There are four prisons in the city, all of them large establishments; all the capital offenders in the province are brought to Canton for trial before the provincial officers, and this regulation makes it necessary to provide spacious accommodations for them. The execution-ground is a small yard near a pottery manufacture between the southern gate and the river side, and unless the ground is newly stained with blood, or cages containing the heads of the criminals are hung around, has nothing about it to attract the attention. Another public building, situated near the governor’s palace, is the _Wan-shao kung_, or ‘Imperial Presence hall,’ where three days before and after his majesty’s birthday, the officers and citizens assemble to pay him adoration. The various guilds among the people, and the clubs of scholars and merchants from other provinces, have, each of them, public halls which are usually called _consoo houses_ by foreigners, from a corruption of a native term _kung-sz’_, _i.e._, public hall; but the usual designation is _kwui kwan_ or ‘Assembly Hall.’ Their total number must be quite one hundred and fifty, and some of them are not destitute of elegance.[82] ~THE THIRTEEN HONGS OR FACTORIES.~ The former residences of foreigners in the western suburbs were known as _Shih-san Hang_, or ‘Thirteen Hongs,’[83] and for nearly two centuries furnished almost the only exhibition to the Chinese people of the _yang jin_ or ‘ocean-men.’ Here the fears and the greed of the rulers, landlords, and traders combined to restrain foreigners of all nations within an area of about fifteen acres, a large part of this space being the Garden or _Respondentia_ Walk on the bank of the river. All these houses and out-houses covered a space scarcely as great as the base of the Great Pyramid; its total population, including native and foreign servants, was upwards of a thousand souls. The shops and markets of the Chinese were separated from them only a few feet, and this greatly increased the danger from fire, as may be inferred from the sketch of the street next on the west side. In 1856, the number of hongs was reckoned to be 16, and the local calendar for that year contained 317 names, not including women and children. Besides the 16 hongs, four native streets, bordered with shops for the sale of fancy and silk goods to their foreign customers, ran between the factories. This latter name was given to them from their being the residences of _factors_, for no handicraft was carried on here, nor were many goods stored in them. Fires were not unusual, which demolished portions of them; in 1822 they were completely consumed; another conflagration in 1843 destroyed two hongs and a street of shops; and in 1842, owing to a sudden riot, connected with paying the English indemnity, the British Consulate was set on fire. Finally, as if to inaugurate a new era, they were all simultaneously burned by the local authorities to