Narrow, dirty streets, low houses, brilliant open shops, painted with red and gold. Here is a fragrant fruit-shop, where a poor Chinese is buying an iced slice of pine-apple for less money than a farthing. Here is the chandler's, gay with candles of the tallow-tree coated with

One would have thought that the lady who had thus so narrowly escaped, had had enough; but forgery, like opium-eating, is one of those charming vices which is never abandoned, when once adopted. The forger enjoys not only the pleasure of obtaining money so easily, but the triumph of befooling sharp men of the world. Dexterous penmanship is a source of the same sort of pride as that which animates the skilful rifle- man, the practised duellist, or well-trained billiard-player. With a clean Gillott he fetches down a capitalist, at three or six mouths, for a cool hundred or a round thousand; just as a Scrope drops over a stag at ten, or a Gordon Cumming a monstrous male elephant at a hundred paces.

in his head-dress of flowing silk, with long and pendant fringe; the Scindian, in his becoming cap, that gives every peasant the air of a prince; the diminutive Malay, in his national costume; the quaint Chinese, in his broad-brimmed straw hat;—all throng the thoroughfares in perfect independence of the tyrant fashion; which in European cities clips the wings of exuberant taste, and reduces whole populations to one sombre and monotonous hue. The brilliant rays of a midday sun show all those iridescent tints to great advantage, and no collection of butterflies surpasses the denizens of Bombay in variegated splendour. A few squalid half- naked figures are, of course, to be seen among this motley crowd; but the general effect is hardly marred by their intrusion. However various in race and appearance, one sole and single object animates this moving mass; one sole and single idea occupies their thoughts: the acquisition and retention of money. They are all traders. No Oriental, having once amassed money, sits down to enjoy it quietly. No such thing as retiring from business is known or thought of. Enormous fortunes have been accumulated in Bombay by trade, and so keen is the commercial ardour, that it generally devours all the other passions of existence. The opium trade with China has been one fruitful source of wealth to the Bombay merchant, and the immense riches attributed to the Parsee knight, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebpoy, are entirely derived from it. He has made a noble use of his money; and the public establishments suggested by his philanthropy, erected by his bounty, and endowed by his munificence, proclaim loudly to the world, not only his unbounded command of money, but his splendid application of it. He is reported to have given away, within the last ten years, upwards of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling to works of permanent utility. I know no recorded example of similar generosity, during life, in any individual in Europe.

There were a few score tons of some mysterious article, with an unintelligible name, that hung somewhat heavily at twopence three farthings per pound. It was amusing to see how politely anxious the broker was to work the figure up to threepence; not that he wanted the extra farthing; he'd rather have flung it all into the sea than have felt such a paltry desire; but he just wanted to see the thing go at even money; it would look so much better in the Price Current, and would make the total so much more easy to cast in the account sales. His winning eloquence was fruitless; the unpronounceable drug was knocked down at twopence three farthings. When I expressed my astonishment that men of such undoubted substance as I saw there, should condescend to haggle, like any hucksters, at an odd farthing, I was told that trifling as the difference appeared by the single pound weight, the aggregate of the extra farthing upon the quantity offered for sale that day, would amount to some thousands of pounds sterling; and that, at certain seasons, some paltry odd farthing had realised or lost fortunes. There were a few more unintelligible things—Mincing Lane jargon—that required interpretation. What "overtakers" could mean, I was at a loss to know; but I learnt that they were certain extra packages required to re-pack goods, after they had been opened out in the dock warehouses. One smart-looking seller astonished me by putting up what he termed a lot of "good handy sweeps!"—not climbing-boys, but the sweepings of the warehouses.

LAST year, just before grouse-shooting set in, I had occasion to call one evening on John Rowleigh, the jolliest of our English engineers. I found him surrounded by a troop of friends and clients, gossiping after dinner over cold drinks and tobacco on the large lawn of his little bachelor house. Rowleigh's dinners are as well liked as his railway works, and for the same good qualities—a judicious plan, the best available materials, perfect execution, and no frivolous extravagance. As for the people to be met at his round table, some are old friends: like his wine; and some are fresh, like his dessert. Some of his associates are fruity and full-bodied, like his port: others, light and cool, like his claret. While exchanging salutations with all the friends I found on John Rowleigh's lawn, my attention was directed to a stranger who approached us from the greenhouse with slow steps, and eyes intently studying the grass. He was a wiry young fellow, with a compact head, short curly light hair, well cut features, thoroughly well bronzed; and enough eyebrow and whisker for the tyrant in a pantomime (afterwards clown). By his loose throat, wide white trousers, and excessive garniture with studs and chains over the chest, I should have taken this young man to be a sea-captain with a flush of prize-money, or the successful master of an opium clipper; but, if he had been a sailor he would have had his nose turned upward to the wind, and not downward to the daisies.

