We have before us the Sixth Report of the Mission among the Higher Classes in: China, the-period treated in it reaching-from the 15th of October, 1896, to the'15th of April, 1897. Mr. Gilbert Reid's reports are always, as we have endeavoured to show' on previous occasions, of great interest to laymen as well as to missionaries, but this one is rendered still more attractive by the very personal tone in which it is written, so that it reuds as if a friend were talking face to face with the render. "Tu, previous Reports," says Mr. Reid, "when only one person represented the Mission, the terms used were we' and us,' Now, when more than one is - connected with the work, the Report will use the first person singular, the egotism of the individual being lost in the greatness of an.established institution." The one-man mission of Mr. Reid has become a two-man one, Dr. Martin having joined him; and he has besides organised an Advisory Council, consisting of eight prominent foreign residents of Peking, of whom Dr. Martin is one. The Report, we find, is "made chronologically, as being the most interesting, as well as bringing out more vividly ie ups and downs of a peculiar experiment. To get at the truth, the whole Report had better be read; but, if not, begi Chinese books at the hack and r wards the front,"
Mr. Reid begins by montia after the issue of his previous Report, the Afth, he came down to Shanghai to attend a Conference in connection with the College Young Met's Christian Association. On his way he lectured at Chefoo and 'Tientsin, and on his retain to Peking in December one of his' first interviews "was with the Grand Secretary, Li Hang-chang. He laid: before Li a plan for an institutional work which he huped to get officially endorsed. You can't get any endorsement from the Government," said'the old ex-Viceroy; "nove of the officials in the Foreign Office will help you." Mr. Reid is not the man to take No:-for an' answer, and said so; but Li ridiculed "his audacity and unfolded a plan: of his own for a college at Peking. "He-asked me to: at once begin to draw up a scheme, which I was willing todo. I stayed'to dinner with him and found lim "in his most - agreeable mood. There -really. seemed to be an opportunity to do some good to the country, if: the Government should really decide for educational advancement."
A series of conferences with Li fullowed, in which the plan of a National University drawn up by Mr. Reid was discussed. Ihe great statesman's various humours are very neatly described by Mr, Reid. "In each of these couferences I found Li in a different mood, agreeable one time, bantering another, argumentative another, chatty the next time, gloomy and pessimistic the fifth, and calm and attentive the sixth." The dead weight of ignorance and obstructiveness in the highest officials which killed Sir Harry Parkes, and has made miserable the existence of many a Minister before and after him, is evidently not without its effect on Li himself. After some time Mr.
Reid pnt: to him the direct qne tion: " Now, please tell me the actual truth. Do you think there is any like-li hood that the Government: will s: tion this University Li's disheartes ing reply was: here is none, there is, too much opposition, I am willing, but they won't listen to me, Nothing can he done." Undaunted even by this, Mr, Reid changed his plan decided to send in his scheme in his own name to the Foreign Office. Li warned that it hopeless, but promised to assist him wherever possible.
With the begi of the year," says Mr. Reid, "the outlook, either for my own work among the official classes or for the Chinese Government under its official classes, far from bright. The best-informed all seemed disheartened as to the possibility of any good for China, [heard more croakers than sweet singers. If I had sung myself, it would have been a sad lamentation."
On the top of his public trouble there came now to Mr. Reid by wire the private affliction of the news of his father's death, ery thing seemed hopeless, "I began to feel somewhat stoical, and calmly remarked to some of my friends, My next Report will mark "Pailure,"" Iwill close up shop and go home." But he pulled himself together, and on the very day in February that he determined to pay a visit to his, widowed mother at home, he learnt of Dr. Martin's return China, and determined to secure li ce-operation. He resumed his connection with the Foreign Office, and he tells us: "I also adopted some. of the Chinese customs in time of mourning, as more likely to impress them with filial piety and proper respect fur the dead. I determined that, if possible, my father, though dead, should yet speak, and even to the Chinese whom he had never seen, I had already altered my Chinese costume, the colour of my Chinese visiting-card, and decided to remain in retirement for the first hundred days of mourning. In addition I prepared in Chinese style an annonscement printed on yellow paper of my father's death, his "age and. profession, and of my determination to return home in the month of April to attend to home duties. This announcement "I. sent
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.