peasants to the Tzar, many observers, especially of foreign origin, have sincerely expressed their conviction that as long as this sentiment maintains its vigour, the existing order of things is exposed to no danger, and all the exertions of the Nihilists will be set at nought. On the other hand, among the Nihilists of the first period, there were many who pointed out the unmistakable hatred of Russian peasants to all institutions which practically embody what is called "the State," and "the social order," concluding that the peasants were capable of rising in arms against their oppressors at the first opportunity, as their forefathers did under the leadership of Pugatcheff, and Stenko Rasin. Both opinions are, I think, quite erroneous. The traditional monarchism of Russian peasants, though greatly diminished during the last twenty years, is nevertheless a notorious element in our peasant's ethics. But it would be quite wrong to consider it as a general preservative against disturbances, rebellions, or even revolution. People are prone to picture things of other countries after their own pattern. If the English know, for example, that their countrymen are full of reverence and confidence in the Prime Minister who is governing the country, they can surely consider it as a perfect guarantee for the maintenance of order. But it is wholly different with Russia and its Tzar, or, I daresay, with any autocrat and his faithful peasants. For the agricultural classes of all despotisms, scarcely differing in ignorance, are everywhere too short-sighted to pierce, by their intellectual eyes, through the thick hierarchy of officers, and see what their sovereign really is. Such nonsense about the fatherly disposition of the king was most common among the French peasants in the epoch the Great Revolution. The German peasants of the sixteenth century, followers of Münster, whilst burning castles and putting to torture and death hundreds of nobles, professed allegiance to the emperor, and in their well-known manifestoes desired the emperor alone to rule them. And the Ruthenian peasants, who perpetrated the Galician massacres in 1848, proclaimed themselves, and really were, most devoted partisans of His Austrian Majesty.

If the Russian peasants, whose feelings toward the officers of the State and the representatives of privileged classes are hardly more friendly, begin one fine morning to burn the noblemen's houses, and destroy landlords, policemen, administrators, the thing will be no worse and no better whether they shout all the while "Long live the Tsar!" or not. A peasant revolution can very easily burst out in the present mental condition of the Russian peasants. There is no need to wait until they lose their monarchism, nor is this monarchism a security against the possibility of insurrection. If order is preserved, it means that they have not yet lost patience; that is all. But nobody can guarantee that they will not lose it to-morrow. Ideas find their way into the minds of illiterate masses very slowly. But feelings and

passions spread like wild fire. A general famine, which in the present state of misery would be something awful, a disastrous war, obliging the State to augment the taxes or to overstrain the conscriptions might cause disturbances to arise spontaneously in many places, and if successful, there is no saying what might happen.

But leaving the future to the future, and judging with cool heads about the present, we say that there is no visible sign of the imminence of such a catastrophe. True, agrarian crimes grow rather frequent. Serious agrarian disturbances, assuming sometimes the character of organised armed rebellions, and lasting many months, occur in a number of places. The wild outbursts against the Jews, embracing one-half of Russia, could not happen in a well-balanced State. All these are serious signs, but when the time is ripe, something far more serious will be seen. The peasants' revolution-the sweeping, all-destructive, barbarous revolution-is in the background. The revolution of to-day is a town revolution, which is quickly approaching. For the great intellectual revolution of our time, being very slow to work in the villages, acquire a wonderful energy and thoroughness in our towns, where they pervades not only the upper, but also the lower classes.

(To be continued.)

STEPNIAK.

MEMORIES OF NINGPO.

BY C. F. GORDON CUMMING.

RECENT reports of French aggressions on the Chinese sea-board, more especially such movements as referred to the coast of the Che-Kiang Province (e.g., the blockade of the Yung River, on which stands the City of Ningpo, the bombardment of the Chin-hae Fort, and the military occupation of the ecclesiastical Isle of Puttoo) all recall to my memory a vision of pleasant days, when, in a time of blessed peace, it was my good fortune to visit the hospitable home of one of the earliest European settlers in the city of Ningpo.

Leaving Shanghai one beautiful evening on board a splendid American steamer (on which I was provided with a cabin like a comfortable room), I awoke, with the first glimmer of dawn, to find that we were just about to enter the wide mouth of the Yung River.

The captain having most kindly established me in a snug corner on the bridge, I had the benefit of a perfect view as we steamed slowly up the stream. First we passed Chin-hae, which is a city about three miles in circumference, with castellated walls. Its most conspicuous feature is a picturesque old castle, crowning a small but precipitous hill overlooking the sea; so we saw it with a foreground of quaint junks. This citadel was captured in 1841, by the British, who therein seized about one hundred and fifty pieces of artillery.

From this point to the city of Ningpo is a distance of about twelve miles, a quiet, pleasant sail, while morning mists rise dreamily from the river and from the low damp rice-lands and canals, giving strange relief to the multitudinous hillocks-green mounds of varying height and form, which here mark ancestral graves, groups of which, in tens, twenties, hundreds, usurp a most unfair proportion of the flat alluvial land, which yields such rich green crops wherever the farmer ventures to cultivate. Throughout this district nearly all graves are marked by simple mounds, the picturesque horse-shoe form, which is so common in Southern China, being here unknown.