There, behind mosquito-curtains, a few Chinamen lay stretched upon a hard couch, with their heads resting on pillows made of plaited cane. A lamp burned on a table near them, and there lay near it a few paper kindlers, a small jar of opium (in the shape of a juice thicker than molasses), and an opium pipe. Every now and then one of the dozers raised himself on one arm drowsily, smeared a little juice over the hollow of his pipe, set light to it, and inhaled a mouthful or two of smoke, then handed the pipe to his neighbour as he sank back into blissful stupefaction. The dull eyes of these men stared, empty of thought, from pale and sunken faces. One of them was poring over a blank sheet of paper, as though he were reading from it interesting matter. A dirty Malay girl sat between two others, smoking a cigar, and occasionally putting aside the tobacco for a whiff of opium when one of her fishy-eyed admirers offered her the pipe. A handsome fresh-coloured young fellow in the corner sat in a state of amazed intoxication

Where are the Parties in the City to whom your money-lender is always obliged to apply to obtain the money he lends you? Where is the party who does not like the last name on the bill, and would prefer an additional name? Where is the Other Party, the only implacable party, who won't hear of any delay in your being sued, sold up, and arrested? Where is the Third Party, who is always obliged to be consulted, "squared," spoken to; who always holds the bill, and won't give it up; who was so unfortunately present when your friend wished to mention that little matter privately to the other party, and who consequently prevented its satisfactory adjustment? Where is he? I ask again, where is he?

On the third reading of the Russian Government Securities Bill, Sir F. KELLY moved to omit the first clause, and to substitute one to the effect that, during the continuance of war with Russia, any person purchasing stocks, scrip, or securities issued by Russia since the 29th day of March, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and in Scotland of an offence punishable with fine and imprisonment; provided that the act shall not extend to any subscription or purchase made in any foreign country by any commercial house trading and having a place of business in any foreign country, and wherein one or more British subjects, and one or more aliens, are partners, or jointly interested. And he also moved to add to the clause a proviso to the effect that the act shall not extend to anything done in any foreign country, by any commercial house wherein one or more British subjects and one or more aliens are partners, nor to the taking by any person of any such securities as a security for any debt, nor to the taking of any securities as parcel of the estate of any deceased person, or of a debtor.—The SOLICITOR-GENERAL opposed the first portion of the proposed addition, which, he said, was contradictory, and inconsistent with the remainder of the measure, and which pointed out a door by which escape could be effected from the operation of the bill.—Mr. HUME suggested the withdrawal of the bill, as opposed to the true principles of legislation, and as not calculated to accomplish its object.—Lord D. STUART had heard nothing to convince him that the bill was not a good one. It was not designed against respectable persons, but against those whose unprincipled cupidity would induce them, if permitted, to lend money to the enemies of their country.— Mr. WILKINSON opposed the bill.—Lord J. RUSSELL said that the argument that this bill inflicted a hardship might be valid enough, and it was equally true that it was very cruel and hard to make the lending money to an enemy high treason. The opponents of the bill should in consistency endeavour to repeal the latter enactment, as the principles involved were the same. He opposed the amendment. Both portions of the amendment were negatived without a division.— On the question that the bill do pass, the house divided, and the numbers were 51 to 13; majority for the bill, 38. The bill then passed.

The Overland Mail has brought dates from Calcutta to the 20th, and Bombay to the 31st of December. The mission of the Burmese ambassador, it was fully expected, would lead to a treaty. The deficiency of the opium revenue of the year is only 11/2 per cent, of the whole Indian revenue. The Bengal bank has again raised its rate of discount all round. Trade in India is dull, money scarce, and freights low.

At the same time, as I have observed, he was terribly jealous of her, and watched her, night and day, with the patience of a beaver, the perspicuity of a lynx, the cunning of a fox, and the ferocity of a wolf. He kept spies about her. He bribed the tradesmen with whom she dealt, and the attendants at the baths she frequented. He caused the menfonce, or little round aperture in the wall of the queublou, or alcove of her apartment (which menfonce looked into the street) to be bricked up. He studied the language of flowers (which in the east is rather more nervous and forcible a tongue than with us) in order that he might be able to examine Leila's bouquets, and discover whether any floral billet-doux had been sent her from outside. To complete his system of espionnage, he cultivated a warm and intimate friendship with Ali ben Assa, the opium merchant, whose house directly faced his own, in order that he might have the pleasure of sitting secretly at the window thereof, at periods when he was supposed to be miles away, and watching who entered or left the mansion opposite.

