7th Aug. fo-pay is kept in China the twenty-second anniversary of the birth of the Emperor. How far he is a shadow, and how far he takes a substantial part in the government of his country, none of us knows. His seclusion might be deeper than it is, for once a year or so he does grant two or three foreigners an audience, and from his two teachers of English he must hear something of the great outer world. It is a great proof of the wisdom and stability of institutions in China that three hundred millions of people, the largest homogeneous nation in the world, should cheerfully agree to acknowledge his sovereignty; and if-he is of a thoughtful cast of mind, as the descriptions of those who have seen him represent him to be, he must sometimes wonder how he came into the unique position he occuies, and how he maintains it so firmly. f he pauses to-day to review the situation, he finds his great Empire at peace internally and externally, his people generally contented and, even. where they are suffering from floods and famine, with no disposition to improve their position by a revolution. His Viceroys, ambitious as some of them may be, are loyal to him, even if their obedience to his decrees is not always implicit; no foreign Power is threatening the security of his I'hrone, and if he does hear anything of possible aggressions by France, or Japan, or Russia, the reports fall probably very faintly on the seclusion of the palace. If he has in his character anything of the strongmindedness of his aunt, the Empress-Dowager, he may before long follow the example of some of his predecessors, and determine to see something of his empire for himself; he will find that it is progressing, slowly indeed, but surely; he will find that the foreigners scattered all over it~ are anxious to be the best friends of his people and of his government. He will learn that if he took their advice, the happiness of his people might be largely increased, and the prosperity of his country augmented. here is no reason to believe that he is himself a reactionary, or that he would not make his officials do better, if the tales which we hear of misgovernment here and there were allowed to reach him. It would be unreasonable to hold him responsible for the outrages of which we have to complain from time to time, and we may and do heartily wish him a long and prosperous life, and the continued respect of his subjects, whose industry and general good-nature those who have lived longest in China most appreciate.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.