Tr has been frequently and very traly suid that life in the Kast spoils a mau for life at home. The disadvantages to which persons living of the outskirts of China and Japan are exposed are of course undeniable, and it is to be presumed that the main object of nine mon out of ton in this part of the world is to have done with the East as soon Forlane permits and to return for the rest of their lives to the old country. But experience proves that when this object is attained it too often proves Uiat its charm' somehow is wanting, A man who has lived for any period of time between ton and twenty yenrs in Peking or in Shanghai, for example, is apt to feel curiously and unpleasantly like a fish out of water after the first impressions of arrival at home have passed off; an uneasy and dissatisfied seusntion gradually creeps over him; and he finds himself almost unconscion: ly wishing that he were back again in the very place that a fow mouths previously be bad grown so sick of. In Chinn ho was ab any rate somebody, Bvon if not a public character he had a, very large circle of acquaintance among whom perhaps he occupied a prominent position, and his life was in most oases 8 tolerably ensy if not luxurious one, In the case of an official of raul the differ-ande between his position here and his position at homo is particularly marked, Government House, or the stately Lega. tion, or even the not unimposing Consulate, where for years ho has lived like a local princeling, is exchanged for the obscurity of No, 10 or No. 11 in an unobtrusive terrace in South Kensington, where he remains unknown, perhaps, to his next-door neighbour from being the lender of a Corps Diplomatiquo he sinks at one step to, tho level of an ordinary citizen, and p through the streets unrecognized and uncapped. My lady, before whose arrival in a ball-room no ball was ever opened, finds herself in a back seat altogether when she arrives in London, where she is practically unknown and where sie can no longer hope to be a lender of sovicty. And one's ocoupntion is gone, too, The door delights of budgering the Yamen or the Gaimisho, and of being badgered by his nationals, the receipt of telegrams and despatches, the importance of the diplomatic conferences, and the flattering demands for modiation and support, are all lost to the retired Minister. His very scholurship is of no uso to him in London. The accomplished sinologue will prob ably never have occasion to utter or to read another word of his beloved Chinese, and the Iaboura of twenly-five years, though of use to him in the Enst, are, on his retirement, as though they had never been, His day is over. Ho has been transplanted to an uncongenial soil, and feels that desperate effort is required if he is not to sink into a condition of hopeless rustiness. Then it is that he makes work for himself, and, fastening upon those cherished subjects which are so familiar to him, writes articles for any periodical that will pat them in. Some men in this position, indeed, men who have retired in the prime of life upon their savings and a handsome pension, find the inglorious ense which, after long striving, they have at last attained, so intolerable that they apply for fresh employment: anything, in fact, that will give them something to think about, something to do, and something to be responsible for. Certainly there can be fow things more miserable for an active-minded man, who is accustomed to honourable work, than to wake in the morning and feel that it matters not to any earthly soul whether he gots up or lies in his bod all day, An absolutely idle, obscure, and object-loss life may suit some who have never known the blessedness of work and are content to drift through life like animals. But to a man who has risen in the world by his own exerations and ability, who has earn ed the approbation of his Government and the respect of his oom-patriots aprond, and who has made a position for himself of which be may be justly proud,—to such a man the enforced indolence of a retired life will simply prove unbearable, and if Lo does not drift into a condition of premature senility it will be because be has invented work for himself, and, indepondent of remuneration, has sot himself tasks which his long experience in the Bust has specially fitted him to perform.
And yet thre are very fow of us who would complacently look forward dying in harness abroad. To seo the old country once again is a desire shared by everybody. And this desire is, we think, necentuated by one particular condition of our life out here.
Taking Shanghai, for instance, which most persons consider, and with some show of ranson, as the best place of residence in China,—what is the cause of that restlessness which nfiliots so many of the inhabitants? Muob, no doubt, is due to the depressing climate, and especially to the lerable and suffocating heat of sui mer. But this is not all. There is one great thing Incking. Every one must acknowledge that there is a sense of imprisonment, oven here; and much more so i many of the smaller ports, It is impossible, without a great deal of expense and trouble, to get a change of scone and a change of air for a few days or oven for a fow hours, How-over odious London may be—aud odious indeed it often is, with its noisome fogs, its frequent rains, nud its constant roar—it is always possible to got out of it. A very fow minutes in a train will take one into a pure atmosphere and pretty refreshing scenery, The heights of Sydenham and the invigorating breezes of Brighton are always within reach. cumstances need get so dandly sick of the street or eqnare in which he lives as dwellers in Shanghni are of the tivo or three monotonous roads which form the only scene of their daily walks or drives. However dull a centry town may be at Lame, there are generally some other towns within walking" die" tance, or picturesque villages, which will afford, at any rate, that great de" sideratum—change of scone. "Here we are confined within w girdle of unlovely paddyfields which atretoh for miles in every direction, The wearisome round of our restricted area sometimes baconies intolerable, and results in a wild wish to get out of it—to burst one's bonds, and find new scenery, a hill, or a field, or a glimpse of the sea, that is invisible from the Bund. If there wore not this feeling of practical imprisonment Shanghai there would be far less restless ness, lees desire to go elsewhere, It is hoped that in course of time that will take place whioh will relieve and supply this want, @ want so keenly felt by bard. worked men and invalids, When the beneficent locomotive reappears, and Shanghai is placed in communion tion with those pretty and hoalthfal spots from which we are now so much cut off, China will prove a far less irksome place to live in, and eventually there will not be such a desire for premature retirement, The man who now longs to leave Shanghai or Peking for London, and who feels 80 utterly lost and uncomfortable when lo gets there, will be content to live hero longer, and his life will be @ healthier, because 8 more changofal one, than it -has proved hitherto.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.