ridicule, with imperturbable good humour, and seemed to possess a charmed life amidst a fire of oratorical artillery, by which any one else must have been extinguished.

Of his public speaking it could not be said, as it might of that of some of his great cotemporaries, "materiem superabat opus." The matter was generally excellent; it was the manner, and the copia verborum, that were defective. He often wanted words

for his ideas as there are those who sometimes want ideas for their words -and there was a cold monotony in his delivery, that greatly interfered with the effect of his elocution. But we have heard one* of the most competent judges we ever knew, and who was a constant listener to the noble lord in the English House of Commons, one, too, who had no prejudice in his favour, aver, that he had sometimes heard him, when in possession of a

great subject, or under the influence of extraordinary excitement, astonish the house by a burst of eloquence, in the highest degree impressive and commanding; and then, suddenly, as much astonish them, by sinking flabbergasted, like a collapsed balloon, until he became almost an object of ridicule to those to whom he had just been an object of admiration.

But as we must very soon have another opportunity of adverting to the parliamentary and official career of the noble lord, we shall content ourselves for the present with what has been already said, and expressing our thanks to the noble editor for the interesting information which his work has afforded us, repeat our advice, that when he publishes again, he may procure a fuller and more able biographical notice of his noble brother, than that which, in these volumes, he has presented to his readers.

JUGGLERS THE EMPEROR OF

BASIN OF WATER AND

THE astounding performances of Indian jugglers have not only been frequently described by various authors and travellers, but the British public have had a few opportunities afforded them of judging of their abilities in executing some of their extraordinary feats; however, it should be borne in mind that very inferior artistes have, at any period, visited this country, with the exception, possibly, of Ramee Samee, who is in the recollection of many of the present generation, and whose wonderful exploits of catching balls of fire, swallowing swords, and various magical deeds, might be attributed to legerde-main or ocular deception. A description of their brethren of the Celestial Empire may not prove uninteresting, as their talents are by no means of a despicable or ordinary standard; and their dexterity, sleight-of-hand, magic, or whatever other denomination their art may properly belong to, or by what designation the same should more correctly be described-assuredly it is the occult science, for hidden it is from us ordinary mortals-is, at all events, equally deserving of attention and record. Some of the performances of the eastern jugglers seem so incredible, even to those who have had the benefit of ocular demonstration, that they must appear to those who have not had that opportunity afforded them, as the tales, or long-bows, of travellers. For our own part we must confess that we should have ranged ourselves among the ranks of unbelievers and sceptics, had we not had opportunity of judging, as eyewitnesses, of the truth of the facts which we are about to describe. For ourselves, we are free to admit that we not only believe (for seeing is believing, even in these matter-of-fact times), all we have seen ourselves, but much more which has been described to us, and we have deliberately come to the

conclusion, that there is no sleight-ofhand, foreign aid of trap-doors, false bottoms, and assistants concealed under tables, or such like accompaniments as are well known to be the attendants upon "The Great Wizard of the North," Robert Handier, or such like gentlemen, but that the skill, science, or art, has been handed down or inherited from their predecessors, and is of a similar nature to that which was possessed by the magicians of ancient Egypt, and of the truth of whose performances we can have no doubt, having the authority of Holy Writ itself.

We are not prepared to say that there is no legér-de-main or deception at any time or period practised by eastern jugglers, as there may have been in such exhibitions as those which have been witnessed in England, and already referred to, since these took place upon the stages of our public theatres, where, necessarily, every facility existed to practise deception; but what we now allude to, took place in our own domicile, and under circumstances which totally precluded the possibility of any assistance being derived from trap-doors, or collusion with confederates of any kind; and being fully convinced of this fact, we were the more astonished at the wonders which we did behold, and we were rather inclined to doubt the evidences of our own senses, and rubbed our organs of vision to ascertain if we were not dreaming; and we will not swear that we did not bite each of our little fingers in our anxiety to ascertain the truth that we were wide awake, and in the full possession of all our faculties.

Having received marks of attention and hospitality from various friends, it was incumbent to return such civilities, and it became a subject of no little solicitude how we might best, at

the same time, cater for their amusement. This latter, it must be confessed, at the period we allude to, was a matter of no small difficulty in a new colony like Hong-Kong, composed of raw materials, and unlicked into shape. At length, after frequent consultations with our compredore (who is a head servant or butler), as to the practicability of inducing a celebrated juggler of Canton, for the sake of "the filthy lucre of gain," to transport himself to Hong-Kong, and exhibit his various acquirements to us "red-bristled barbarians," the aforesaid compredore one day announced to us with much official importance, that the celebrated individual of the juggler species had arrived in the island. He was sent forthwith in quest of the said necromancer, and returned, after a lapse of some hours, with the intelligence that he had succeeded in finding the rara avis, and had secured his services for a valuable consideration, to display his cabalistic skill, and, for the first time, to perform for the gratification and amusement of an audience composed of liege subjects of Her Britannic Majesty. Invitations in due course were issued, and accepted with alacrityrecreation of any kind being at that period, in that lugubrious colony, rare and a large assemblage, consisting for the most part of lords of the creation, arrived on the evening in question.

