Lord Dufferin is a little too modern for the statesmen
of Pekin. They agreed recently to allow a Mission to proceed from Calcutta to Lhassa, to see if the Government of Thibet could or would grant any new facilities for trade. Lord Dufferin saw what an opportunity this would be for the geographers and men of science, and filled the Mission with savants, till the Chinese began to fear that it would make too much impression at Lhassa, where there is always some Home-rule feeling. They have consequently, according to a telegram from Tientsin, intimated that if the Mission is not reduced in size, the Thibetans may take umbrage, and " seriously " impede it. At the same time, the Thibetans have warned the authorities at Darjeeling that they have taken umbrage, and shall offer just the "serious" opposition hinted at, or, in other words, will arrest the Mission. There is no option, we suppose, except to give way, as we cannot have a Mission arrested just beyond the Himalayas ; but the incident will be a disappointment to the men of science. They hoped to settle the relation of the Brahmaputra to Thibet, and to ascertain several facts as to the mineral riches of the plateau ; but they must wait. The Chinese do not yet quite understand intelligent curiosity.
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