China Under the Search - Light. By William Arthur Cornaby. (T. Fisher
Unwin. 3s. 6d.) —" China," says Mr. Cornaby, is " a continent rather than a country." Some part is tropical; much has great extremes of heat and cold; the staple foods are different; then there are Manchus and Chinese. In short, there are endless differences which make it impossible to generalise correctly. Yet there are characteristics which are sufficiently common to justify a general conception of what is meant by " Chinese." Mr. Cornaby has much that is very interesting to say about this people, or congeries of peoples. So much we may affirm, and further that he says it in a lively way ; for the rest, our readers must judge for themselves.—With this we may men- tion The Story of the Siege of Pekin, by S. M. Russell, M.A. (Elliot Stock, ls. 6d.) This account is largely taken from a diary kept by Mrs. Russell. It thus gains a certain vividness, though natu- rally it is less effective as a literary production. There are some emphatic testimonies to the general good conduct and harmonious co-operation of the besieged, and an effective defence of the mis- sionaries and the native Christians. These have been accused of " looting " ; as a matter of fact, the Christians were starving, and were permitted, as food could not be bought, to use stores which the owners had deserted. There is a collection of edicts from the Pekin Gazette, as curious a series of State-papers as could be found in history.
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