Diplomats on the spot in China during 1880-1885 cannot have had a very easy time. 1f they appeared to fake too strong a line in supporting British merchants they were liable to get rapped over the knuckles if China took offence and trouble occurred. If on the other hand the merchants and their vested interests ere not strongly supported, they raised Cain." Very much the same might be said today. In China the diplomat's lot both then and now may be said to resemble a policeman's, namely that it "is not a happy One." There is a vast amount of detailed matter in Mr. Kiernan's book, and to those concerned in delving into the past history of Great Britain's diplomacy in China at a time when the issues at stake were of vital importance not only to our own but to China's interests, the record here given of persons and events who and which helped to shape the future of China and had no little share in solving the questions involved, is of absorbing interest.—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.