On sending a message or a package by a Chinese servant, it is always necessary to send a note, which in the _patois_ is called a “chit.” Writing notes is in fact an “institution” among the foreign residents; and rarely a day passes that one has not more or less of them to despatch. To be sure that they reach their destination, the servant also carries a “chit-book,” in which is written the name of the person to whom the note is sent, together with the day of the month; and on the return of the messenger, if the person addressed is found to have signed his name, it is proof positive that the trust has been faithfully fulfilled. Having been joined by Mr. W----, who arrived from Whampoa on Saturday, on Sunday we attended service at the Bishop’s Cathedral, where we witnessed the solemn ordinance of confirmation administered to a large number of English sailorboys, from a naval receiving-ship lying in the harbor. There were also one or two English officers who were confirmed, besides several sailors, and the two Chinese girls whom we saw at Miss Wilson’s school. The boys had been trained and catechized, preparatory to receiving the rite, by their chaplain, who was present. Amid these solemn ceremonies it was gratifying to reflect that a thorough knowledge of God’s commandments, the Catechism, and the Creed, together with the continued faithfulness of their chaplain, might not only tend to the moral elevation of the boys, but, under the Divine blessing, be the means of making many of them thoroughly religious men. The English have always much to say of our “nasal twang” and “Puritan snuffle;” but few Yankees, however, can successfully emulate the Bishop of Victoria in that doubtful accomplishment. I have occasionally heard clergymen at home in whom this defect was fearfully conspicuous, but never remember meeting it in a more intensified form. The camelia japonica, which is indigenous to China, was in bloom when we were at Hong Kong. Being generally cultivated in the gardens, it is much used for bouquets, and the rarest, as well as the most beautiful, are obtained in as great profusion as roses are with us. One day, while paying a visit to a friend, a lovely little girl came in from the garden and presented me with a bouquet of the most superb buds and blossoms of the camelia that I ever saw. Next to the beauty of the gift, what surprised me the most was its lavish degree of elegance; for having always regarded the possession of one camelia as a luxury, I could not divest myself of the idea that the possession of so many was an extravagant indulgence.