anchorage at hand, if it should chance to come on to blow. The foreign-going junks on the other hand leave the land thousands of li behind them, and being large vessels have no fear of the wind and the waves. No pirate junks could keep up with them. Besides the pirates have a fine field among the Cheh-kiang and Canton merchant vessels; there is no need for them to direct their attention to foreign-going junks. And even if they chanced to fall in with them, their own junks being so small, they would require a ladder to get up the sides. Pirate junks carry from twenty to thirty men; these sea-going junks at the very least over a hundred men. Neither would they wait for a hand to hand fight with the pirates, but would get to windward of them, and then bear right down on them and sink their junk. Piracy, therefore, is hardly a sufficient cause of alarm.,
That at the present moment, with His Majesty upon the throne and the empire at peace, and when all the human race are, as it were, but one family, we should prohibit trade only with the mild and gentle foreigners of the south, reflects somewhat upon those officials who know these things and yet do not speak them. Where is their loyalty, their patriotism, their care for men from afar and their solicitude for those who are near, their consideration for the prosperity of the Chinese people? Insignificant I, can only look on and sigh.
AGAINST BUDDHISM.
Of all the Eighteen Provinces Cheh-kiang is the one where Buddhist priests and nuns most abound. In the three prefectures of Hang-chow, Chia-hsing, and Hu-chow, there cannot be fewer than several tens of thousands of them, of whom, by the way, not more than one-tenth have willingly taken the vows. The others have been given to the priests when quite little, either because their
