THE EUROPEAN IN CHINA.*

THE literature of the late Chinese War is nearing its end, and we are returning to the old-fashioned book of travel in place of special correspondence. Meanwhile, Mr. Savage-Landor has produced the longest, fullest, and, on the whole, most detailed account of the events of last summer, amplified and illustrated by his wide Chinese experience. The book is a sort of diary in which the author has chronicled everything he saw and most of his reflections. Such a method has the advantage of ease-and picturesqueness; on the other hand, it is apt to give rather a series of casual snap-shots than a care- ful picture. Chapters on the author's earlier travels, hug_ ments of Chinese history, an excursus upon missions, or Buddhism, or some old building, all are carelessly mixed up with the actual narrative. There is a distant attempt at chro- nological order, but when the reader is hurrying on to find the next step in the campaign he may find himself delayed in a backwater while Mr. Savage-Landor treats him to some observa_

• (L) China and the Allies. By A. Henry Savage-Landor. 2 vols. London :

?W.Ideineniann. [30s.]--(2.) Sir Harry Parkes in China. By Stanley Lane-Poole. -endon : Methuen and co. [6e.]—(3.) In Tibet and Chinese Turkestan : poky the Record of Three Years' Exploration. By Captain H. H. P. Deasy. London: T. Fisher Unwin. 121s.] —(4.) Manchu,-to: Its People, Resources, Pauel Recent History. By Alexander H • . London : Methuen and Co. s' 61]-04 Society in China. losart 1C. Douglas. London : Ward, Oa, and Co. r2s.1

tions on a different topic. The book was worth writing, but we should have thought it was also worth arranging and recasting. One great merit the author has. He labours to recount every deed of gallantry, and, so far as possible, the actors' names ; and in this way many obscure heroes are rescued from oblivion. On several points we find it impossible to agree with him. He seems to us consistently unfair to Sir Claude Macdonald. He admires M. Pichon as the best informed of the Ministers, whereas other, and as we hold, better, evidence goes to show that the French Minister was notoriously credulous, and at the mercy of every idle rumour. But, on the whole, we find Mr. Savage- Landor an exciting narrator, and if we could only feel sure that the facts were accurately recorded his book would be specially valuable. His account of the looting that went on is highly picturesque. The Allies, according to him, looted in the most naive and pathetic manner, taking all sorts of trivial things according to the fancy of the nation they represented. The British bluejacket looted food-stuffs and silks for his sweetheart, the French- man and the Jap small objects of art, the Russian scent and musical toys, although all preferred gold when it was to be found. Mr. Savage-Landor thinks that the stories of outrages were much exaggerated, and that the most serious offences, both against property and life, were committed by the Chinese themselves, who seized the opportunity of a sack to make their fortunes. He is specially indignant at the calumnies circulated about the Russian troops:—

- " The stories of Russian atrocities are purely malicious and nonsensical inventions. The women and children had fled away long before the Allies arrived. We hardly ever saw a woman on our march to Pekin or in Pekin itself On one particu- lar occasion I was referred to an American correspondent of a poetical turn of mind, who was supposed to have witnessed many of these Russian crimes, and who, in the character of an eye-witness, gave great publicity to them. On cross-examination it turned out that, on landing at Tong-kn, several weeks after the lighting had ceased, he had seen an empty house on fire—set on lire by whom he did not know—and that was all the evidence he coulsl give of the serious accusations he was bringing against the Russian troops of murdering women and babies ! "

