But they are none of them like my Mab, my
little fairy queen:—and I am not sorry; it is
as well as it is.

JOHN CHINAMAN IN AUSTRALIA.

GOLDSMITH, when he wished to show a
philosophic traveller calmly surveying the
passions, foibles, and inconsistencies of European
life, chose for his purpose a Chinese.
Had Goldsmith written his Citizen of the
World in these days, he would have had
farther to seek than the "flowery iand" for
the ideal of an impassive observer.

Not only are Europeans and Americans
forcing their way into the fortress of Chinese
society; but now Chinamen themselves—
contrary to their long-established usages
and habits, and in defiance of imperial
edicts,—are swarming (no other word is so
expressive of the manner of their emigration)
into other climes. First, California was
invaded by Mongolian hosts; next, when the
news of the colonial gold-discoveries arrived
at Hong-Kong, Australia, was favoured by
Celestial visitants. The colonists, for some
time, looked on placidly, and grinned responsive
greetings when they met long lines
of these gentry marching to the gold-fields—
always in Indian file, and each with his bamboo
pole and evenly balanced panniers,—the
very men who, painted upon plates, had
lurked under meat, and lain in soup for
generations. But the case grew to be serious.
The first men who came out of China prospered,
and wrote home for their friends.
Then came their cousins, not by tens, nor by
hundreds, but by thousands; not in single
spies, but whole battalions; and one old
Mandarin, who was examined before a legislative
committee, placidly informed the chairman,
that "all China was coming." His
announcement failed to produce the display
of intense satisfaction that he might have
looked for.

The Victorian colonists became, in fact,
uneasy and alarmed. " The question," said a
member of the Legislature, " resolves itself
into this:—Shall Australia be Mongolian or
Anglo-Saxon?" Restrictive measures of a
strictly Chinese character were passed for
the purpose of keeping the Chinese out of
the country. But John Chinaman easily
outwitted our colonial lawgivers; for, to evade
the new laws, he had only to land in the adjoining
colonies, and to proceed overland to
the Victorian Dorado. It was found that
the numbers of the Chinese increased just as
rapidly as before. At the last census, in
eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, the total
population of Victoria was four hundred and
three thousand souls, and of that number
about one-tenth were Chinese.

The question of Chinese immigration into
our Australian colonies has been variously
discussed. Every class considers it from its
own point of view. The Melbourne merchants
and up-country store-keepers are
anxious that Chinamen should be admitted
without check; because they add to the number
of their customers. Colonists who neither
buy nor sell, and those who have adopted
Australia as their home, object to the presence
of large numbers of men, whose habits and
vices are obnoxious and repugnant to them.
Other aspects of the case are the religious,
the legal, and the medical. Clergymen favour
Chinese immigration, in order thai the benefits
of Christianity and European civilisation may
be extended to benighted Asiatics. Lawyers,
—albeit, deriving no slight pecuniary
benefit from the litigious propensities of
Chinamen,—view with alarm the great influx
of a people whose language is a mystery, and
whose means of combination for any purpose,
may therefore be effectually and secretly matured.
The medical world professes dread
lest some contagious disease should make its
appearance—say small pox—amongst the
unvaccinated and not over-clean Mongolian
hordes.

If we may trust the Melbourne press, John
Chinaman's company is certainly no pleasure
to be desired. " The Chinese element," says
the editor of the Age, " is not only unchangeably
foreign; it is, besides, imbued with such
inherent corruptive influences, that its presence
has a directly demoralising effect."
The Herald writes in a like strain:—" The
commercial advantages which we derive from
their presence do not compensate for the degradation
which, question the fact as we may,
is felt by the European, and all of European
descent, in being associated with the Chinese
in the numerical proportion which they assume
in this community. The disgust which their
habits excite is not limited to the man of
refined tastes, but is felt by all sorts and conditions,
from the humblest digger on the
gold-fields to the honourable member on his
easy seat in the Legislative Council." The
Argus newspaper formerly adopted the
same views, but has since come to an opposite
opinion.

The writer of this paper has seen much
of the Chinese character developed on the
gold-fields of Australia; and he is bound to
admit, that many of the charges brought
against it are true. The Chinese in Australia
never speak truth, when a falsehood
better serves the purpose of the moment;
and, when they have a chance of filching from
the European nothing can escape their fingers.
They are adepts in the making of false gold;
and it is hard to keep them from fouling the
water-holes by which all are supplied,—a
matter of much moment in a warm, dry climate.
Nor is this the worst. Women, and children
of tender age frequently receive gross insult
and outrage at their hands; so that it is not
safe for a family to live near their encampments.
The colonial public was recently
shocked by the gross cruelty involved in
details of the forcible expulsion of the Chinese