10th Dec. tne November issue of this always readable magazine opens with an essay by Bishop Hendrix, reprinted from the Review of Missions, on " Russia in the Far East." It is a very temperate paper, and the fact that it is from an American pen gives it an impartiality that increases its value. 'I'he bishop's view is that England and Russia are "the chief and virtually the only competitors for supremacy in Eastern Asia. Phis should perhaps have been " Western competitors," for the competition of Japan, now as well as in the fature, should not be entirely ignored. The bishop begins by reciting briefly the great advantages secured to Russia by the Cassini Convention, and shows how Russia's design is to control the north and east of Asia "from the Caspian to the Gulf of Pechili, and as much more as the already widely extended wings of England cannot cover. 'I'his at least seems a possible result owing to the lack of a strong central government in the Chinese Empire. Neither nation is prepared at present to claim all that she- regards as her manifest- destiny, but each desires to stake her claims,' and to insist on her landmarks being respected by the other."
Justice is done to the colonizing as well as conquering work that Russia has done in Asia, and the readiness with which she absorbs the peoples whom she annexes. "he mixed peoples.. are readily absorbed, as they find in the Russian a common language, the very name Slav meaning the intelligibly speaking man." There is 'a slight: historical sketch of the Europeanisation of Russia itself by Peter the Great, and it is stated—though this is hardly accurate—that only once since the Crimean wat has Rassia tried to enlarge her dominion by the sword. It is-by her diplomacy and. the use of French money that she has made her continual advance "The contest between Russia and England for Asiatic territory is likely to be one of wits rather than of swords, England has a larger navy than Russia. and France together and will continue to multiply her warships to guard her immense merchant marine. So long as war can be avoided it is to the interest of both countries to keep the peace. England has 50,000,000 Mahomedan subjects in India, more than are in all the Turkish Empire, while Russia has her numberless nihilists whom she does not care to give the coveted opportunities which war affords. It may be an armed peace, but it seems that no war is likely between these great Powers, and neither has much to fear from any other Power. Friendship between Russia and England is vital to the integrity of both empires. l'ersia may possibly be absorbed next by Russia, but England will follow with some equally important acquisition of Asiatic territory.
Who bishop concludes by pointing out that Russia: is only intolerant to Jews, while the Greek Church, " reformation of which is not improbable, is very friendly with the Church of England, Tu the next article the Rev. Homer Hulbert gives a very interesting account, with specimens of the information it supplies, of a standard Gazetteer of Corea, called Yo-ji Song-nam, which contains a minute description of each of the 369 prefectures of Coren, seriatim, with a map of each pro-vii "Te was begun by one No Sa-sin, better known by his pseudonym No So-jo, in the days of Mun-joug Ta-wang, the fifth King of the present dynasty, who reigned 1451-1453, A.D, It was completed about fifty years later by So Ko-jung whose pseudonym was So Sa-ga." Things change so slowly in the Far East that " Gazetteer four kindred years old is still very useful as a guide-book, as well as a treasury of history, legend, and folk-lore in general. Those who most, affect to doubt the value of missionary work in the Far Esst, must still bear tribute to the value of the labour that missionaries have expended in uvearthing and translating books of this kind that would otherwise have long remained unknown. From the extracts given by Mr. Hulbert it appears that this is really an exhaustive book; everything that the traveller or the; resident could want to know about the country seems to be contained in it, and it must be indeed a monumental work if every prefecture is treated with equal fullness.
After this we have a very readable account by Dr. C. F. Reid, formerly of Shanghai, of "A Week in the Country between Seoul and Songdo," What a pleasant country - Corea, with all its enforced poverty—poverty which is entirely due to its atrocious misgoverument—seems to be, and what
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.