Tue visit of the Grent King is over. Londoners and Parisians have seen the Inst of the dark face, the gold spectacles and the flashing diamonds, and now he is really gone the journals have naturally asked "Why did he ever come?" Opinions are divided as to the importance and significance of the visit. It was the fashion at first to declare that the august Person was a splendid advertisement for Baron Reuter, and nothing more. But ingenious people discovered that the great Julius was the legitimate successor of Joseph and Daniel; and that, in farming his realm to an astute child "of Israel, the Shah was only following immemorial precedent. This being settled, the strange treaty between the speculator and the potentate became an ordinary historic document, and our only wonder was that we had ever wondered at it. The next step was to seek for a political solution of the question, and to see in the visit a latent political bearing. This opinion found ready favour, but was dismissed to be resumed again on mature consideration. A writer in the Pall Mall Gazette remarks that, after all, we cannot ignore the fact that "the Shah is important to England as the holder of a strategetical position of the highest value for the defence of India, There can be no doubt that, since the Shah has been here, a war undertaken for the defence of Persia or our interests in Persia would be much more popular at the outset-—most wars become popular in England as they go on—than it would have been before his arrival." This is the language of common sense. The Indian papers, for reasons best known to themselves, have done all they can to blacken the Persian Monarch's character and to heap insult upon his nation, his manners, his position and his objects. We can imagine how differently they would have written if any of their own great ones had gone home, though perhaps the antecedents of the Prince may have been as disreputable as those of the black skinned impostor erewhile recognized by Colonel Newcome. The Shah and his suite have peculiarities; and a Sovereign who blazes with diamonds and squanders money abroad when his subjects are starving at home does not command our highest esteem. But, politically speaking, his visit has importance. At all events, the Calcutta journals seem to hate the " Persicos apparatus" with a hatred deeper than that of Horace.
It is not difficult to foresee a day when the Mikndo of Japan will present himself in Europe. Preliminary embassies have already paved the way for the approach of the most progress sive of Eastern Potentates, and as progress is ever synonymous with an increasing debt, we may be certain that before many years are over the pressure of financial and political motives will sct the Mikado in motion Londonwards.
When this avatar does take place, and Piccadilly and the Rue de Rivoli are thronged by eager multitudes crowding to gaze on the short.man in "a naval uniform, they will perhaps experience a sensation of disappointment, and miss the aigrette of diamonds. Orators too will have no opportunities of bringing in so superb an expression as "the desfendant of Darius." Yet the Mikado rales a land destined to play a far more important part in the world's history than Persia can ever hope to do.
It is too romantic to extend one's gaze to a yet longer period, and to imagine a time when the Peking Mystery will be unveiled to the eyes of Europe. Will the Solitary Man ever present himself to the gaze of barbarian nations? One step so long anxiously pondered, so long timidly delayed, has at length been taken, and the Am. bassadors of earth-born Princes have set their eyes upon the Son of Heaven. Without the prostrations of Oriental subservience—without hands shading the eyes lest they be dazzled with Divine light—six Western men have been allowed to enter the presence of the Emperor of China. May we hope that this is the beginning of a now order of things? Of course, at present, the obstacles in the way of an Imperial Progress Westward seem overwhelming, but we live in an ago when ancient barriers are soon thrown down, and changes never dreamed of by ourselves a few years ago are found to be accomplished facts. It may not be for a long time to come, but yet we may be sure that the third Oriental Visit will be one day paid. Perhaps when astronomers are looking out for the next transit of Venus after this one, politicians and financiers may begratified with the sight of the Sovereign who calls the Sun and Moon his brethren,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.