THE EAST OF ASIA.
The East of Asia. Parts I. and II. (North China herald Office, Shanghai.)—Here we have the first and second numbers of a new periodical, described on its title-page as "a Non-political Illustrated Quarterly." We are not quite sure about the meaning of the epithet "non-political." The preface introducing the new publication to its readers, the long and highly interesting analysis of a pamphlet by Chang-Chih-Tung, Governor-General of the two Hu Provinces, and the article on the German Kiao-chow Territory (seized, with a cynical contempt of decency, in retribution for the murder of two German mission- aries), Port Arthur, and Wei-hai-wei, are all what might be described as political. Certainly much that is said in them could be turned to party advantage. However this may be, there is much that is highly valuable and interesting in these two num- bers of The East of Asia. The description of Pekin as it now is, not pleasing reading for the European who likes to think himself in the van of progress, the Lama Temples in that city, Siam, and ether papers on various social matters are of no little importance. But it is in the Viceroy's paper, exhibiting, as it does, the mind of a Chinese reformer, that we find the most notable article in the whole of the two numbers. This is a quite remarkable piece of work.
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