One of the chief features in the literary taste of the present day is the passion for personal details, for minute and distinctive traits of character, for gossip and anecdotate, Addison long ago remarked that our interest in a book very much depended on whether it was written by a dark or a fair man, and so there seems an insatiate desire abroad to hear something about the personnel of the leading men and women of the epoch. The desire to learn something about the latter has produced the mania for photographs of reigning beauties, and the craving for information about the appearance and habits of the former has given us amongst other productions the sketches lately published in the Home News, and uow republished under the title of Pillars of the Empire. This book contains forty-seven pen and ink portraits of distinguished British subjects, most of thera connected with the colonial and diplomatic service.
We lenin many particulars about our great ones, and the conclusions we arrive at on finishing each sketch is that there has rarely been so able an administrator or so agreeable a social companion as the subject of it. This book makes us positively long to make the acquaintance of the virtues and capabilities that are regnant in the hearts or prominent in the public careers of our governors, judges, and proconsuls, We feel inclined to exclaim after the perusal of each essay, "of such is the kingdom of heaven." To take a few instances: It is pleasing to learn that " No Cabinet Minister ever received deputations with more courtesy than Lord Carnarvon, and bestowed more attention to their arguments. Politeness has been defined as generosity in small matters, ard how generous in small matters as in great Lord Carnarvon is, colonists in all parts of the world know." It is gratifying to learn, though the writer frankly admits that "the fact is not commonly known, that Mr. Childers is a born financier." It must be permanent source of comfort to the residents in Hongkong to be informed that Mr. Pope Hennessy is great grandnephew to a lady to whom the illustrious Edmund Parke once wrote a letter, and that the head and figure of the present Governor of the island colony are curiously like a portrait of Sir Arthur Wellesley when he was a Sepoy General. We learn too that Major General Roberts who is doing such excellent work in Afghanistan is called " Bobs," not only behind his back, but to his face; and that Sir Hercules Robinson "has nothing of the great bahawder about him; but is easy of access, civil and obliging to all who approach him." He also "welcomes his guests at Government house with a genial cordiality which makes them feel at home directly, and in these matters he is ably aided and seconded by Lady Robinson, who is one of the most charming hostesses in the world."
We are also thankful to learn that the Governor of New South Wales is "straight" on the turf. The Marquis of Salisbury is introduced as "the young man with the severe cast of countenance, the clearly chiselled fea-tares, and the slightly stooping figure." Making the afternoon pilgrimage of Fleet Street and the Strand, and we first see the new Secretary of State for India, as Mr. Gathorne Hardy, anathematizing his evil star, because the Lord Chancellor refased his application for "silk."
Though the volume, however, is sadly disfigured by too facile a subservience to the unhealthy taste of the hour, it contains some readable sketches and several of the biographies are well done. But everybody gets too much praise, and, indeed, after reading about so many incarnations of all the virtues, it is a relief to read the admission that "Lord Northbrook's foreign policy may be described as one of adherence to the principle of masterly inaction laid down by Lord Lawrence, and is certainly in direct antagonism to that of Lord ton. That Lord Northbrook is somewhat deficient in flexibility and originality may be admitted. That he is pre-eminently adapted for the administration of a policy whose principles are fixed, cannot be denied, He is not the man to reorganize an Empire in a period of storm or stress; but of a good system in times of peace, no better or more practical exponent could be found."
This is the nearest approach to a severe sentence that we have found in the 348 pages which are devoted to delineating the gifts and graces of "The Pillars of the Empire." The human mind is corrupt, and the literary taste is apt to be influenced by the sinister spirit of satire, therefore we are sorry to say that too much honey cloys on the palate. We get weary of eulogiums and irritated by incessant panegyrics. Our author reminds us that Thoreau said that he could not despair of the earth so long as it possessed the power of bringing forth from uncompromising mould or even the debris of its own ruins the pure beauty and fragrance of a lily. The remark is a pretty one, but we are incredulous whether the Foreign and Colonial Offices have such an astounding crop of lilies to show as this book describes. ouMERcIAL Revonts from Her Majesty's Consuls in China, for the year 1877.
It is much to be regretted that the exigencies of official administration prevent these Consular Reports from sooner reaching the hands of those whom they more immediately concern, As it is, although the home publication of the Custom's Statistics deprives the tables contained in them of much of their value, the opinions expressed by the Consuls afford much information of interest and importance, even to those whose local information may be presumed to be at least equal to that obtainable by the Consuls. The fact is, that it is always of advantage to mon working in one particular field, and whose mental horizon is more or less bounded by their daily requirements, to have those pursuits in which they are most engaged reviewed by one to whom the ups and downs of the game are a matter of exoteric concen. The stand-point occupied by the Consuls, enabling them on one side to hear the complaints of the merchants and on the other the excuses of the Chinese officials, renders them well posted in many matters concerning trade in China, seen by the merchant only from his more limited point of view. "It is, therefore, satisfactory to the latter to find that in the main his views meet with acceptance from the Consuls, and that the burden of the Reports, as of the complaints of the local mor-chants, is the benumbing influence of official exactions and the almost hopeless struggle against oppressive dues, not infrequently levied in the face of direct treaty stipulations, It is evident, too, that from year to year the obstructiveness of the Chinese Government is, instead of giving way, becoming more and more aggravated; and that every device, which overstrained ingenuity could prompt, has been adopted to render unavailing the effects of the provisions of the treaties. In the older ports, where affairs have more or less settled into a groove, this obstructiveness has not the same opportunity of showing itself, but in the newly-opened ports, the sole outcome of the long-drawn negotiations of Chefoo, they have been so effective, that, except in name, the ports might far as foreign, or indeed native, interests are concerned, as well have remained in the same position as before.
Mr. Bullock makes an able and interesting report on the port of Pakhoi, one of those nominally opened under the Convention, There is no doubt that Pakhoi is advantageously situated for trade, and that it would, if permitted, rapidly increase in importance, As it is, one sentence sums up the result "Up to the present, the opening of Pahkoi to foreign trade has proved an entire failure." 'This was written in February, 1878, and in the Customs' Gazette for the last quarter of 1878, we still find opposite exports and imports the word nil.—Mr. Warren, in September, 1877, sent to H.M.'s Charge d'Affaires a report pointing out the capabilities of the newly opened port of Wenchow. Mr. Fraser, in transmitting the report to the Foreign office, makes the remark:—"'The foreign import trade of the port, which had started with a fair prospect of success, was paralyzed in the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.