On the missionary question we are in full agreement with him. Men like Timothy Richards seem to him to be among the greatest civilising powers in China, but he protests rightly against the sending out of ill-educated, tactless men and women, who only excite merriment by their attempt to con- form to Chinese customs and their ill-advised methods. He is enthusiastic, and rightly, about the defence of the native Christians in the Pe-tang, the Roman Catholic Cathedral,which

was one of the most heroic incidents of the siege. He thinks the behaviour of the Russians under General Vassielevsky, just before the entrance into Pekin, to have been one of the most remarkable military feats, but he has high praise for all the Allies and their commanders, with the exception of General Chaffee, whom he thought "unnecessarily harsh and incon-

siderate towards his men." The Russian and the Japanese were, in his opinion, the best soldiers all-round in the field, and there

is much truth in what he says about the essentials of soldier- ing. "I start from the assumption that the perfect type of soldier is not necessarily, the best dressed, nor the needlessly courageous, but the practical, sensible, cool, healthy fellow,

quick at taking advantage of opportunities All that a really good soldier needs is a first-class rifle of the simplest pattern, sufficient ammunition, a water-bottle, and a blanket." We may note, finally, the many excellent illustra-

tions in the book, and the curious reproductions in colours of Chinese drawings.

We are glad that Mr. Lane-Poole has published a Life of Sir Harry Parkes in a briefer form than the two-volume

biography, for no career is a more instructive commentary on recent events. After Sir Rutherford Alcock, whose Life Mr.

Michie has recently given us, Parkes was the ablest and wisest of all our Chinese Ministers. He began in the consular service when little more than a child, and no English ad- ministrator was ever ' so entirely familiar with the language and customs of the land. In Canton, Shanghai, Japan, and Pekin he showed himself a true statesman and a man of iron energy. His personal courage was as remark-

able as Alcock's, as was shown by his behaviour during his imprisonment with Loch at Pekin, and in the ' Arrow ' crisis at Canton. He had to fight against the hostility of the Manchester Radicals; but if Cobden and Bright attacked him, Palmerston believed in him, and he was sup- ported by Hammond, that most inflexible of permanent Secretaries. His career was extraordinarily brilliant, for he was made a K.C.B. at the age of thirty-four, and had no weary waiting for promotion Like Alcock, he strove to in- augurate a consistent Chinese policy, and, like Alcock, he found his efforts thwarted by the supineness of the Home Government But if he left no permanent monument behind him, he left a tradition among the Chinese of a man who was as just and merciful as he was fearless. Mr. Lane-Poole tells a good story of this memory:—" When Mr. Pratt was sailing on the Upper Yang-tse three years after Sir Harry's death he was told that his progress was smoothed by a certain flag which the skipper flew with great ceremony. At Ichang the British Consul came on board and asked what the flag was, as it had thrown the leading citizens of the place into a state of great excitement. On inquiry it turned out that the black characters on the white flag were those of Sir Harry Parkes, which the skipper had used for years as a talisman which would carry contraband goods with perfect safety past any custom-house in the Empire. No Chinaman dared to meddle with ' Pa-Tajin's Flag."

Captain Deasy's travels in Tibet and Chinese Turkestan were chiefly geographical in purpose, though he brought back two important collections of the flora and fauna of the place, His work is not on the scale of a great treatise like Sven Hedin's ; but he has materially increased our knowledge of the country between Leh, Kashgar, and Yarkand ; he has mapped a con- siderable part of the course of the Yarka,nd River; and his account of the polities and manners of the Pamirs is highly interesting. He had to endure many hardships from the climate and obstructionist natives, his health was frequently bad, and his scientific work, requiring delicate experiments and much patience, was rendered exceedingly difficult by the conditions under which it was undertaken. The Russians in Central Asia, and especially M. Petrovsky, the Consul-General at Kashgar, do not appear in a very amiable light. Captain Deasy dislikes their hectoring attitude, and says they are extremely unpopular among the natives ; but thinks that the hands of the British Resident in Kashgar should be strengthened to enable him to hold his own. One thing appears clearly from Captain Deasy's interesting book,—the insignificance of the Chinese imperial power on the skirte of her Empire.

Mr. Hosie's Manchuria is an exhaustive treatise on the physical features, people, industries, and recent history of that Debatable Land of the Far East. Incidentally it con- tains an interesting account of a journey up the Amur and Shilka to Stretelask, the terminus of the Siberian Railway. The author writes clearly and sensibly, and has produced a very valuable book of reference.

We may note in conclusion a new cheap edition of Mr. R. K. Douglas's admirable Society in Chino, with a new chapter on the events of last year.