Ir is very satisfactory to see the intel. ligent and vivid interest in Chinese affairs which is growing up in Bugland, For years we had to deplore the apathy of the Home public and to straggle in vain against their persistent, we had almost written invincible, ignorance of the Chinese and their country. A little knot of persons interested in the China trade strove from time to time to obtain a hearing and to induce the British public to turn their attention towards Cathay. Now and again an article on some Ohinese topic appeared in a review, or a missionary complica tion called the attention of Parliament for half an hour to the Middle Kingdom, but the members who advocated the claims of the remote Empire on the attention of Government were few in namber and destitute of influence.
The ordinary Englishman imagined
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.