As we approached the city the principal objects which revealed themselves were buildings much larger than ordinary dwelling houses, and having very high-pitched, thatched roofs. Of these we counted 380, and I learnt that they are all ice-houses, in

which, during the winter months, the ice is stored for the fishers, whose work forms one of the most important industries of the district. The necessity of a large supply is evident, on account of the great heat in summer; and as even the winters are often so mild as to yield no ice, a special law requires the owners of these ice-houses always to keep up a three years' supply, in order to meet such emergencies.

The construction of the houses is simple and excellent. Each is simply a large reservoir, consisting of four solid stone walls, thickly coated with clay, and with gutters in the stone pavement to allow for the drainage from the ice. These walls are about twenty feet in height. On them rests the bamboo framework of a high-pitched roof, which is thatched with straw. The coating of clay makes the building alike water-proof and heat-proof.

The entrance to the house is by a flight of steps leading up to a door cut in the roof, and shielded by a heavy straw mat. The ice is removed by another door on the level of the ground. Each house stands by itself, on a flat rice-field of clay-loam, which can readily be flooded. So soon as there is any chance of a light frost the water is turned on, and in the morning the thin layers are carefully collected, pounded into a solid mass, and stored between layers of matting. Thus it can be preserved for years.

From these ice-houses it is carried out to the fishing fleets at sea, in specially constructed ice-boats, with wooden roofs. They carry the ice packed with alternate layers of straw matting, which, on reaching the fleet, are removed, and layers of fish are substituted, which thus reach the city in perfect condition.

Another industry here, in connection with the fisheries, is the evaporation of salt in salt-pans for the use of the fish-curers.

As we came in sight of the fine old castellated walls of the city, great timber yards, docks, and temples, successively appeared, and finally the great steamer was safely moored alongside the wharf, in the immediate neighbourhood of which are the shops of the famous Ningpo wood-carvers. Their finest work, consisting of intricate figure scenes, is most wonderfully delicate, and commands a price which even in Europe or America would be considered high, but the second-class carvings, many of which are excellent free rendering of bamboo or other light foliage, are exceedingly cheap. Picture or mirror-frames and brackets seem to be the favourite objects of manufacture.

We were specially called upon to admire a large cabinet on which incalculable patient skill must have been expended. To my eyes, however, accustomed to the rich tone of Canton blackwood furniture, this pale wood is rather an unpleasant material; but at Ningpo it is of course greatly in favour, being the special industry of the city.

One novelty which must immediately attract the notice of every new-comer is the very extraordinary style of hair-dressing

which is here fashionable. A woman having rolled up her own hair quite simply, purchases two enormous wings of black hair, made up on wire. These she attaches to the back of her head, whence they project fully fifteen inches! She also purchases a small neat fold of hair, with which she conceals the fastening. There is no attempt at deception in the wearing of this false hair; it is simply a head-dress, which could not possibly be made of growing hair.

This very peculiar mode of hair-dressing is totally unlike that of any other district. The women of the southern provinces arrange their own hair in the form of an exaggerated teapot, with a large handle, while others have simpler designs. But all heads are alike black and glossy, reflecting the sunlight, and all the women are clean and tidy, and even the poor working women are very neatly dressed.

One of our first sight-seeing visits was to the great Pagoda, built 1,100 years ago, in honour of the goddess Ma-Tsu-pa. Till the middle of the present century it retained its seven tiers of ornamental roofs and overhanging verandahs, decorated with dragons and fishes, but these have been swept away by fire, and there now remains only a very tall, but poor and naked-looking, white tower. It is actually fourteen stories high, though it has only seven tiers of windows.

Proceeding through the city, we passed innumerable objects of interest, combined with an indescribable amount of dirt. There was the usual succession of very narrow streets, thronged with a crowd, which, albeit chiefly composed of men, is nevertheless picturesque, and not lacking in some variety of colour; for though all the poor are dressed in blue (generally calico), the silken garments of the prosperous folk are often very gay. Of course every one, rich or poor, carries a fan, and works it ceaselessly in a quiet mechanical fashion,

From every house hang pretty Chinese lanterns, and all manner of quaint signs hang from the open shops, or else very narrow tall signboards, from fifteen to eighteen feet high, all carved and gilded, and gorgeously coloured, rest on carved stands, beside the entrance, and, as few shops have a frontage of more than ten feet, these form a very conspicuous feature in the scene.

Among the street hawkers, I noticed some selling very pretty artificial flowers, made of fluffy silk, others selling paper umbrellas; some had ornaments of imitation jade, which might deceive even a fairly practised eye. Among the remarkable figures are the shoe-merchants, whose stock of shoes of all sizes are slung from the ends of a bamboo, covering two pyramidal light wooden frames, which form stands wherever the pedlar sees fit to halt. Others, in the same way, carry great stands of pipes, and others flowers, cakes, sugar-plums, or fish. Here are barbers hard at work, there fortune-tellers.