IT not unfrequently happens that—amid the storms of party, hostile divisions, bitter speeches, parliamentary disruptions, dissolved sessions, hustings' agitations, cabinet reconstructions, plausible promises—the plain facts of a large international question are little understood by the people. The present outbreak with China is not exactly an opium war, yet opium gives flavour to it, and opium chests are Pandora-boxes whence much mischief flies out to trouble the Oriental world. What opium is, and how it is used; who gave it, and where; who buy it, and why; who pay for it, and how; who fight about it, and when—are questions that we ought, for reasons presently to be shown, to be well able to answer in England, since they bear very closely on our relation with a hundred million East Indians and three hundred millions Chinese. An attempt is here made—in an

At this point it becomes necessary to understand the qualities for or on account of which opium is consumed by man. We have briefly noticed the opium culture, taken in its simplest form, without regard to any other interests than those of the cultivator. But we cannot now stir a step further in the narrative, without attending to those qualities in opium that have determined the proceedings of the East India Company. The art of deriving a revenue from this commodity has been invented by the Company, and has become the basis for a vast trade between India and China. Had opium been employed merely as a medicinal drug, we should never have heard of opium wars in the Celestial Empire; since, owing to the strength of the drug, a little would go a great way in the hands of the medical practitioner. The poppy yields morphia, narcotina, codeia, meconine, and other substances invaluable in the healing art; and it is the source whence laudanum, spirit of poppies, and a host of nostrums under the names of Godfrey's cordial, paregoric elixir, black drop, sedative liquor, Jeremie's solution, &c., derive their chief qualities. But the sick consume very little of this substance; it is by men, men hale enough to dispense with the use if they so please, that the market-supply of opium is mostly taken off. Those who do not take opium as an indulgence can form no adequate conception of the effect it produces; and must therefore be dependent on opium-eaters and smokers, or on medical writers, for information on this subject. The collectors of opium are generally pale, and affected with tremblings; and if opium be heated, the vapours mixing with the air of the room have a tendency to produce insensibility in man and the lower animals. It acts either as a stimulant or a sedative, according to the quantity taken, the frequency of repetition, and the state of the system when it is administered. M. Pereira states that, to persons unaccustomed to its use, the eating of less than a grain of opium generally produces a stimulant action; the mind is exhilarated, ideas flow more quickly, a pleasurable condition of the whole system is experienced, difficult to describe; there is a capability of greater exertion than usual; but this is followed by a diminution of muscular power, and of susceptibility to the impression of external objects; a desire of repose comes on, hunger is not felt, but thirst increases. Very soon, however, the craving increases by that which it feeds upon; the pleasurable stimulus is only renewable by increasing the dose, insomuch that a portion of a grain no longer produces the result yearned for. When the quantity reaches two or three grains at a dose, the stage of excitement is soon followed by the stage of depression; the pulse is full and rapid, then faint and slow; the skin becomes hot, the mouth and throat dry, the appetite diminished, the thirst increased, the taste of food deteriorated by nausea, the muscles enfeebled, the organs of sense dull, the ideas confused, and the inclination torpid: in short, the pleasurable stage is brief compared with the painful stage that follows it. Four grains, to a person quite unaccustomed to its use, are likely to be fatal; but to an opium-eater or smoker this is only a very moderate dose. The Turks, who in many cases take opium as a stimulant because their religion forbids the use of wine, begin with perhaps half a grain; but the mania carries them to such a length that, when the habit is fully

At Bombay, the exports of opium to China are greater than all the other exports to all countries; but, at Calcutta, the general trade being vastly in excess of that at the sister presidency, the opium exports do not appear to be relatively so large, although the actual quantity of Benares and Patna opium, sold at Calcutta, is about twice that of Malwa opium sold at Bombay. The sales at Calcutta have increased from two to twelve in the year, and are managed by brokers employed by the Company. The Company have nothing further to do with the matter after these sales;  the merchants or buyers take the drug whithersoever they will—mostly to China, in low-hulled, swift-sailing vessels. Ninety years ago, India sent two hundred chests of opium annually to China; now, she sends fifty or sixty thousand; at that time, the opium paid only cultivators' and merchants' profits; at present, it yields in addition a revenue of no less than five millions sterling to the East India Company. And yet it is calculated that all the opium fields of India combined, do not exceed an area of a hundred thousand acres, or a square of land measuring twelve or thirteen miles on each side. In the culture of these fields, the Company not only pay the ryot for the opium produced, but advance him money to assist in the culture; and this has led some of the well-wishers of India to assert that, if the Company would foster the growth of cotton in the same way—especially at a time when the dependence of Britain on the United States for a supply of that important material is beginning to excite much uneasiness —it would be more to the advantage both of India and of England.

