Barometer Winn, mometer eter at We have already confessed to undue haste in assuming that Colonel Gordon's presence in China at the invitation of some of the highest officials in the Empire, was a sign of genuine anxiety to obtain the best advice and of honest determination to abide by it. When troths are unpalatable we western folk do not wilfully go into the way of hearing them unless we have arrived at the determination to profit by them, A man may be indifferent to rebuke because he is "cringing in disposition and slavish in his way of thinking, or because be holds the opinions of his critical neighbours in contempt, and is satisfied with the judgment which he passes on his own actions. In neither case, however, does he court the expression of disparaging opinion. But the Chinese are not as other people, and the man who prophesies their course of conduct under given circum. stances stands a huge risk of losing reputation as a prophet. In spite of this danger we are yet tempted to take the facts of the existing position SMiscellancous Entelligence,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.