The high schools and colleges are numerous, but none of them are richly endowed, or well fitted for the purposes of education. The high schools, which are _fourteen_ in number, are somewhat similar to the private grammar-schools in England and America; with this difference, that the former are nearly destitute of pupils. There are _thirty_ colleges; most of which were founded many centuries since. Several of them are now deserted, and falling to ruins. Three of the largest have about two hundred students each, and, like all the others, only one or two professors. We have sought long and diligently, but thus far in vain, for some definite information concerning the existing discipline and regulations of these colleges; should we affirm that they are without rules and order, we should say what we do not doubt, but cannot prove. All those systems of instruction which have sprung up in modern times, and are now accomplishing so much for the nations of the West, are here entirely unknown. There are a few books in the Chinese language which contain excellent maxims on the subject of education, give numerous rules to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge, and detail systems of gymnastic exercises for the preservation of health. Of the whole population of Canton, not more than one half are able to read. Perhaps not one boy out of ten is left entirely destitute of instruction, yet, of the other sex, not one in ten ever learns to read or write. There is scarcely a school for girls in the whole city. Public sentiment--immemorial usage--and many passages in the classics, are against female education; the consequence is, that females are left uninstructed, and sink far below that point in the scale of being, for which they are fitted, and which they ought ever to hold. The degradation into which the fairest half of the human species is here thrown, affords cause for loud complaint against the wisdom and philosophy of the sages and legislators of the celestial empire. We do not knowingly detract from the merits of the Chinese; in comparison with other Asiatics, they are a learned and polished race. Those who have been educated are generally remarkably fond of books: and though there are no public libraries in Canton, yet the establishments for manufacturing and vending books are numerous. To supply those who are unable to purchase for themselves the works they need, a great number of circulating libraries are kept constantly in motion. While the purest moral maxims are found mixed up at times, in the Chinese language, as in ours, with gross licentiousness, the charge does not lie against works comprising the library of the youthful students, which, in this particular, is wholly unexceptionable.