The access of the National Assembly has been a matter of surprise to the oldest aod best-informed residents of Peking, both Chinese and foreiga. It was generally expected that the bers would meet. resolutions, and having justified fellow-provincials their appointment, quietly adjourn, thankful to ha when they appointed the accomplished Prince Pa Lan ax President of the! Aseembly, for His Highness is neither experienced nor noted for strength of character, Had Priocs Chivg. Prince Vu Long or any other recognized men among the princes been appointed to preside, the Assembly would have begun its Ieboure endowed with considerably greater importance io the minds of the general pablic. It dnbtful, hor whether ite nuccoases would have been s0 marked; and in the ligh: of recent events the Throne probably has cause to congratulate ited! upon the appointment of a President who has been visibly impressed by the: senatorial bearing of the members and who, not feeling any shadow of contempt, showed yo trace of haughtiness doring the whole of the proceedings. Indeed, the earnestness of the President has been as notable as the quiet dignity of the Members, who unco only appeared in danger of getting oat of band, In the earlier meetings, important bat not enthralling matters of domestic reform and reorganization were being discussed, the breadth of knowledge displayed by the members was the feavare of the debates. Though not experts in technical subjects, they proved wat they had given long and carefal stady to the matters in band; and so it gradually began to dawn upon the public that these men woald really be " great acquisition to the Councils of the Empire, Princes, officials, foreign tore and crowds of the general public st one moment leaved over the rails of the gallery, or stood up in order to follow the impressive. if slightly histrionic, movements of the speakers—which are always s feature in Ohinese oratory—at another, allowed their vision to sweep aer as the body of the ball in which the members xat—each with hia satchel of notes, documents and technical barks of reference, tablets, and pens and 1k—to the well-appointed dais opposi where the President st above hi secretaries and the secretary of the rubly; and every observer realized ctively that the T': uchengyuan was not only an important historical event—it was the suspicions it of anew era in the an Empire that hed stood for thousand yours, that it was the first public demonstration of movement that bad been quietly bat thoroughly organized, The keynote of discussions appeared to be unanimity, and it needed no intuition to under-id that this homogeneity was not the inspiration of a moment. A close observer of the Princes, who oocapy a separate portion of the vallary situated directly opposite the President, snbsequently remarked that they exhibited first a quiet air of tolerance. not unmixed with amusement, looking depre-eatingly, sometimes, through the trance to their compartment to the groan, of foreigners near at "band.
the proceedings went on their interest increased rapidly, and toon one could detect traces of pride of the conduct and demeanour of the House, which is, perhaps, a testi-many understood best by persons familiar with Ohinese sensitiveness and extreme sensibility to anything in the natare of gaucherie that might lend to ridicule.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.