WE have little to observe on this figure. His dress is pretty nearly that of the class of people to which he belongs. The Chinese are excellent domestic servants, and when honest, which is a quality not common among them, they are invaluable. They are rather slow, and do not like to be put out of their way, but they do their work well and neatly. Every European resident at Canton and Macao has Chinese servants, which on the whole, are preferable to any other race of Orientals. They are sometimes brought over to England, but are seldom happy till they get back to their own country, which has the same kind of charm to them as the vallies of Switzerland had to the natives of that once happy country. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: CHINA—PLATE 5 ] Plate V. A MANDARIN IN HIS COURT DRESS. ALL officers of state, whether civil or military, from the highest to the lowest, have been named by the early Portuguese writers _mandarins_, from a word in their own language, _mandar_, to command; and this name, improper as it is, has preserved its ground ever since. The figure of a bird on the embroidered breast-plate of the annexed figure points him out as a civilian. A military officer wears the figure of an animal resembling the tiger. The degree of rank, whether civil or military, is marked by a small globe on the top of the cap, opake red coral distinguishing the highest, and brass the lowest rank: the intermediate colours are transparent red, opake and transparent blue, opake and transparent white. As a mark of imperial favour, one, two, or three feathers from the tail of the peacock are appended to the back part of the bonnet. All officers, whether civil or military, invariably wear thick-quilted boots, and, when in their court-dresses, embroidered petticoats. Most of them wear chains of coral, or agate, or coloured glass round the neck, as in the annexed figure. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: CHINA—PLATE 6 ] Plate VI. AN OFFERING IN THE TEMPLE.