to be initiated, which take place on this occasion, were meant to announce their fitness for the marriage state-a sort of ceremony of bringing them out. The honeymoon is observed for eight days, during which the young couple are shut up in the house, with lights burning day and night. Though those who are not so fortunate as to procure husbands are not required to be very strict in observing the rules of chastity, yet after marriage, any offence against it is punished at the husband's pleasure; and Captain White says, the usual mode is to tie the offending parties back to back, and throw them from a bridge into the river.

Our author does not seem to have entered much into the habits of the natives, during his four months' residence, or to have extended his inquiries beyond the sphere of his immediate connection with them: even this, however, was more than enough, he says, to convince him that, from the highest to the lowest, they are totally destitute of every feeling of truth and honour. From such a people the Americans had not to expect much mercantile punctuality or integrity, but they could not have anticipated the vexatious delays, evasions, and tricks which were hourly practised upon them. Their object was to procure cargoes of sugar; but the moment this was discovered, the article rose at least a hundred per cent. in the market, as did every other article which they inquired after. On complaining to the governor of this imposition, he inveighed with great acrimony against the sugar-holders, and desired them not to be in a hurry, as these unreasonable people must at last come to their terms; the following day they discovered that the old rogue was the principal sugar-holder in the district.' As it was still, however, their interest to be on civil terms with this old rogue,' the Americans invited him to their lodgings. On observing a double-barrelled gun, he expressed great admiration at the workmanship, and wished to borrow it for a shooting excursion on the following day; but his excellency' forgot to return it, and Captain White never saw it more. His excellency, moreover, hinted at the port duties payable on the ships, and which they were ready to pay; but he refused to take the Spanish dollar at the rate in current copper money which it would purchase in the market. They therefore offered to pay him in the copper coin of the country which they would themselves purchase and to which, after some demur, he appeared to accede. But they were little aware of the trouble they were thus bringing upon themselves, and the way in which their purpose would be

defeated,

This copper money is precisely the same as that used in Japan, but somewhat larger, with a hole in the middle, like that

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of China; six or seven hundred being about equivalent to a Spanish dollar. Having purchased a part of the coin, Captain White says, 'the united efforts of four of us could enable us to count, assort, and new string, only the value of fifteen hundred dollars in more than a week.' When they had at length collected a part of this portion which was to be received on account, the Marmion's launch was freighted with it, and dispatched for the custom-house; and it was, as may be supposed, a matter of curiosity, to see a stout long-boat of a ship of nearly four hundred tons, deeply laden with coin, amounting in value to only seven hundred and fifty Spanish dollars, and weighing nearly two and a half tons!'

On arriving at the custom-house the officers were not in attendance, though due notice had been given; when they came it was nearly dark, and on being asked for a receipt, they affected to laugh, and told us that it was too late to do any business that night, but that in the morning they would count and examine it.' What was now to be done? they could not trust the money with such people, and the tide had ebbed out of the creek; the only alternative was to let it remain in the custom-house, which was entirely open in front, and send for an armed guard from each ship. The only disturbance this guard met with during the night was from an enormous serpent, at least (as they thought) fifteen feet long, which came out of the river and crawled into the custom-house, gliding between the stacks of money, when they lost sight of it, nor could the strictest search with the lamp enable them again to discover it. The sailors insisted that it must have been either the devil in his primitive disguise, or a real serpent trained by the rascally natives to frighten them from their posts, and compel them to leave the treasure unguarded.

At mid-day the officers attended, and began the operation of counting, practising every art, says Captain White, to vex and annoy us, rejecting every piece that had the least flaw in it, so that having finished about a hundred dollars there appeared to be a loss of about ten per cent. Suspecting the fellows in attendance to have secreted some of the money, we insisted on searching them; and when it was actually found to be the case they were not the least disconcerted at the discovery, but laughed in our faces in the most provoking manner.' When they sought redress from the governor, he told them he could not interfere in the custom-house department, but kindly advised them to make up their dispute with the officers by a sum of money, which would induce them to dispense with counting, or to pay, as he had originally proposed to them, in Spanish dollars at a discount

on

on the market price, and to satisfy the custom-house officers for the trouble they had been at. In short,' continues the captain, 'we were under the necessity of succumbing to these harpies.'

This affair brought upon them a host of enemies, who took occasion to wreak their vengeance on the strangers by personal ill-treatment. On the same evening, while sitting in the veranda, they were assailed by a shower of stones; they immediately ran to the quarter from which it proceeded, but all was quiet, not a person to be seen, though the moon shone bright. Their landlady came out to know what was the matter, and while talking with her another shower from invisible hands fell upon them, and bruised several of them; they again sallied forth, searching every place where a person might be supposed to conceal himself, but without success. They had scarcely returned to the veranda when a third volley was discharged, which fairly drove them into the house; and this annoyance was repeated almost every evening afterwards, and sometimes in mid-day; but no search, inquiry, or offer of reward for the detection of the offenders could elicit any information, neither could we ever divine the cause of it.' In truth the American captains and their crews appear to be no conjurers. They could not, with all their pains, discover a Cambodian in the disguise of an alligator; and here they are puzzling themselves to as little purpose. We think we can assist them to unravel the mystery. The governor's house stood in an enclosure directly opposite to their lodgings, and the stones came from the direction of the governor's house.' Now as they hesitated to purchase sugar, of which he was a large holder, at a hundred per cent, above the common market price, and to pay him the duties in dollars, so that he might pocket the discount, we think they might have given a shrewd guess at whose instance they were thus continually pelted. We complained to him, says Captain White, of this disgraceful treatment; he answered that he was frequently molested in the same manner; and this was all the satisfaction they could obtain.

