It is a fanatic but unholy crusade that now enlists the sympathies of the Slavonic millions; but it is peace and wisdom that elsewhere foster the spirit and guide the course of emigration. It is the effort of individuals to better themselves. The units of society are learning to think for themselves; and the spread of peace and tolerance, and the triumphs of mechanical invention, are laying “the world all before them where to choose.” It is a great thing to see this power of reflection and self-reliance spreading among mankind; for assuredly, wherever it is met with, it argues a stage of national development which only long centuries of civilisation suffice to produce. Such a faculty it is, fostered by the external circumstances which we have named above, which is now drawing those hermits of the world, the Chinese, from their long seclusion, and bringing them into yearly and fast-increasing contact with Europeans. Alike in California and Australia, in our West India colonies and in the islands of the Pacific, the Chinaman may be seen side by side with the European, the Negro, and the Malay; and as he immeasurably transcends the other coloured races in industry and intelligence, so not unfrequently he may compare with the European even in point of that business-like cast of intellect which we self-managing Anglo-Saxons so highly prize. The Chinese are coming out into foreign lands to meet us, and we in turn are posting ourselves on their shores to become better acquainted with them. In fact, of late, China has been such a centre of interest, that almost every Power that has a navy, has a detachment of war-vessels cruising off its shores. Great Britain, America, France, Russia (not to speak of stray vessels from other Powers), are regularly represented by naval squadrons in its waters; so that China, the oldest and not least notable of existing empires, is actually revolutionising and reforming herself under the eyes of the leading representatives of the world’s civilisation. It is high time, then, we repeat, that Europe should know as much as possible of this vast Power that is now for the first time being linked into the community of nations. Every information respecting their character and customs has now a practical and more than ordinary value; and it is all the more wanted, inasmuch as no people appears hitherto to have been more imperfectly comprehended by the rest of the world. Twelve centuries before our era, we find them, by indisputable proof, in a condition of advanced civilisation. Not to speak of the larger items of civilisation, which we have discussed on former occasions, they were then in possession of gold and silver—had money, and kept accounts—had silks, dyed in many colours—leather, hemp, wine, jewels, ivory, carriages, horses, umbrellas, earthenware, &c.;—they had a literature, and a Board of History; and, moreover, a very complete ceremonial of observances, the empire being regulated with all the