11 MARCH 1899, Page 24

The Middle Kingdom. By S. Wells Williams, LL.D. 2 vols.

(W. H. Allen and Co. 42s.)—This book was originally published in 1848; the preface to the second edition bears date 1883. This represents, we presume, the latest revision. It would have been worth while in bringing out a new edition of so valuable a work to have had at least a sketch of the later history of the country, for, indeed, much has happened since 1883, nor have later events wholly justified Professor Williams's confident anticipations : " In the hands of statesmen so far-sighted and patriotic as those who now control the Government, there is little cause to appre- hend retrograde steps, or a return to the exclusive policy of Com- missioners Lin and Yeh." Professor Williams seems to have been something of an optimist.