This striking expression is probably used metaphorically by the prophet, and designed to express the amazing stupidity of the Jews in their sins, who felt as secure from evil and punishment on account of them as if they had made an agreement with death and the world of spirits that they should never be molested. The verse is, however, not the less applicable to a custom quite common in China, connected with the worship of ancestral and other spirits. The people suppose that their friends in the other world require the same conveniences and subsistence they were used to in this. These they must purchase as their wants arise, and money is transmitted to them by preparing pieces of paper containing a patch of gold leaf, which when burned are turned into gold. Coats and garments, houses, furniture, kitchen utensils, &c., of every kind, are likewise made of paper, together with puppets representing slaves, servants, horses, &c. all of which are duly laid out as if for use; and in order that the right persons shall get the articles, and the property not be seized upon by avaricious, powerful demons, on its way to them, the worshipers draw up writings, and have them signed and sealed in the presence of witnesses, stipulating on the part of the priests that on the arrival of the property in the invisible world, it shall be made over to the persons mentioned in the bond. The worshipers then burn it with the paper images and money, assured that by this means their departed relatives are supplied with food and raiment necessary for their wants the coming year. Thus they literally make a covenant with death, and a treaty with Hades.

DEUT. VI, 9, and x1, 20. And these words which I command thee, thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy houses, and on thy gates.-The custom of ornamenting the doors and walls of houses and temples with quotations from their sacred books has long existed among the Jews, Mohammedans and Chinese; and even the early Reformers of the English church piously provided that select portions of Scripture should be written on the walls and pillars of churches because Bibles were scarce. The Mohammedans are very fond of adorning their mosques, gates of their cities, doorposts, walls, and shops, with extracts from the Koran, sometimes in the most beautiful manner; but neither they nor the Jews carry this use of their language and Scriptures further than the Chinese. The parlors, bedrooms and doorways of houses in this country are sometimes almost concealed by the frames of silk or paper hung up or pasted on the walls, consisting of extracts from the writings of poets and philosophers. Many of them consist of prayers and charms to implore the

protection or ward off the malice of the spirits about them; and something of this character and influence seems to be attached by the modern Jews to the Mezuzaw, or piece of parchment nailed on the doorpost, though the original precept contained an admonition to guard against the superstitious use of amulets so common among all nations.

JOB XIV, 21. His sons come to honor and he knoweth it not; they are brought low but he perceiveth it not of them.-The bestowal of titles and honors is an important part of the Chinese government, and the distribution of these rewards is confided to the Board of Civil Office, whose functions are enumerated in Vol. IV. page 140. Among other bureaus under this Board there mentioned, is the Yenfung sz', whose duty it is to regulate the distribution of hereditary titles, posthumous honors, &c. It is another, among the numerous instances of contrariety in Chinese usages to those of the West, that here when a man attains elevated rank, his deceased parents and grandparents receive the same title, by which they are worshiped. instead of his sons and grandsons becoming a part of the nobility through his services. The custom is not a trick of state to get money, as has been said (People of China, page 59), for commoners cannot buy these posthumous titles, nominal rank for themselves only being purchasable. Although Job spoke of the ignorance and indifference of the dead to all that is done under the sun, this singular cus. tom may be adduced as illustrating his remark, where the dead are as unconscious of the honors heaped upon themselves as they are unaware of the dignities of their sons.

ART. VIII. Journal of Occurrences: tyfoon of Sep. 1st.; interview. between H. E. the Am. Commissioner and Gov.-gen. Su; Portuguese lorcha captured by Chinese; táutái ut Shánghải; U. S. Consul at Shanghái; operations at the Ophthalmic Hospital. A severe tyfoon occurred along this part of the coast, on the 1st ult., which occasioned a greater loss of life and shipping, and passed over a greater area, than almost any one before recorded. The prognostics on the day previous intimated that a tempest was coming, and all the vessels which could do so began to prepare for it. The wind cominenced at Hongkong in the north-east, and increased in fury as it veered to the east, blowing in strong gusts during the night, and moderating as the day dawned and it got around to the south-east and south; at Macao, its direction was from north round westerly to the south-west. The following table contains the observations made at the two places; the barometer used at Macao generally ranges from 29.60 to 29.65.

