May we make a suggestion to the managers of the
Congress of Orientalists ? It is evident that interest in their gatherings increases rapidly, and this year some of the papers read to them, especially the antiquarian papers, have attracted universal attention. Mr. Haliburton's paper, noticed elsewhere, on "The Dwarfs of the Atlas," Mr. Sterndale's on " Asiatic Traces in Polynesia," and D. H. Schlichter's on " The Indian Ocean of Antiquity," and several others, have much of the charm of positively novel discovery. Would it not be possible, under these circumstances, to con- centrate the force of the Congress a little by asking each year for " special attention " at the next seance to a particular subject ? Only those interested need attend to the request ; but we might obtain a mass of information in 1892 on, say, " The Maritime Enterprise of the Asiatic Races "—a most im- portant subject to historians—in 1893 on "The Early Relation between Asia and America," and in 1894 on " The Probable Origin of the Chinese." A Congress without a subject is apt to be like a Parliament without a Bill before it,—a collection of competent individuals reciting disconnected pamphlets. There are discussions now, but they are generally discussions between an expert and an audience not at all specially pre- pared, and on subjects occasionally of extreme minuteness.
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