times the smuggler does a little business on his own account; buying opium at the ship's side, and paying for it money down. This money-down system is characteristic of the whole trade; the opium is paid for, before delivery, and the payment is in nothing less than Sycee silver, lumps of the purest silver, estimated by weight at so much per ounce: no bills, no bonds, no barter: Sycee, and nothing but Sycee, in exchange for the opium. The history of commerce presents nothing more solid or direct than the purchase price of opium. At other places along the coast, there are depôt ships kept well supplied with opium by the clippers; and to these depôt ships brokers come from native merchants on shore; or else smaller vessels go as near the posts as prudence will justify, where the opium is sold to traders over the ship's side, and silver received in payment; the silver being brought by the same junks that take away the opium. The English merchants and their agents do not, must not, go on shore with, or concerning the opium; nor are any of the Chinese junks that maintain intercourse between the ships and the shore, allowed by law so to do; the junk crews know that they are disobeying the imperial mandates from first to last, and the English merchants are just as fully conversant with the same fact. The junks not only carry the opium from the ships to the posts, but convey it likewise up the great rivers, for surreptitious sale at various inland towns. The price received by the English merchants may vary from a hundred and twenty to two hundred pounds sterling per chest, according to the varying circumstances of the trade at the time and place; but how much addition is made to this price, by the time the drug reaches the hands of the consumers, the Chinese only can tell.

The denouncer of opium addresses the British nation thus: You entice the Chinese to ruin their fortune and health, that you may make money. You condemn the Americans for encouraging and extending slavery; and yet you wink at a traffic quite as iniquitous, for a reason quite as selfish. You adduce drunkenness as a parallel evil in our own country; but opium holds its victim by a tighter grasp than does any kind of drink. If you will not attend to English objections, at least give ear to a distinguished man in China, who, speaking of the corroding influence of the drug, says, "It is not man that eats the opium, but opium that eats the man." If you think Christian missions to China good, look around you; for reasonable men among the Chinese laugh with bitter scorn when you bring the Bible in one hand and opium in the other. You should remember that opium-smoking is not an ancient habit in China; it is comparatively modern, and therefore more easily eradicated. You should regard it as cruel to tempt the Chinese with this mind-destroyer just now, when they are distracted with insurrections and civil wars. You should give the Chinese government credit for sincerity in their abhorrence of opium as a national evil; since they have submitted to costly compromises of fiscal interests, and have severely punished their own servants detected in prosecuting the trade: they might obtain an enormous revenue by legalising the import of opium at a duty, or might benefit their country by cultivating opium at home, at one-fifth of the present cost price; but they refuse to pander to immorality for the sake of profit. You should consider that China pays us twenty million dollars' worth of silver annually, besides the tea and silk and other articles sold, to pay for the opium; that this drain of silver impoverishes the country; that the sale of British manufactures to the Chinese is not so large as had been hoped and expected; and that if the trade in opium were discouraged

"Because," returned the Rajah, coolly, "if we had secured him alive we would have made him feed us with the supplies bought with his own money; which should also have paid the reward for his capture. This, by the way, was claimed by several who brought in heads, alleging that each was the head of the Lallah the contractor; but the attempted imposition was discovered, and the perpetrators were themselves decapitated."

But the headman's gains are not limited to his share of the gold. He is usually store-keeper, opium-seller, and gambling-house-keeper to the fraternity. In the centre of the squalid tents, which constitute a Chinese ' camp,' one erection of a superior height and size, is distinguished by a red flag, inscribed with mystic hieroglyphics. This is the abode of the headman, and here the Chinese miners assemble to spend surplus gains: chiefly on opium smoking and gambling. Quail-fights and cockchafer matches are favourite amusements. One method of spending time and money is remarkable for its combination of the uttermost stretch of laziness with an intense excitement. Each gambler places before himself a lump of sugar: all lie still as sleepers, until he upon whose lump a fly first settles, wins the stakes.