At Cumsing moon, the gale commenced at 10 P. M., blowing from the North, and was at its height about daylight, when the barometer stood at 28.48, but no regular observations have been published in either of the Hongkong papers from which we compile this notice. At Whampoa, the wind began to blow fresh about 9 P. M. from N.N.E.; at 11 o'clock, the sympesometer was 29.20, and at 2.30 A. M. it stood at 29, the wind being E.N.E., accompanied with much rain and lightning; at 7, wind E.S.E., and at 7.30, at its highest force, moderating from that hour till noon, and ending in S.E. The damage on land and sea was more than ordinary, partly owing, perhaps, to the large number of vessels in these waters, some of which were not well found in ground tackle, and to the narrow limits they had to drag in. At Hongkong, most of the large buildings were more or less injured, roofs uncovered, windows and verandahs blown in, walls leveled, and trees, garden plats, and shrubbery, destroyed or shorn of their beauty, the whole presenting, in the morning light, a melancholy sight. Along shore, the wrecks of junks, lorchas, sailing-boats and sampans, mingled with the ruins of the slight bamboo huts and shops of the wator people, and the stones of the piers and landing-places, with here and there a dead body, added to the disinasted and wrecked ships further out in the harbor, exhibited altogether

sad evidences of the strength of the storm. The Br. bark Hermes, the Am. brig Charles Wirgman, Br. bark Helen Stewart, and Dutch ship Kien Heem, were all driven ashore; the Br. bark John Laird, Sp. brig Dos Hermanos, British bark Salopian, Br. brig Mischief, Port. schooner San F. Xavier, Br. brig Daniel Watson, and Br. schooner Island Queen. were all disinasted entirely or partially; the Br. ship Eliza Stewart was dainaged by two ships drifting foul of her. The number of native craft lost and damaged was very great in all parts of the island. A boat, containing a party of convalescent policemen, under charge of Mr. Smithers, left town on the 31st, for a cruize around the island for the benefit of their health, and was overtaken by the tempest, and driven over towards Lema 1. but made Changchow harbor and anchored, where it was so much injured by the mast going overboard, that it sunk, and 22 persons were drowned, including Mr. Suthers, the inspector of police. The Br. ship Hindostan on her way to Shanghai was partly dismasted and driven down to St. John's I., from whence she was towed up to Hongkong; the Carthage was injured, but reached Amoy; the Amoy Packet lost her topmasts, and the Constant sprung a leak, both of them returning to Hongkong.

The centre of the whirlwind seems to have been near Macao, the calm which is noticed in the meteorological table occurring only at or near its vortex; we are informed that there was a marked difference in its fury and disastrous effects on the east and west sides of the town, the houses on the Praya Grande escaping with partial damages. The loss of shipping was great;-8 lorchas, 11 fast-boats, 2 fishing smacks, 5 passage-boats, 7 large boats, and 54 tanka-boats, were lost; the Sw. ship Carl Joan, Port. brig Genereva, Br. ship Calder, Ham. ech. Sylphide, and sailing schs. Mayflower, Raven, Sylph and Alpha, were all driven on shore in the Inner Harbor, and much injured or lost; the bark Clio ashore, and a government schooner sunk, in the Typa, the last with five men drowned. Mr. James McMurray and another person, making two of a pleasure party of five, also were drowned; and about a hundred Chinese were lost in and about the town. On shore, 25 Chinese brick houses, 30 mat and wooden houses, and 12 waterside dwellings, were demolished.

At Cumsing moon, where there is but little sea-room and a large number of vessels congregated at the time, the damage was great, much of it caused by vessels driving foul of each other. The Br. chip Isabella Robertson sunk from injury received by running foul of the Eagle, and captain Kelly and crew were all drowned, except three lascars; the Am. brig Eagle, Br. ship Sylph, and schs. Vorfolk and Sidney, dismasted or driven ashore; and Br. brig Arrow and Br. bark Emily went ashore; the crew of the former was saved by the boats of the U. S. S. Plymouth, whose officers and men exerted themselves to admiration in rescuing the ews of boats and vessels, both foreign and pative. The cargo of the isabella Robertson, 700 chests of opium, was valued at about $500,000; the opium in the Eagle was saved. The shores on both sides of the harbor were strewed with the wrecks of native boats, and eight or ten junks and boats sunk, most of their crews going down with them.

