When Mr. Sims Wegg, of wooden leg and otherwise immortal memory, in the course of his reading ce Mr. Boflin, read Plutareh's lives, Mr. Boffin' found thei exceedingly interesting, though he hoped Plutarch might not expect him to belive them all, What to believe in the course off his reading was Mr. Boftin's chief literary difficulty; for some time he was divided in his mind between half, all, or none, At length when he decided, xs a moderate man, to compound with' half, the question still remained whicn Walt? And this stumbling-block he never zat over." When we read the tel and other statements, which tell us China is about to sign, or is willing to sign, or has signed a secret treaty Ruskin, by which Manchuria is practically Russia territory, we, like Mr. Boffin, are quite unable to decide which of them to believe. Did she sign or did she not sign this treaty The Manchurian question offers as great a difficulty of solution as does a Chinese puzzle to the uninitiated. That China, in the persons of her representatives, lung-chang, the Empress Dowager and Ca. should have entertained a proposal on the part of Rassia to sign away to the latter Power the home of the Manchu Dynasty, can only be accounted for on two grounds. First, Chinese officials may have seen that the country was practically gene from them and they may have hoped that, by [this treaty, they could induce Russia to ive seme little quid pro quo, some few cents liew of the taels she was carrying off; or secondly they may have been induced by Russian statesmen to believe that the latter would give China some very substantial quid pro quo, in the shape of assisting her to oppose the demands of the other Powers. It is a c"se of a man losing Ins hand to save his body, of losing one ye the sight of the other. In it seems to be scarcely credible that Chinese statesmen should hi so infatuated as to comnnit so suicidal an act. That she was not consenting to this willingly, or, at any rate that she was not prepared to do this in the face of the determined opposition of the other Powers is quite clear. When the opposition of the latter was known, she retreated from her position, and withdrew her generous offer. It may nut be devoid of interest to ask ourselves on what wide rests the balance of probability as to Russia ultimately getting her own way, It will furnish wu" interesting problem, Manchuria comprises a wide rich area of country on which avaricious xtatesien might well east longing eyes, and for the possession of which they might he prepared to prolong a di i¢ contest or even have recourse to more dreaded weapos Manchuria comprises an area of swine 700,000 square miles, and is therefore alm-st large ax the entire six best-known provinces of the Dominion of Cam ike the Great Western Continent it is frozen up part of the year, yer it is capable of producing very rich crups, an I with " more enlightened aystem of farming, wil do yet more in the way of supporting larger population, Moreover cattle-rearing carried on to a large extent, and that most successfully. Che mountains are green with timber and the rivers are filled with fish, Rich and valuable furs are secured from the northern Istitudes, which the wealthy Chinese are very eager to buy. Ginseng too—the best la the world—is brought from Manchuria, which the Chinese regard as so valuable a prophylactic that they are ive in exchange fur it almost any i n think that they perhaps hardly known what wealth of metals may be xssumel to exist there, but it may be assumed that in common with other large tracts of the ewth's surface these merils liv hidden fur the hand that will coure ard release them. The Manchus huve not made a great deal of their country it is true, and perhaps they think it, when compared with the wide fertile valleys of China Proper, rather inhospitable in climate; they must however be conscious that it isa fine sweep of country and that therefore they must value it for its own intrinsic worth There is moreover the force of sentiment, of which the Manchus, like everybody else, are capable, und that goes for something. The present Emperors of China are Mmchus, and although, after more than two in China, their Chinese enunciation their habits of thought, the traditions of their court, their daily avveations, and their hourly ambitions, have tended to all intents and purposes to transform them ints Chinese, yet they are still Manchu, and we may assume the existence of some feeling of love of country though it often appears to be dormant, The royal princes must learn the Manchu Language, Its hooks and literature are always before them. Their long-robed, Inrge-footed women are seen in every big city. The love of country is not, we think, such an all-powerful inspiration and inventive with them as it was with Frederick the Great, who once exclaimed: **Tt is not necessary that T should live but it ix that T should do my duty and Gyht for my fatherland." 'This sentiment must exist and we must assume also, that to some extent, it is operative. 'Then two, at Jehol, are the summer palaces of' the reigning dynasty, which take their name from the warm springs that abound there. Phither his Majesty Hsien Feng fled when the allies took Peking at the close of 1860 and never returned to the throne of his fathers. Som time ago, at any rate, the yearly Imperial hunt took place in the Tand of the ancestors of the reigning dynasty. The time of the chase" was fixed for the 2nd of November and it continues till the dth of December, During this short space of time, those who are entrusted with the duty are easily able to furnish the required number of deer, Indeed they light upon innumerable herds and the hunters have only to attend to their ambuscades and they can kill as many as they wish." Now what would the "loss of face" be to those who wantonly signed away their native hills and valleys, their towns and orchards? Could the sensitive mandarin ever lift his head in the face of the Chinese again? It would be another case of Mary and Calais unless the heart of mandarindom were too hard for any impression to be inde, We can us soon think of the present Viceroy of India cynically ceding away the land of his birth ty the Americans, as that the Manchu viceroys now in China, if they could follow their own desires, should code to the Czar all the land of their birth. Tt is difficult: to believe that Manchuria will be dismembered from China unless under circumstances from which there is no possible escape.
We ure not inclined to believe that the Chinese would be guilty of recklessly doing that which would be fatal to their prestige and indeed to their very life, expecially when they knew that all the other Powers were opposed to it, without. some very powerful reason, What could that have been? One of the two mentioned above. the situation in the North resembles very closely the Crimean problem, "Nicholas believed that the time had come to seize Constantinople. He saw that the *Sick Man' was in a hopeless condition, and he was willing that England should take Exypt, if he were left in possession of the city ov the Bosphorus," There was much to be said for the position he then assumel. Tarkey seemed to possess but an effete form of Oriental government, which was " curse to all who lived under it nnd a blot on Christian Europe. It would be a distinct gain to all parties, except to the personal rulers at the Sub: lime Porte, if the entire system were swept int" the Dardanelles. We shall not linger over the issue. We only point out the analogy that appears to exist between the situation of today and that in Europe then, England and France thwarted Russia's ambitious designs; will England and Germany attempt the same task today? It remains to be seen.
There is one fact that we cannot overlook, and with which we must reckon. It is no
reach and swallow up their weaker neigh-Jonger doubtful that strong ations over hours. A handful of sturdy Englishmen located on the Eastern shores of the continent of America, soon began to move westward, and today they Hold sway over all the lands that were once ruled by petty chieftains who have passed into oblivion. Great Britain planted her foot on a few spots on the continent of Asia, for the sake of trade, but to day she rules from Northern Cambodia, to the west of the Indus, and from Cape Comorin to the mountains that overshadow Northern Cashmere. No earthly power can hinder this natural development, this inevitable growth. Now Russia n her sure and silent march westward, has
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.