Tue meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society which took place on Thursday evening will, we hope, prove to be the precursor of many similar reunions, equally praoticnl and equally interest. ing. No better plan for procuring a di ity of views upon any given subject, than that devised by Mr, Gil could possi been found; and scheme is extended to the matters of interest which claim our attention in China, it is only reasonable to expect that a large mass of most valuable opinions and facts will be accumulated. Of the nteou papers rend on Thursday night on the prevalence of infanticide China, it was claimed by the Pre-were pro and eight were con, is & claim which we do not hesitate to impugn, and which was certainly eight papers rel of these, cautiously and impartially worded, contained but little, that we could see, to throw doubt upon the prevalence of the crime in question those which assumed a more authorilative and decided tone were at the very most three in number, The senso of the meeting was in favour of the thesis that the crime of infanticide is distinctly prevalent in this country 5 it could searcely have been otherwise, Apart from from the testimony of Mr. Fryer, whose paper' we have beard spoken of as the best and most effec ove of the evening, proof positive was adduced of the fact that infanticide is largely practised in certain districts, and that officials attempt to put a stop to it, though traitlessly; statistics were given, and the different methods in which the Lurtible atime ly porpetrated accurately desoribed,—partly from persounl knowledge, and partly from Chinese publiontions, The absence of sionaries from the debate on Thureday evening was noticed as a cutions, fact; two missionary ladies, however, were quoted as authorities for the prevalence of infanticide—Mra, Wile linmson avd Miss Fielde—aud we muke bold to say that their witness far outweighs in importance every~ thing that anybody in the Consular avd Customs services. ever wrote. Ib must be clour to all that the persons most fitted to form a just opinion on the matter are missionaries and doctor sho come in continual contact with the close of society among whioh the alleged crime is constantly committed, Our readers will no doubt be able to judge for themselves, when Thursday nights proceedings are published in duo form, to which side the testimony of the two professions lands its weight,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.