The shipping at Whampoa did not suffer, but many of the chop-boats were injured, Dr. Smith's being sunk, and great damage done to the boats and houses of the natives. The damage at Canton was chiefly on the river, where the loss of life arising from the large junks and chop-boats getting loose and drifting in shore among the tanka-boats and dwelling-boats, was dreadful the large vessels driving furiously in and over the small craft carrying everything before them. Many of the native houses along the banks were demolished. and some of the trees in the gardens near the Factories were blown down, but the damage ashore was comparatively trifling. It is computed that at least two thousand natives lost their lives in this region during this tyfoon, but certainty on this point is unattainable.

An Interview between H. E. John W. Davis, American commissioner (whose arrival was noticed on page 432), und H. E. Su, the imperial commissioner and governor-general of Liang Kwang, took place on the 6th inst. at one of the warehouses of Howqua in the White Goose tything lying in the western suburbs of the city. Although Mr. Davis had been in the provincial city more than a month, and had announced his arrival to, and requested an interview with, the governor, suggesting four places at which the meeting might properly take place, that dignitary put him off with frivolous excuses, until the middle of September, when he appointed the 21st ult. for the day, and one of Howqua's warehouses for the place. When this was communicated to Mr. Davis, he was on board the U. S. ship Plymouth at Cumsing moon, and left immediately for Canton, but was prevented by calme and other hindrances from reaching it in time. On the day appointed, his non-arrival and the reasons therefor were communicated to the governor before he stepped into his boat by a messenger sent from the Legation, but he repaired to the place as if every body was ready. Mr. Davis reached Canton on the 22d, and immediately apprised the governor of the reasons why he had been unable to meet the appointment; to which his excellency sent a reply, stating that he had appeared punctually at the spot, but no one was there; and intimated that the other party had purposely failed to fulfill the engagement. This note was immediately returned, but the governor did not retract the insult, or appoint another meeting, until the arrival, on the 30th ult., of Cominodore Geisinger, Capt. Glynn, and a large party of officers from the two American ships of war then at Whampoa, when within two hours, he sent a civil note, assenting to make arrangements for a meeting, which was afterwards fixed for the 6th.

The party, consisting of H. E. Commissioner Davis, Doct. Parker, Commodore Geisinger, Capt. Glynn, Mr. Forbes, and others, chiefly naval officers, in all 21 persons, left the House of Legation in a well furnished boat towed by the steamer Fire-fly, and on landing found the Chinese dignitaries assembled, among whom were the governor-general, the lieut.-governor, the commissioner of grain, the commandant, the two district magistrates, and other inferior functionaries. The party was ushered in by Howqua, and the governor received the commissioner with considerable coldness and formality; and when the latter inquired, on behalf of the President after the Emperor's health, he contented himself by a simple reply and inquiry after the President's health, and then led the way upstairs. After the leading persons on both sides had properly seated themselves, Mr. Davis remarked that it was the President's sincere desire to maintain friendly relations with the Chinese government, to which Su answered in the old stereotype phrase that for the two centuries during which intercourse had been carried on, good will had been regarded by both parties. The letter of credence from President Polk to the Emperor was handed to Sii, accompanied with a translation, which his excellency promised to forward to court; a copy of the latter was also given to him. After a few remarks and an introduction to all the foreigners present, he led the way to the dinner table, at which he exerted himself very little to make the interview pleasant, he and the fúyuen carrying on a sort of interlocution between the intervals of general conversation, in which he exhibited no interest. The contrast between the hauteur and ignorance of these two high officers, and the inquisitiveness and affability of their predecessors Kiying and Hwáng is very great; we hope, however, they will do nothing to complicate public affairs, or interrupt the good understanding with foreigners which existed when they entered upon their present stations; though their conduct thus far conveys the impression that they would not be unwilling to restore the old times, and bring back the day when they could send linguists every eight days to take the barbarians out for an anmg. After dinner was over, the party returned to the hall, and during the few