The Chinese are, my young friends, a very wonderful people—quite unlike the people in any other part of the world. They are very different in their religion, laws, manners and customs; and were you to go and live in China, you would be puzzled to know what to do, and how to act. My friend, Mr. Welton, however, who has just sent over to his native place a beautiful collection of Chinese curiosities, seems to know how to get on very well; and from his letters, and the specimens of Chinese literature, art, and manufactures, it will not be a very difficult thing to obtain some slight knowledge of the Chinese. China is the most populous country in the world; it is supposed to contain at least two hundred and fifty millions of human beings. Of these, more than two millions live in boats on the rivers, and a very large number have been enrolled as soldiers. At the present moment, China is undergoing a great revolution (of which I shall have something to say before I have done), and the religion of Jesus Christ is making progress. The end of this will probably be the opening of the whole of the Chinese empire to European commerce, which will be of great advantage to the whole world. No country abounds like China in towns and cities, which in some of the provinces are so thick and close to each other, that the whole seems but one continued town swarming with inhabitants. Their roads are generally crowded with passengers. Some cities are purely military, and are inhabited by soldiers, of which there are said to be not less than five millions in the empire. The most wonderful things in China are the canals, especially the Great Canal, as it is called, which is an uninterrupted communication of nearly seven hundred miles of water, between Pekin and the great central stream of the Yang-tse-Kiang. In connection with the rivers, it opens a communication between Canton and Pekin, by means of a thousand miles of navigation. The Great Wall of China has always been considered one of the wonders of the world. It was erected three hundred years before Christ. It is in length one thousand miles, and it passes over hills, vallies, rivers, and mountains which are in some places more than five thousand feet high. Its height is thirty feet, and it is very broad. The towers, which are at short distances from each other, are forty feet high. This Wall is no longer of much use as a fortification, and is now regarded more as a curiosity. The mass of materials used in its construction would be sufficient to build a thick wall, six feet in height, all round the globe. China is also famous for triumphal arches, erected to the memory of their heroes; it is said that there are from six hundred to seven hundred in the empire. It is customary for persons travelling to pay their adoration at these arches, as well as at the tombs of their ancestors, whom they regard with the greatest veneration. [Illustration]