from the Buckland diggings. Subsequent
information showed, that insults offered
by them to the families of European residents,
had provoked outrage in retaliation.

Again, their habits are not pleasant.
Crouching in low squat tents; huddled together;
dirty in their own persons; careless
of the removal of filth from their dwellings;
Australian Chinese in encampment
create a very Tartarus of foul sights and
foul smells.

The absence of females is, no doubt, a source
of terrible depravity. Only two Chinese
women are known to be living among forty
thousand men.

It is now fair to state the good points in
John's character. He is industrious, and as
his frugal diet will allow him to subsist by
washing the refuse left by English miners,
his patient perseverance is often rewarded by
the discovery of overlooked bits of rich soil.
He is courteous in his general demeanour,
especially to strangers. There is a small,
and feebly-supported Chinese mission in
Australia. The principal agent, a Mr.
Young, assisted by two Chinese converts,
goes into their camps, and explains to them
the tenets of Christianity; and he records,
that the politeness invariably shown him is
far superior to anything he has been used
to, among Europeans.

But it is in the courts of justice that John
shines, a bright and baleful star. The ceremony
of swearing Chinese witnesses was
first performed by cutting off a cock's head.
But fowls cost fifteen to twenty shillings a
couple; furthermore, Chinese witnesses usually
number ten or twelve on each side. The
slaughter of cocks, therefore, was too costly,
even for a gold country. Then the breaking
of a piece of china was resorted to; till the
police and the magistrates differing, as to
whose duty it was to supply the crockery, it
was averred by the Chinese, that the act of
blowing out a lighted candle was as binding
on their consciences. Then wax-matches
and lucifers came into use; until, at last, the
oath resolved itself into a puff at a piece
of ignited paper.

The only way of communicating with the
magistrates, or jury, is by the intervention of
an interpreter, himself a Chinaman; who, to
his more public duties, often joins the private
business of advocate; so that the very man
who translates the replies of the witnesses,
and upon whose good faith the decision
must depend, is, in fact the paid agent of his
countrymen. Of course, under such circumstances
his witnesses are never found to
disagree in the minutest particular.

The difficulty of identifying Chinese offenders
is also very great, on account of the extraordinary
likeness one Chinaman bears to
another. This is increased by the facility
with which they come forward to prove an
alibi,—a form of evidence in which they take
supreme delight.

The propriety of obtaining, from Hong-Kong,
Chinese interpreters of European
birth or extraction, has been debated lately
in the Victorian Assembly. In this debate
the present Attorney-General of the colony,
referred to a very important case of an
action of a Chinese against an European,
which rested almost entirely on Chinese
testimony. All in court at that trial felt the
absolute necessity of having impartial interpreters
to translate the evidence, and communicate
with the witnesses. There was an
interpreter on each side, and a third, apparently
to keep the others awake—as they
showed (owing doubtless to their great
use of opium) a remarkable tendency to
go to sleep during the whole trial. They
had to be awakened some twenty or thirty
times, the judge being at his wits' end, as to
what he should get on his notes.

The Chinese residing in Australia are
usually—and this should be borne in mind,
lest we judge of a whole race by its offscouring—
of the very lowest class. They are
brought over, in large gangs, by speculative
countrymen of their own, under condition
of working in the gold-mines, and they seldom
apply themselves to any other sort of labour.
The " headman," as he is termed, supplies
them with food, principally rice, and also
with shelter and tools. In return, he receives
a fixed proportion of the gold obtained by
them; and there is no instance on record of
either party breaking faith.

But the headman's gains are not limited to
his share of the gold. He is usually store-keeper,
opium-seller, and gambling-house-keeper
to the fraternity. In the centre of
the squalid tents, which constitute a Chinese
' camp,' one erection of a superior height and
size, is distinguished by a red flag, inscribed
with mystic hieroglyphics. This is the abode
of the headman, and here the Chinese miners
assemble to spend surplus gains: chiefly on
opium smoking and gambling. Quail-fights
and cockchafer matches are favourite amusements.
One method of spending time and
money is remarkable for its combination of
the uttermost stretch of laziness with an intense
excitement. Each gambler places before
himself a lump of sugar: all lie still as sleepers,
until he upon whose lump a fly first settles,
wins the stakes.

When John Chinaman lands in the colony
he is invariably clothed in the blue,
padded jerkin, short wide trowsers, peculiar
shoes, and large conical wicker-ware hat of
his native land. But, when he has earned
money enough, he casts aside this dress, and
clothes himself after the manner of the
European. If he can afford to array his legs
in enamelled knee-boots with scarlet tops, and
his person in a black frock coat, he is sure to
do so. Then, with a red silk sash tied round
his waist, a tall black hat on his head, a cane
in his hand, one or two gold rings on his
fingers, and a Manilla cheroot in his mouth,