"nfietome ne LA Concession Frascatse Tore Uoanotinirench De-Maybon et Sean Hredet Paris: Librairie Plan.
There are about four histories of Shanghai written respectively Jénclellan, Montalto de. Jesus, Lanning and Couling, and finally that recently published by Dr. 'L; Hawks Pott. None of them make much reference to the French Concession, and when.they do it is une rely' en. passant. Fortunately, However, that omission is in fait way to being rectified by the publication of the above work, the Tesult of the InGours of the Late MIN, Eh. B, Maybon, whose un-Sortunate demise prevented him Ssom seeing the fruition of many years labour, and M. Jean Predet, well known member of the'
Prench Community. It is a timely work, this history of the French Concession, timely because it was ¢cmmenced when not all the links with earlier days had disappeared, ud though the work of assembling the wealth of facts the book con tame was" diffeult enough in all en science, the existence of human feontact in the memories of the earlier residents of the concession enabled the authors in several Jnstances to round out the pictures they were sketching in Thus M. Freitet in the foreword to the book writes:
"Let archives anil bien, conse Tamed considerables," spetalement {in ce- gar eoncerne "lea vingeeina G0. frente. premieres annees de Concersion. "Non. "recherches fette boride out, ts extremement Inboridosen, et noun avons JU solvent, pour Vetuie de. certain fous liver" Ann ver mosatave, empruntant Snnteriaus. aux routees cxanyant de sprite ines ants ov diaparus."
nil be appreciated then, that the work of these two gentlemen was commenced not a moment too fon, but even then it has been difficult enough to collate the great wealth of fact about the Concession with which the book is replete.
In the course of some 450 pages authors have traced the growth of the French Concession from, the "miedrable quartier Francais," to the magnificent town of to-day, of fan area of over ten million square tnetres, a population of 358,438 inaditants and an annual budget of Me, 9,810,561. It is the story of the growth of a desolate spot marke eq with swamps and graves, to the down of wide streets and fine build~ Anus. And all in 80 years!
not a story of easy development, nor entirely of harmonious cations with other sections of the agglomeration known as. Shanghai throughout the whole story 4 poseitle to see the gradua} trend towards the satisfactory state of affairs which eventually came about anil which subsist so happily-at the ipredent time. And that must serve the hest available description of the book.
The attractive feature about the work of MIN. Maybon and Fredet the dispassionate manner in which the facts are presented, and the wealth of detail with which each of the many problems which the administration of the Concession faced: have been dealt. The ty lengthy chapters dealing with the Maiping rebellion and how it affected Shanghai, make one of the dest "descriptions of that period that we have read. Or again the hard fight that eventually led to. the suppress ion of gambling in the Concession, tthe reeviminations and arguing that eneved before Brenier de Mont-succeeded inputting through the reforms on which he was 0 keenly bent, oF the picture of the repercussion of the Tientsin massacre in Shanghai and the consequent formation of the French rolanteer force and the maintenance onder arms of the police and volunteers of. both concessions these stirring episoiles are told with the eraphie quality which adds 20 snach to the charm of the work, The volunteers were a weird= Jeoking crowd. fadged with the eves of todas, their uniform consisted of a Tyrolean hat with plume, a Blue flannel) tunic. trousers with a marrow sed band down the cuter seam, while their a1 old chassepots, the artillery being provided with three 12 Ib. howitzers, each drawn by a pony. It al: seems so very odd in these days, but the foreign community of Shanghai had to take itself much more seriously than it appears to do to-day. The seventy men who thus formed the Concession's line of defence and on whom Tls. 4,000 were spent for equipment did not last long, for upon the arrival of foreign men-o-war in sport, their services were no longer urgently required. "The company was not suppressed, however. Like old soldiers they just faded away, figuring in the budget of 1871 as an expenditure of Tls. 6 only and in the succeeding year for Tls. 50. the men had disappeared; only-the equipment was lof "And 80 it is possible im this very remarkable work, not only to read 'a running history of the place, but to form adequate pictures of things as they were, a pleasant recreation assisted by the charming old world photographs from the collection-of} H, Cordier. They help us to people the stage which the authors set up, and possessors of names—Which to 20 many of us represent only mere names—of men who laid the foundations of the French Concession, live again as they stalk through these pages and fight all anew the many heated battles so able described by the authors, It is understood that M. Predet, who has taken the original Iabours of M. Maybon and himself up to 1875, "will continue with a second volume to bring this fascinatingly human story up to date. We hope it is true, for the work already done is too good to be left incomplete. What has been done has. been carried through in a most ficient' manner and we doubt if higher praise can be given than to say that the method adopted his provided an example of how a history of such a place as Shanghai should be written.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.