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Thoughts on the State of Kin ti ts Ching
in the town of Kin tsi Ching [Transcriber's Note: Possibly King te Ching, a major manufactory of pottery] there are said to be a million of souls employd in the manufacture of China & it seems by the accounts of the missionaries that the art of subdividing labour is carried in this town to a greater extent than possibly in any manufacturing town in Europe. A china cup is said to pass thru[sic] 70 hands before it is finished
The result here is as in England is great proficiency in the manuf is a number of obvious advantages are allowing in the highest degree to a inconsiderate humanity here say the missionaries blend men & some men who in other places are unable to find employment can gain a livelyhood[sic] by grinding colors &c on the other hand the miseries attendant upon an over grown population of manufacturers is much greater here possibly than in England. The workmen say the [indecipherable] are all blackguards profligate & the number that die without leaving behind the where withall to defray the expense of the most common cheapest interment is so great that a vast receptacle is preferred into which their bodies are cast with quick lime which is manualy[sic] cleaned out by certain parties who consider this disgusting labor[sic] as an act of charity highly pleasing to the divinity.
In China where there are no poor Laws & where charity is scarcely felt for a stranger, thus & still more calamitous consequences must continually happen especially in years of scarcity. The extreme energy or indeed severity with which the duty of filial affection piety is inculcated in China has probably no small [.....] relation to this circumstance. The public who provide no releif[sic] for the diseases & the necessities of poverty but suffer the indigent individual to die of hunger if he cannot maintain himself or is not maintained by his