The Americans now resolved to try, in their turn, what a fetch of wit on their part might do to induce the Cambodians to lower their prices. They paid the whole of the duties on the ships, filled their water-casks, bent some of their sails, sent on board all their packages, and made apparent preparations for their immediate departure. A week passed without effect-the sugarmerchants showing the same dogged indifference' as before; and on asking the linguists if they thought these people would suffer them to depart without cargoes, they were not a little mortified to be answered with great coolness, that the Cochinchinese were too well versed in deception to be blinded by the

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shallow artifice we had adopted, and that they were willing to try which could hold out the longest.'

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Thus fairly outwitted, and having remained from September to the end of January, they were obliged at last to take the sugar at the price of the holders, the whole of which, after all, was not equal to half a cargo for each of the two ships. The duties and the presents for the governor, mandarins, secretaries, &c. amounted to two thousand seven hundred and eight dollars for the Franklin alone, nearly half the amount of the net invoice of sugar taken on board!' I shall, I think,' says Captain White, 'be readily believed when I state that few tears were shed by us on our departure from a place where we had encountered so much trou→ ble and vexation-and which I consider as the least desirable country on earth for mercantile adventurers.'

Here then, we take for granted, terminates all American speculation on a successful trade with Cochin-china. The French appear to be equally disgusted. In 1819 two officers only remained in the service of the king, since which one has returned in a frigate which made an unsuccessful voyage, partly political and partly commercial, to Turon Bay; the other, M. Vannier, the king's admiral at Hué, had requested, as Captain White was informed, permission to quit the country, but without success.

The impression left upon our minds by the perusal of this Voyage' is, that of all the nations in the east, the Cochin-chinese Cambodians stand the lowest in the moral scale. The Malay, when actuated by fierce passions, is utterly regardless of human life, but he possesses a manly courage, intelligence, ingenuity and industry. The Hindoo, careless of truth, and the victim of superstition, is nevertheless orderly in all his habits, cleanly, abstemious, sober, and attentive to the duties which his religion prescribes. The Chinese, with all their pride, craft and fraud, are a quiet and industrious people, ceremonious and civil, never openly outraging the decencies of life ;-but it does not appear that the Cambodians possess one redeeming virtue, one amiable quality, as a set-off against their grovelling and disgusting vices.

ART. IV.-Voyages dans la Grande-Bretagne, entrepris relativement aux Services Publics de la Guerre, de la Marine, et des Ponts et Chaussées, depuis 1816. Troisième Partie, FORCE COMMERCIALE. Par Charles Dupin. 2 tom. Paris. 1824.

WE

E have had occasion more than once to introduce M. Dupin to the notice of our readers, and, in one instance, to find serious fault with him for a statement, as uncalled for as it was unfounded,

unfounded, which charged the British government with cruel and inhuman conduct towards French prisoners of war. In general, however, we must do him the justice to say that, in the thankless task which he has undertaken, of comparing the institutions of Great Britain, and her naval, military, commercial and manu→ facturing strength, or capacity, with those of France respectively, he has exhibited more candour, and arrived at a greater degree of accuracy, than might have been expected from the pen of a Frenchman, always jealous of a nation which he is pleased to call, par excellence, his rival. In the volumes before us, we meet with, what indeed was scarcely to be avoided, a repetition of many passages contained in the former ones, together with a good deal of detail not particularly interesting to the English reader-but we also find considerable portions of new matter of a contrary description.

M. Dupin is in the habit of announcing his labours in a preliminary discourse, which is read either before the Academy of Sciences or the Institute, two learned bodies, who are supposed to combine all the science and philosophy of France. That some little fanfaronnade should appear in these discourses, to qualify and soften down the unacceptable eulogy which they pronounce on the wisdom, energy and prosperity of a rival nation, is natural enough, and might therefore be expected-hæc sunt solatia, hæc fomenta dolorum. It does not appear, however, that the Academy received his last eulogy on Great Britain in that uncourteous manner which his former discourse experienced from the Institute. Impressed with the value of the noble patience of his auditors,' he lays hold of the circumstance of their forbearance as an argument to prove the superior liberality and generosity of the French nátion; for, says he, in a sort of triumphant tone, an Englishman would not have dared to pronounce a panegyric on the works of France au sein de la Société de Londres. The Royal Society of London, however, allowed a Frenchman, as M. Dupin very well knows, to lay claim, without the slightest foundation, to the invention of Seppings's system of naval architecture, on the part of several of his countrymen! though we long ago incontestibly proved* that neither in theory nor in practice could any of those attempts of Bouguer, Gobert and Groignard be of the least service in giving additional strength to ships, and that none of them bore the slightest resemblance to the system of diagonal braces and riders, first introduced by Sir Robert Seppings, and successfully made use of in all our ships of war.

There is nothing new, however, in Frenchmen laying claim to

Sec Q. R. No. XXIV.

the