We have a copy of a notification which has been issued in Szechuen, announcing the projected journey of certain Russian officers in Mongolia and Thibet. It looks very much as though the expedition referred to might be that of Colonel Prejevalsky, whose travels in Central Asia we had pleasure in reviewing a few days ago, and whose intention to start on a fresh journey, with the object of penetrating to Lob-nor and to Lhassa, has been recently stated. Prejevalsky, it will be remembered, reached to within 500 miles of the Sacred City, and was obliged to turn back from want of funds, when the way was otherwise open to him. He purposes, now, making a second effort to reach that almost unvisited city, and to explore and survey the mysterious Lob-nor, whose position and character are still matters of doubt and speculation. This, however, is only by the way. The notification may refer to Prejevalsky, or it may refer to some other explorer—the Russians have been active in that field of late. What interests us, chiefly, is the fact of the notification, as illustrating the precautions taken when it is intended that travellers shall pass safely, and be cared for, in any given district. Passports have been asked for in the present instance, from Hami to Thibet; the Tsung-li Yamen at first demurred to granting them, because the route was so distant, much of it-running through the Gobi desert, that it did not feel competent to ensure protection. But the Russians very logically replied that they only wanted the passport to ensure recognition and aid where Chinese mandarins are stationed. In places where there are none, they would take care of themselves. We judge, in fact, by the light of Colonel Prejevalsky's book, that more is feared from the insolence and abstractiveness of the Chinese, than from any physical difficulties or hostility of robbers; and against the former the Yamen passport is the best protection. Finding it difficult to refuse the repeated applications, the document goes on to say, the Yamen gave the passport asked for by the Russians, and instructions are now given to the Envoy in Thibet, and to the different Taotais, to issue orders to their subordinates accordingly.
We have here an exact illustration of what should have been done in the case of Colonel Browne's expedition, if the passports obtained from the Tsung-li Yamen had been honestly acted upon. In the natural course of official routine, the fact of the travellers' approach would be communicated to the Governor, and by him to heads of districts, and by them again to their subordinates throughout the province, with instructions to protect and let the bearers pass without hindrance on their journey; and, however shaky the Peking Government may just now be as a dynasty, no one doubts that it would be implicitly obeyed by individual officials, in any such matters. If it had been intended that the British expedition should quietly enter Yunnan and complete its proposed journey, the officials of the districts through which it had to pass would have been fally forewarned, and the people would have been told that the travellers were to be welcomed and protected instead of hindered and outceivable that a force la would have been called out in the Momein prefecture, if the Prefect had received the same instructions which have been issued in regard to the expected Russian travellers The idea.is absurd and the absence of the instructions which would have secured peace, is a sufficient indictment, if no other evidence were forthcoming, against the provincial authorities of Yunnan, and against even the Central Government at Peking. We may be quite sure that, if honest instractions had been issued by the Tsung-li Yamen to "let Colonel Browne and his colleagues, with suite, baggage and horses, pass without hindrance "—Margary would not have been murdered, and the Chinese Govern ment would not now find itself in the position of being required to apologise before its subjects for its own misdeeds, and to make at once sweeping concessions to which Colonel Browne's mission would have only tentatively led up.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.