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individuals, do not probably include more than one fourth part of the craftsmen of the city; allowing this to be the fact, the whole num- ber of mechanics will amount to 246,000. These we suppose are a fourth part of the whole population, exclusive of those who live on the river. In each of the 84,000 boats there are not, on an average, less than three individuals, making a total of 252,000. If now to these we add four times 246,000 (which is the number of me- chanics) we have a total of 1,236,000 as the probable number of inhabitants of Canton. This number may be far from the truth; no one, however, who has had opportunity of visiting the city, of passing through its streets, and viewing the multitudes that throng them, will think of its being much less than 1,000,000.
It only remains now in conclusion, to remark briefly concerning the influence which Canton is exerting on the character and destinies of this nation. Intelligent natives admit that more luxury and dis- sipation and crime exist here, than in any other part of the empire ; at the same time, tbey maintain that more enterprise, more enlarged views, and more general information, prevail among the higher classes of the inhabitants of Canton, than are found in most of their other large cities: these bad qualities are the result of a thrifty com- merce acting on those who are not guided by high moral principles; the good, which exist in a very limited degree, result from an intercourse with distant barbarians.' The contempt and hatred which the Chinese authorities have often exhibited towards foreign- ers, and the indifference and disdain with which the nation general- ly has looked down upon everything not their own, ought to be strongly reprobated; on the other hand, the feelings which foreigners have often cherished and the disposition and conduct which they have too frequently manifested towards this people, are such as should never have existed; still, notwithstanding all these disadvan tages, we think that the intercourse between the inhabitants of the western world and the Chinese has been beneficial to the latter. Hitherto this intercourse has been purely commercial; and science, literature, and all friendly and social offices, have been disregard- ed; but men are beginning to feel that they have moral obligat ions to discharge, and that they are bound by most sacred ties to interest themselves in the mental improvement of their fellowmen.
[N. B. The foregoing Notices of Canton were first written for the Chinese Repository, in which a more extended account has been given of the provincial city.]