whence a condensed narrative has been given in the first volume.

This history of the war describes the impression produced, on the most ancient existing empire, by a blow unequalled in importance since the Manchow Tartar conquest. The British undertaking was the farthest military enterprise, of the same extent, in the history of the world; surpassing, in that respect, the expeditions of Alexander and Cæsar in the one hemisphere, and those of Cortes and Pizarro in the other.

Followed so soon by the El Dorado of California, to which the Chinese are swarming from Hongkong across the Pacific - by that of Australia - and by the short passage over the isthmus of Panamá, it is not easy to

calculate the extent of the forthcoming revolutions in the channels of national and com

mercial intercourse.

But it

But it may be predicted

that a British colony with twenty-five thousand Chinese subjects, in sight of the south coast of China, is destined to play a part in the drama of the future.

The two concluding chapters of the last volume, on the Indo-Chinese nations, may prove interesting at the present time. The chapter on Japan was already in the press, when the intelligence of an American mission to that country, of five vessels of war, reached London. Whatever may be the result of this undertaking, nothing important is likely to be gained by mere negociation, as the United States had already, in 1846, about as strong a force in the bay of Jédo, including a ship of 90 guns, under Commodore Biddle.* It is possible that the present exclusively naval

*Vol. ii. page 287.

armament may prove sufficient to carry out strong measures; but its amount is very different from our own seventy vessels of war and transports, with twelve thousand fighting men, before the walls of Nanking in 1842. If not sufficient, however, it may lead to something farther, from either the same or some other quarter.

This expedition is an opportune confirmation of the views and expectations entertained in the two chapters on the IndoChinese nations, who certainly will not be allowed much longer to remain in a state of avowed hostility to the rest of the world; more especially JAPAN, which fires on ships in their necessity, and exhibits shipwrecked mariners in cages, preparatory to a cruel death. With them, at least, the time has arrived,

pacis imponere morem.

It remains for the rest of the civilised

world to wish the United States all success, and to expect that they will make a humane, liberal, and enlightened use of it.