying away something aloft, and always occasioning a fearful disturbance in the steward's department. We had also two adventures; the losing of a boy overboard, and seeing a whale, which remained for a quarter of an hour within a cable's length of the ship. Though both these incidents were exciting, and the first saddening to us at the time, I feel that a description would be out of place. Any one can realize to himself the unfortunate boy, struggling in the water, unable to swim, impeded by his sea-boots and heavy clothing, and finally sinking, in full view of the ship, not two minutes before the arrival at the spot, of the boat despatched to his The whale is still less difficult to imagine. A black slimy bank, covered with barnacles, visible for a few minutes,

rescue.

and then sinking to appear soon in another direction, is all we saw of the leviathan.

The 25th of June was foggy, and so thick that we dared not run for land, although we saw indications of its prox imity in the quantities of cuttle-fish bones on the water, rockweed, and one yellow water-snake about four feet long. On the 26th we got soundings in thirty-five fathoms, and as it cleared up in the morning, we stood in for land, which we continued doing although the fog soon closed in again. About ten o'clock, just as we had tacked, having given up the attempt to make land, the fog rose just long enough to show us Leuconia on the port beam, and "The Brothers," two rocky islands, on the starboard quarter. We must have passed dangerously near the last. We thus ascertained our position for the first time in two days, and ran with confidence for the Barren Islands, which we made at two o'clock. Thence we steered for the Saddle-rocks, which are at the mouth of the Shanghae river, and anchored within them about eight in the evening. For the last two hours we had a man in the chains, sounding with a hand-lead-a precaution which is necessary in the Yang-tze-kiang, on account of the great shallowness of the river, the numerous banks and mud-flats, and the channel not being marked by any buoys or landmarks. The next morning we found ourselves among three or four other ships at anchor, the land nowhere visible, the water of the colour of coffee and consistency of chocolate— I mean both as prepared for drinking, which the river certainly is not. The weather was thick and unpromising; but as it cleared up early in the day, we made sail, and anchored at Woosung, without adventure, at 44 P. M. We had taken a Chinese pilot before noon. He boarded us in a twomasted native boat, of about ten tons, which held some twenty-five men, who all talked, screamed, and jabbered at once, and at such a rate that we thought they were in distress. Once delivered of the pilot, however, their noise ceased, and they relieved our ears and olfactories of their noisome presence. The pilot laboured under the disadvantage of not understanding English; his whole attainments consisting in a

limited knowledge of the "pigeon-English," the lingua franca in which foreigners converse with Chinese shop-keepers and servants. This "pigeon-English" consists of English words, with a few Chinese intermixed. The idiom is Chinese, the nouns having no inflection, the verbs no conjugation. The first question of our captain may serve as a good specimen"How many piecy Mellikan ship-poo have got top-side that river?" by which he meant, "How many American ships are there up the river?" This pigeon-English is a real language, and it takes a stranger a month or more before he can speak it with fluency. Grammatical English is perfectly unintelligible to the Chinese. They learn this peculiar dialect from native teachers, who make a living by giving instruction to those wishing to enter the establishments of Europeans, or who expect to have business with them as shopkeepers.

The banks of the Yang-tze-kiang are low and level, with no landmarks, and piloting is rather difficult. The fellow we had, however, did very well until we reached the mouth of the Wang-poo river, at the hamlet of Woosung, where we found many foreign ships at anchor. As we turned to go up the Wang-poo, the pilot so mismanaged things as nearly to run us ashore, and then, getting frightened, he jumped into a native boat which was passing under our stern, and we saw no more of him.

We anchored at Woosung, and next morning, leaving the ship in the care of a European pilot, ascended the Wang-poo, in a pilot boat, to Shanghae-twelve miles. The Wang-poo is, in most parts, more than a mile broad, and is navigable for the largest ships. We passed several very large junks, some propelled by sail alone, and some by oars as well. I was surprised by seeing how fast they sailed, and how very manageable was their rig.

At a turn of the river, we came in sight of the foreign settlement, extending for a mile and a half, or more, on the left bank of the river; and a half-mile above it the Chinese city now came into view, with the countless fleet of junks which always lie in the river. Lower down were twenty or thirty European vessels. The houses of the European settle