We have all waited with great anxiety, if not with very sanguine hopes, to learn what effect the return of the Chinese Envoy has had, how he has been received in Peking, and if the Government of China is likely to receive any healthy mimulus from his stories of his wanderings. The long delay at Tientsin before H.E. started for the capital was not very reassuring, for it seemed as if there was no great anxiety at Peking to hear what he had to tell; and what details we have bad of his sojourn at ieutsin have been somewhat trivial, 'The general opinion of those foreigners who have conversed with him since his return seems to be that he is improved by the Grand four that he has made. We are told that he still pursues' the Socratic method, still interviews those who go to interview him, although he now diversifies the movotovy of his questioning by volunteering some of his recent experiences. But he has lost much of his old brusqueness, which some of his victims used not to hesitate to characterise as insolence, and is now much more gentle and considerate, It is hinted that it is perhaps due to advancing ago; itis partly due also to his having realised for bim-self that the stories that were told him before he wont hume of the superiority of Western nations to China in everything except antiquity, are true. Ho thought himself before he went abroad the centre of the world's central empire, but he has fouud out his ake by personal observation Segnius irritant animes demissa per oures, Quam quae sunt oculist stibjecta fidelibus.
Wrivial things seem to have impzessed his mind, such as the beautiful clear bell-like voice of Queen Victoria, the simple grandeur of the Forth Bridge, the fine presence of - Lord Selisbury, the behaviour of the London crowds, and the splendid fi works at the Crystal Palace. 'I'he weightier matters that came before him he was perhaps keeping for his report to the Throne, but among the trivial
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.