The room in which the performance took place was denuded of every article of furniture, with the exception of chairs, which were arranged close to the walls, for the convenience of the spectators, thus leaving the floor unmatted, and a clear and wide arena for the performer. At the hour named, the great attraction of the evening was introduced by the compredore; he appeared to be a man of about five-andthirty years of age, sallow complexion (for even amongst the tawney-skinned inhabitants of the Celestial Empire there are various degrees of yellowness), his eyes were exceedingly small, with an expression of shrewd observation and cunning depicted therein, and he appeared to take in the whole company assembled at one glance; there was an expression of finesse about the mouth, and the toût ensemble of his countenance evinced a character of intelligence, shrewdness, and determi

nation, rarely combined; but he observed the imperturbable gravity so characteristic of the Chinese nation. In height he was about five feet seven inches, not an athletically formed man, but of a wiry, spare make; he was attired in the ordinary dress of the middle ranks of Chinese, which consists of the loose jacket and trowsers, with white calico stockings, and black silken shoes, embroidered with blue, and white felt soles two inches thick; he had no covering on his head, and was followed by his coolee or servant, bearing an unpainted teak-wood box of about three feet by two feet in size, who placed it in the room and retired. The juggler, magician, necromancer, or conjuror (for we care not by which of these denominations to designate the individual), advanced into the centre of the room, accompanied by the compredore, and delivered a Chinese oration, which was rendered into Anglo-Chinese by the compredore acting as interpreter on the occasion, which was to the following effect, namely:-"That he had never before exhibited the mysteries of his art to any but natives of China, and mandarins of the highest rank; but that as the compredore was his particular friend, and had promised him faithfully that the mandarin of Canton should not be made cognisant of his having exhibited the acts of his peculiar vocation before any but the favoured sons of the Celestial Empire, he would display such wonders as would undoubtedly convince us that he was no common professor of the occult science; for as Taou-Kwang was the greatest emperor in the whole world, all other potentates being his inferiors, so was he (the speaker) the chief and head of all the professors of his art, all others his compeers being as inferior to him as the aforesaid potentates were to TaouKwang." This oration was delivered with an amazing show of pomposity, which was received by us for exactly as much as it was worth, still keeping our resolution, previously formed,, of watching him most narrowly and closely.

The compredore having retired, the emperor of all the jugglers, magicians, necromancers, and conjurors was left solus; he commenced operations by placing his box in the centre of the room; he then stripped off his

jacket, thus appearing in a state of nudity from the waist upwards, having a white cloth twisted round his loins. He next took his long tail of plaited hair, and twined it round his head, and being thus prepared, he opened his box, and took therefrom an ordinary basin, or bowl, of about eighteen inches in diameter, closed the lid of the box, leaving it exposed completely to our view: he then walked round the room, allowing each individual separately to inspect the basin, and handle it-the whole of the time talking in his native language, which we afterwards learned was a species of incantation. We were all sufficiently satisfied that the basin was an ordinary one, and perfectly empty. He then placed it on the floor, about five feet from the box, untwisted the cloth from round his waist, which was in size about a yard and a-half long, by one yard wide, and which he threw over the basin, spreading it out, continuing during all the time his mumbling. In about half a minute, he raised the cloth from the basin, exposing it to view, when lo, and behold! to our astonishment, it was filled with limpid water, and a fish of three or four inches long was swimming about in it! He took up the bowl, and handed it to each spectator, as he had previously done, and we satisfied ourselves that there was no ocular deception, but that the water was indeed veritable, and the fish a living one! How this was accomplished, we leave it to others more learned in necromantic arts to solve, but this is certain, that there was no false lining or bottom to the basin; and it was impossible to have changed the vessel, or to have put anything into it, as the performer did not approach it from the time of placing it upon the floor until after he had withdrawn the cloth, and we had seen the limpid water in it. After we had sufficiently satisfied ourselves, by examining the contents of the basin, he replaced it in the box, and took therefrom a green flower-pot, filled with mould, which was about twelve inches in height, and eighteen inches in diameter. Holding this in one hand, and exhibiting what appeared to be an ordinary seed in the other, he handed them round for inspection after the previous fashion; he then made a avity in the mould, and placed the

