Colonel Marchand, the French explorer, is travelling in Russia after
a visit to China, and has expressed his views to journalists in Moscow, of course for publication. He thinks the lull in China unreal, suspects the Empress-Regent, "an ambitious, energetic, and daring woman," of sinister plans, and anticipates that after, say, five years of preparation she will take a sanguinary revenge. He therefore eulogises the Russian Railway to the Pacific, and urges its completion, as Russia is " the advance guard of Europe in the Far East." We agree with much of this, though Russia fights for her own hand, and though Colonel Marchand does not allow sufficiently for the Empress-Regent's age—she must be over sixty—but we wish some one would inform the world on a point even more important. It is useless to ask the.opinion of China, the map is too huge, and as inarticulate as any other Demos ; but what is the opinion of the great corporation of Mandarins which administers the Empire as to the recent explosion and the humiliation to which it led ? If we could get at that we should know something about the future. They are clearly not ,angry with the Empress. Colonel Marehand, we may add, is specially honoured by the Russian Court.
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