17 JULY 1875, Page 22

Letters from China and Japan. By L. D. S. (Henry

S. King and Co.)—This prettily got-up little volume is one which ought to be held up to all lady travellers in either hemisphere as an example of the sort of thing they ought strictly to avoid, the one conces- sion to parental, fraternal, or even cousinly feelings which nothing should ever induce them to make. It is a harmless little book, but it is entirely destitute of raison d'gtre, and the chirping silli- ness of the preface is the best expression of that negative eharacteristio which could be found for it. "Had I seriously contemplated the possi- bility of being induced to write a book, while we were yet resident in China, I should certainly have taken more care in collecting materials to make it an interesting one. It was, however, only on returning to- this country that I fully realised how little is known by the world at large of daily life in the far East ; and the oft- repeated question, 'Why don't you write a book?' resulted in the publication of the letters for whose appearance I am apologising. They are simply those written to my relatives at home, divested of all personal matter not absolutely neces- sary for carrying on the narrative." After a few more remarks, the lady who apologises winds up with a hope that "the novelty of the subject may make amends in some measure for the demerits of the writer," meaning those of the book. She is evidently under the impres- sion that books descriptive of China and Japan are rare, an error on which it is needless to dwell ; a more serious one is her conviction that in her letters she tells us anything new about those countries. Drier and more characterless epistles it would be difficult to receive from foreign parts, and the perusal of them makes us feel that the apology with which the writer prefaces them is no more than our due. We are convinced of her sincerity when she disclaims having written "a book" on purpose, and we are ready to lay all the blame on her friends, who would have done more wisely had they advised her to read a few of the too numerous books which have already made the Western world familiar with the countries and the customs which she does not describe. As a fair specimen of her style, we extract this de- scription of " Dai-butsz "(a novel spelling of the great Buddha's Japanese name), premising that she does not seem to know that he is Buddha, or who Buddha was:—

" About ten miles from Yokohama we passed a pretty village called Kanasawa, where I should have much liked to stay, but we had still a long way to go, and no time to diverge from the main object of the expedition, which was to see the great bronze statue of Dai-butsz. We arrived at our destination about eleven o'clock, and at once paid our respects to the colossal, but very amiable-looking God of Benevolence. When I mention that his height is fifty feet and circumference of the body ninety-eight, you can imagine the relative proportion of his fea- tures, and that there is ample space within (he is entered by a door) for the names of all visitors to be inscribed. Having done due honour to our large friend, we adjourned to an old temple, which contained another enormous image ; but it was not in such good repair as the Japanese generally keep their places of worship."

We have made these comments and extracts, in the hope that they may tend to discourage "the others" whose admiring friends, having saved up their letters from abroad, advise them on their return to "write a book."