seed in it, covering it carefully with the earth; he afterwards set down the flower-pot where the bowl had previously rested, covered it in like manner with the cloth, and recommenced his mutterings, which occupied about ten minutes, after which he withdrew the cloth, and we beheld a young and tender plant in the flower-pot, about two inches above the mould; this was of a beautiful bright green colour, with the leaves folded about the stem, one within the other, and apparently a healthy plant, having all that freshness peculiar to one which has just burst from the parent earth, but of what botanical species we are not in a position to determine. This was handed round by the enchanter, and examined by all, with the same feelings and expressions of surprise, but with no less care and accuracy, than the water and fish which had preceded it. He again placed it in its previous position, re-covered it with the cloth, and recommenced his incantations, which continued for about twenty minutes; during which period, we observed the cloth gradually rising in a conical form over the spot where it covered the flower-pot, until it had risen about a foot and a-half, when the cloth was again withdrawn, and to our increased amazement, we beheld the tender plant grown into a small shrub, regularly formed, clothed with verdure, and having its branches covered with buds and leaves; and again, the same examination was resumed-we were as equally convinced of the shrub being a bona fidè one, and of the impossibility of deception, as we had been of the truth and accuracy of what we had seen on the two former occasions. The replacing, recovering, remuttering, were all severally renewed, and after the lapse of half-an-hour, the cloth was once more removed, and need we say that the amazement of the spectators was considerably augmented, by discovering that the shrub was now clothed with blossoms and flowers, in appearance resembling those of the China aster! "Most wonderful-astounding—ex

traordinary-beyond belief-scarcely to be credited-surely, our eyes deceive us," were some of the expressions which escaped from those present; we came to the conclusion that nothing more extraordinary could be

exhibited, and we imagined that the show was concluded, when our friend the necromancer re-called the compredore, and through him requested us to resume our seats, as he had something further to produce, by which he hoped to prove his right and title to the imperial dignity which he assumed over his confrères; he, at the same time, intimated that our patience would be slightly taxed, as it required some time to bring the forthcoming spectacle to a completion; we hastened to comply with this his most reasonable request, by reseating ourselves.

Again the casket of wonders, in the form of the aforesaid teak-wood box, was called into requisition, and the lid having been opened, our wonderworker took therefrom a common round earthenware white-and-blue plate, of about two feet in diameter, and placed thereon about a pound of unboiled rice; this he handed round in the manner previously described, and we took the platter, examining it more narrowly than any of the former articles, resolved that this time there should be no mistake (for, as he had promised that it should be something more supernatural than anything which we had yet witnessed, we resolved, if possible, to be uncommonly sharp)-we handled the rice, therefore, which there could be no mistake about, it being, indeed, "la veritable" (as Jean Maria Farina says), and uncooked also. All this time it must be kept in mind, that although the necromancer could see the box, yet it was kept closed at a distance from him, and he never approached it during his operations, so that it was perfectly imprac. ticable that he could abstract any article from it during the time. He now put the plate of rice in the centre of the room, and covered it with the cloth, and squatting down after the manner of these pagans (for, be it known, that their attitude resembles that of a monkey squatted, more than that of a human being seated, as their nether-end rests upon, or balances over their heels, and when their long tails rest upon the ground, the resemblance is nearly perfect), he varied the performance this time, by putting his hands under the cloth, scrupulously keeping his arms covered up to the elbows, and then commenced divers

manipulations, vehemently and loudly muttering his incantations-(it has just been suggested to us by an imp at our elbow, that the manipulations he was indulging in might possibly have been of a mesmeric character)—this continued for the space of half-an-hour, our necromancer never budging from the spot, or changing the elegant attitude which he had first adopted; we observed sundry movements under the cloth at divers times, and in various places; it appeared to be raised from the ground, until the whole presented an appearance not unlike the uneven surface and undulations of the model of a hilly country: the three sides which were removed from the magician resting upon the floor. At the expiration of the half-hour, he arose, and removed the cloth, walking round, and carefully gathering it up by the four corners, which being thus raised, discovered to our view, arranged in symmetrical order, six dishes or plates similar to that which had been handed round, but of various sizes, and these were filled with sundry cooked edibles peculiar to the country, and amongst them was a dish of boiled rice, but, where the dish of unboiled rice had vanished to, or from whence came the six dishes, or how they came there, amply provided, amply provided, as they were, with ready-dressed food, it passed human ken to explain! Neither is it conceivable how he could have arranged these six dishes without moving from one spot, as those which were farthest from him, when the cloth was removed, were considerably beyond the reach of his arm-but, certes, it cannot be denied that he could with equal facility arrange the order of the dishes, as he could have caused to appear, or have produced, the six dishes of various descriptions of cooked food from one solitary platter of unboiled rice! Again were exclamations of wonder and astonishment heard to issue from the mouths of all those who were present; again did we conclude that the spectacle had been brought to a close, but again were we requested to resume our seats, and again did we comply with the solicitation. The conjuror re-covered the viands with his magic cloth, which, to our ordinary vision, appeared to be nothing more or less than two pieces of white calico sewn together up the middle; re-seating