That the reader may be enabled to form some judgment as to the degree of reliance to be placed on the statements and opinions put forth in the following Notes, I shall here shew on what grounds I found my title to write on China.

I conceive myself entitled to write on China, firstly, because I have some practical knowledge of the Chinese language ; secondly, because I have bestowed my whole time and undivided attention on Chinese affairs for nearly five years ; and thirdly, because, during nearly three years of that period, I have been placed in an unusually favourable position for acquiring a knowledge of those particular subjects on which I have ventured to write.

I commenced the study of the Chinese language in November, 1841, at the Royal University of Munich, with the express view of seeking a place in the service of our Government in China. I attended the lectures of Professor Neumann at the University during the winter term, and almost immediately gave up every other study I was residing in Germany to prosecute for this one. I arrived in China in the beginning of 1843 ; and in July of the same year, on the opening of this port under the new system, I was sent here with the late Mr. Lay by Sir Henry Pottinger. Since that time I have held the post of interpreter to the Consulate. Mr. Lay understood Chinese himself ; but since his departure in June, 1844, i. e. for a period of two years, all the Chinese business of the Consulate has necessarily been and necessarily continues to be transacted through me. To those who are acquainted with the extent of trade at this port, and with the multifarious duties incumbent on the Consular establishment in consequence of our treaties, this will be irrefragable evidence that I possess some practical knowledge of the language. Exclusive of a half-yearly number of about 2,500 printed Chinese forms connected with the reporting of ships and goods which are issued from the Consulate, and are filled up, &c. by me and under my superintendence ; and exclusive, also, of a considerable number of local proclamations on subjects connected with foreigners, which I have translated for transmission to H.M.’s Plenipotentiary at Hong-Kong, I have translated upwards of 350 official letters that have passed between the mandarins and H.M.’s Consul on a variety of special subjects. It must not be forgotten that, in addition to this, all the oral communication which has taken place in conferences with the mandarins, &c. has been kept up solely through me.

I have troubled the reader with these details because I do not conceive that any man is entitled to write on a foreign people unless he possess a practical knowledge of their language. Without this knowledge it is next to impossible that he should write any thing original about them. He may collect information from those that do know the language, and he may adopt their opinions, but he cannot form them for himself ; or if he does risk it, they can scarcely have other foundation than his own imaginations. That this is the case with respect to our neighbouring countries in Europe, every one who, possessing a knowledge of the language, has lived in one of them, will admit, and will I think be ready to allow that it must be eminently the case with respect to China.

Since my arrival here I have availed myself of every opportunity that has offered to associate with Chinese, who before have had no intercourse with Europeans, with the object, which I have constantly kept in view, of making myself acquainted with the institutions and government of the country, and with the character of the people ; of discovering the reasons for so many of their actions that appear very odd until these reasons are known ; and of learning generally by what motives they are actuated in their conduct to us. I conceived it necessary that a government servant should obtain clear and distinct ideas on all these subjects ; this could of course be best done by composing short dissertations on them, and hence the origin of these Notes.

I have reduced them to less than half their original size, by suppressing all that related to Anglo-Chinese affairs. Of the purely Chinese matters, too, this volume treats only of two kinds : of those which are nearly, or entirely, new to the British public, as the civil divisions of the provinces, the duties and incomes of the mandarins, and the inferior agents of government, &c. ; and of those which, though not unknown to the public, seem to me to be regarded in an erroneous light. I could easily have increased this volume to thrice its present size, had I thought proper to let the reader know for the twentieth time, that the Chinese wear tails, and have got a cock in the outer angle of the eye ; or had I thought fit to corroborate what has been already said on much more important subjects, in works too well known and justly prized to require to be specified here.

In treating of those subjects which seem to be regarded in an erroneous light, it has been impossible for me to avoid alluding, in a criticising tone, to the works of former writers — some of them great authorities — on the same subjects. I must, therefore, remind the reader, that a man of inferior intellect may, favoured by his position, ascertain facts enabling him to discover and point out the errors of more talented people, who wrote without a knowledge of such facts. There are situations, too, in which a man may get a greater insight into the feelings and characters of other people in one hour, than he would do in a whole year’s association with them under ordinary circumstances ; and when I inform the reader that a British Consulate in China is a court of law, not merely for British subjects, but also for the Chinese, over whom the Consul has virtually (though not nominally) considerable power, he will understand that an interpreter must frequently be placed in such situations. He will also be pleased to remember, that if we are deterred from criticising others by the fear of being called presumptuous, there will be an end to improvement of all kinds.

In justice to me, the reader will, I trust, bear in mind, that a Note on any one subject is not a full account of it.

I have now, in concluding, only to offer my excuses for the frequent occurrence of the first personal pronoun I, in these Notes. As they were commenced and continued for a long time without any immediate idea of publication, I followed, in writing them, the most natural mode of expression ; and though, in preparing them for the press, I have expunged a great number of the I’s, still, as a sort of philological repugnance would not permit me to call myself we, they could not be altogether omitted. I must therefore be content with entreating the reader to pardon this defect, should he consider it one, in a collection of Desultory Notes.