to resume their ordinary pursuits and assuring them of protection to life and property. Between these two apartments the entrance hall leads direct into a courtyard, on one side of which are stables and piggeries, and on the other a row of small rooms used as dwellings. These rooms also have mat covered platforms which serve the purpose of beds and lounges and are lighted by windows of oil paper attached to moveable wooden frames. The floors are of beaten earth and the furniture consists of a table, a chair, one or two stools and a wooden bench. The ceiling has a picture paper and the blackened walls show traces of a paper of geometric design. Everything about the place is solid and substantial after the manner of things Chinese, but dirt and squalor prevail. The Manchus having given the dynasty to the Empire claim the privilege of conquerors. They pay no taxes; the examinations that open the door to preferment are made easy for them; they draw pay and rations from the government and do no work. With such incentives, it is not surprising to find them indolent, ignorant and self-satisfied. They have lost all manly qualities except pride of race. A Manchu may condescend to marry a Chinese woman; but a Chinaman is not permitted to marry a Manchu woman though the Empress Dowager has issued an edict recommending such marriages. Between the Chinese, who call themselves Min-jen or civilians, and the Bannermen or Ch’i-jen, it is hard to detect any difference in dress or appearance. The Manchu women dress their hair differently and do not bind the feet of their daughters; although in order to imitate the tottering gait of their Chinese sisters they wear shoes with thick soles curved inward from toe to heel. But the Manchus are only a very small part of the population of Antung; their number throughout the Empire probably does not exceed three millions. It is the industrious Chinese or Min-jen who make the trade and commerce of this treaty port.