treaty with Siam the Court of Appeal would revise the judgment delivered at Bangkok wherein Phra Yot was acquito ted of the murder of M. Grosgurin. In the meanwhile the French will retain Chantaboon.

-The following circular despatch was sent to the foreign legations at Peking by the Tsung-li Yamên :-"Your Excellency. We have the honour to inform you that the 7th of November next will be the sixtieth anniversary of H. I. Y. the Empress-Dowager Tze-hsi's, etc., etc., birthday, which will be celebrated through. out the empire. On that dny H. I. M. the Emperor, accompanied by the high dignitaries of the whole empire, will proceed to pay felicitous congratulations to the Empress-Dowager, and the occasion will be extensively celebrated. As China is in amity and friendship with your country it is but in accordance with the courtesy due to Your Excellency that proper notice of this joyous occasion

should also be given to Your Excellency. Instructions have already been sent to our ministers abroad to give the same information to Your Excelleucy's govert ment at home."

28th.-Murder in a Japanese hotel, Shanghai, of Kim Ok-kuin who on the 4th of December, 1884, commenced a rebellion against the Corean government, caused seven of the principal officers of State to be murdered, and on the collapse of the émeute was only saved from execu. tion by the Japanese refusing to surrendder him when he had taken refuge with them. The murderer is Hong Tjyong. ou, a fellow-countryman, who had only recently returned from Paris, where he had been moving in the best society, and had evidently made himself a familiar figure in the diplomatic, literary and artistic world.

29th.--Arrest of Hong Tjyong.ou near Woosung.

Missionary Journal.

BIRTH.

At Shanghai, March 12th, Mr. C. T. Ar Peking, on 26th Feb., the wife of BYFORD, from Australia ; Messrs. Tho.

Rev. C. H. FENN, Am. Presbyterian MAS WINDSOR (returned) and E. J.
Mission, of a son.

BREWER, from England.
MARRIAGES.

AT Shanghai, March 16th, Miss M. Ar Chen-tu, Szchuen, on 24th Jan., by

MacDONALD-Lawson, from India. Rev. 0. M. Jackson, JAMES G. Cor

At Shanghai, March 26th, Misses M. MACK to Miss ANNIE Y. ANDERSON,

HEDLUND and E. PETTERSSON, from both of China Inland Mission.

England, all for C. I. M. At the German Consulate, Shanghai, on

DEPARTURES. March 7th, Mr. H. E. FOUCAR to Miss

LILY OLDING, both of C. I. Mission. From Shanghai, March 1st, Mr. Geo. A. AT Tientsin, 15th March, Mr. C. H. S. HUNTLEY, of C. I. M., for England. GREEN to Miss E. Astin, both of C. From Shanghai, 17th March, Miss M. I. Mission.

Elliot and Mr. H. PRICE, for Eng. At Shanghai, on Tuesday, 27th March,

land. at H. I. German Majesty's Consulate. From Shanghai, 23rd March, Miss M. B. General, by Dr. Eiswaldt, and after- RITCHIE, of American Presbyterian wards at the Union Church, by Rev. Mission, for U. S. A. Dr. Faber, Pastor PAUL KRANZ to From Shanghai, 24th March, Miss C. E. EMMA ALGAR.

RIGHTER, of Am. Bapt. M. U., Kinhwa,

for U. S. A.; Rev. and Mrs. E. P. DEATHS.

WHEATLEY and family, C. M. S. and AT Hankow, on the 26th Feb., Mr. E. Dr. and Mrs. J. R. WATSOX and family, N. ROBERSON, B. A., of C. I. Mission.

English Baptist Mission, for England. On the 14th March, at 154 Kiukiang From Shanghai, 24th March, Miss L. A. Road, ETHEL, the dearly beloved

The Edward Bellamy of China : or The Political

Condition of the Middle Sungs.

BY REV. ISAAC T. HEADLAND.

[Methodist Episcopal Mission.]

GLANCE at the Political Condition of the Middle Sangs cannot fail to bring to our minds Sir Thomas More and his

utopian theories, or Edward Bellamy, the American socialist, who out-mores More as a visionary. Each of these men have presented as with beautiful pictures of ideal governments, where the Wall Street lion may lie down with the lamb without fleecing it, and where social standing depends not upon birth, business or education but upon respectability and virtue. The sentiments of each of these men may be expressed by a sentence from Mr. Bellamy's book, “Looking Backward :"

6 With a tear for the dark past turn we then to the dazzling future, and veiling our eyes press forward. The long weary winter of the race is ended. Its summer has begun. Humanity has burst the Chrysalis. The heavens are before us." +

*(1) T'ung Chien (E), by Ssu Ma-kuang (#).
(2) Kang Mu (H1 ), by Chu Hsi (* X).
(3) Chien Shih I Tu ( t à ), by Chu Ke Ju Chi (HỂ R = 7).
(4) Sung Shih Pen Mo ( #), by Feng Ch'i ( ).
(5) Kang Chien I Chih Lu ( 8 Bi đu đ%), by Wu Choeng-chouan (8 HP).
(6) History of China, by Boulger.
(7) Chinese Reader's Manual, by Mayers.
(8) Gutzlaff's History of China.
(9) Bellamy's Looking Backward.
(10) Williams' Middle Kingdom.
+ Looking Backward. Chap. xxvi, p. 292. (The italics are mine.)

The fine theories these two men so beautifully expressed on paper were already worked out by Wang An-shih (E) and put into operation by the Sung dynasty, four centuries before Sir Thomas More and eight centuries before Mr. Bellamy was born. With what results let us see, for there could be no better commentary on Mr. Bellamy's socialistic theories than a contemplation of the results wrought out from essentially the same ideas put in force in China, a country where its blessings were needed at that time more than they are needed at the present time in any Western land.

In the first place let me state as concisely as possible Mr. Bellamy's ideas of things and his theory of government as set forth in his book, "Looking Backward.” He holds :

1. That the present condition of things is bad, and that this evil condition grows mainly out of man's inability, ander the present order of things, to supply his needs.

2. That the present evil order of things is largely the result of the present system of government, or rather lack of system, in government and business.

3. That if man's needs were supplied and permanently provided for, he would be contented and happy and would seek nothing more.

4. That his needs could easily be provided for if all property and all productions were put into the hands of the government.

With these theories of our American clearly before our mind let us turn now to our Chinese Bellamy. And in order to understand his character and work let us first look at his yonth.

Wang An-shih (also called Chieh Fu, † , a native of Linchʻuan, ben lil, in Kiang-hsi, I ) was born in the twenty-first year of Chen Tsung of the Sung dynasty, A.D. 1019. Daring his youth he was so diligent in study that he neither took time to comb his hair nor wash his face, so that he was constantly dirty. This habit clang to him during his whole life. Like Socrates, when he pat on a new garment he never put it off, even to wash it, till it was worn out; then he changed only for a new one. But this studious habit soon began to show forth its fruits, for in a short time he became celebrated as poet, scholar and statesman. During the reign of Jen Tsung (t) he passed his examination, receiving the Chin-shih or third degree. He was highly praised by the President of the Imperial Academy for his literary essays, and the Emperor conferred on him the office of Assistant Magistrate ( t) of Hainan (it).

At that time it was the castom for the officials who were outside to present a written report to the Emperor at the close of their term of office, asking him to examine it, with the prospect of their promotion. This Wang An-shih refused to do. Nevertheless