of decency and self-respect, the rovings of the Queen and her coarse riot under the eyes of foreign spies in distant lands, with the brutal rancour of her princely spouse and its shameful issue, are notorious. If these circumstances have faded from remembrance while some of the actors are yet living-if they appear to us now less recent than they are, it is because they were out of date at the time of their transaction; they belonged properly to other manners and to another century, and in this age they were simply a disgraceful anachronism.

Dr. Doran has taken from the "Diary of the Court of George IV." the following description of the abandonment of the Bill of Pains and Penalties :

"The ministers had carried their bill, but even their withdrawing of it would not prove her guiltless. 'I shall never forget,' says one present, what was my emotion when it was announced to me that the Bill of Pains and Penalties was to be abandoned. I was walking towards the west end of the long corridor of the House of Lords, wrapt in reverie, when one of the doorkeepers touched me on the shoulder, and told me the news. I turned instantly to go back into the house, when I met the Queen coming out alone from her waiting-room, preceded by an usher. She had been there unknown to me. I stopped involuntarily. I could not, indeed, proceed, for she had a dazed look, more tragical than consternation; she passed me. The usher pushed open the folding-doors of the great staircase; she began to descend, and I followed instinctively two or three steps behind her. She was evidently all shuddering, and she took hold of the banisters, pausing for a moment. Oh, that sudden clutch with which she caught the railing! Never say again to me that any actor can feel like a principal. It was a visible manifestation of unspeakable grief-an echoing of the voice of the soul. Four or five persons came in from below before she reached the bottom of the stairs. I think Alderman Wood was

166 DORAN'S QUEENS OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVER.

one of them, but I was in indescribable confusion. rushed past, and out into the hastily-assembling crowd.

I knew not where I was; but in a moment a shouting in the balcony above, on which a number of gentlemen from the interior of the house were gathering, roused me. The multitude then began to cheer; but at first there was a kind of stupor. The sympathy, however, soon became general, and, winged by the voice, soon spread up the street. Every one, instantly, between Charing-cross and Whitehall, turned and came rushing down, filling Old and New Palace yards, as if a deluge was unsluiced.""

The people who, perhaps, had barely heard of Sophia of Zelle felt that the time was gone by for a repetition of her history.

MEADOWS'S CHINESE EMPIRE.*

ACCORDING to our loose barbarian notions the Chinese empire is an overgrown anomaly, and, therefore, there is a primâ facie propriety in its illustration on a voluminous scale. The bulky octavo before us is only a portion of the work which its author eventually contemplates, and which will probably attain. its completion when we are gathered to our fathers. Moreover, this octavo corresponds with its subject in a variety of characteristics which are not usually compatible, and which we shall not attempt fully to specify. It is studious and accurate, like the products of Chinese penmanship; it is quaintly luminous, like a Chinese lantern; it is as destitute of proportion and perspective as a Chinese picture, and it is quite as involved as a Chinese puzzle. Thus, for example, after reading the preface, we are directed to an essay at the

*The Chinese and their Rebellions, viewed in Connection with their National Philosophy, Ethics, Legislation, and Administration." To which is added, "An Essay on Civilization and its present State in the East and West." By THOMAS TAYLOR MEADOws, Chinese Interpreter in Her Majesty's Civil Service. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1856.

end of the volume; we are thence required to proceed to a paulo-ante-penultimate chapter, then to return to the beginning, and make the rest of our running as we may. Finally, if we understand the book rightly after this complicated process, we find its purport is to recommend Chinese principles of government, and to induce us to emulate Chinese processes, until, barbarians as we are, we shall have ascended in the scale of civilization to the standard of the celestial empire, which has stood the test of forty centuries.

Let the barbarians, meaning the British, henceforth perform the kotow, with their faces in the direction of Pekin, for their interpreter has come to the flowery. land, and has there been enlightened as to the inferiority of his countrymen. We will speak of this miracle presently; in the mean time we may state that this book is the work of a learned, conscientious, and observant person, and if it were not really important in many respects we should not be thus calling atteńtion to it. It is the most curious book we have met with for a long time, and if it were not so cumbrous in its mode of treatment, as well as in bulk, it would be widely read for the information it contains. To put its merits briefly, Mr. Meadows appears to know China more thoroughly and comprehensively than any of his predecessors. He can correct the errors of Huc and of Dr. Gutzlaff repeatedly, can take Mr. Collie to task for ignorance of the meaning of "woo wang," and demonstrate that Messieurs Abel Remusat and Panthier are quite at sea in their interpretation of "ching." On the philosophy, the history, the insti

tutions, and the manners of the Chinese people, in short, he does not hesitate to challenge many of the received impressions; and, on the strength of what he terms a "factual" experience of eleven years, enlightened, we may add, by an inquiring and original cast of mind, to lay claim to a fuller knowledge of his subject than any of his predecessors in the same field; and we are bound to add that, as far as we can judge, his superior pretensions in this respect are fairly substantiated.

It may perhaps be owing to the very fulness of his knowledge that it is not able to flow from him with sufficient freedom and facility. Like the dwarf Kvasi, of the Scandinavian mythology, he is overpowered by a plethora, because no one can be found to relieve him by sufficient question and examination. His German antecedents, to which he adverts, are obvious enough in the lofty scaffolding from which he takes his descent. into particulars. Like the Pomeranians who disputed the dues of their pastor, and whose memorial commenced with the condition of their parish before the introduction of Christianity, Mr. Meadows has a taste for remote generalizations, which he probably owes to the curriculum of a German university. He commenced his study even of Chinese at the university of Munich, about a year before the treaty was signed by which the "five ports" were opened and the island of Hongkong was ceded to Great Britain. With the intention of seeking a place under our government in China, and with the qualifications thus obtained, he proceeded to that country, where he arrived in time to