_Beggars_ are licensed by the government, confined within particular districts, and are under the control of certain officers. If any are found wandering beyond their designated limits, they are liable to be punished by the officer who has charge over them; in addition to this, they seldom escape being severely beaten by the mendicants whose district they invade. They are all registered, and receive a small monthly allowance of rice, which, together with the alms they obtain, barely suffices to keep them from starving. Great numbers die in the streets, in the winter, from cold and want of food, and are buried at the public expense. A beggar is seldom forcibly driven away from a door; for, should that occur, a complaint would be instantly made to the proper officer, and the offender would be punished, or be _squeezed_, as the Chinese term it, or mulct in a heavy fine. On the 28th November, 1832, public notice was given, for the beggars of a certain district, to assemble in front of the foreign factories, “upon important measures, touching the interests of the fraternity.” It was stated, that certain impostors, from other districts, had been guilty of the great crime of begging within their limits; and it was therefore necessary that the name of each person should be ascertained, that he might be brought before the proper officer for punishment, and be driven into his own proper district. Great numbers assembled, toward sunset, after the regular begging hours were over. I had the curiosity to visit this _horrible_ group of unfortunates for a few moments, and the recollection of the scene can never be effaced from my memory. The blind, halt, and lame, were there, of all ages and of both sexes; a more motley group, or a more disgusting spectacle, was never before seen. They were squalid and ragged, filthy, and covered with vermin. Many a blind Bartelmy, and many a Lazarus, were lying there, literally covered with sores. I returned home, sincerely thanking God that I was not thus wretched, and that I stood in no need of a temporal physician to cure me of any loathsome disease. Blindness is a very common misfortune in China; it is said to be caused generally by depriving the head of almost its entire natural covering, by being closely shaven, and using no effectual guard to protect it from the extremes of the weather: none wear turbans, and but few hats or umbrellas; slight paper fans being in general use. We were informed, that many a child was made blind by the use of caustic, applied by its parents, or by those who purchased it, for the purpose of exciting compassion, in order to increase their gains in the practice of soliciting alms. There are few sights so ridiculously amusing, in the suburbs of Canton, as these untiring vagabonds: they are an excessive annoyance to shop-keepers: a stranger cannot walk without seeing a number of them assembled in the shop of some obstinate fellow, who apparently seems determined to tire them out.