description of the individual countries, with their resources, military
and naval forces, "all things about which writers give very different
reports, so that it is not possible to be exact, for errors must needs
be many where proofs are wanting." How well Seu-ke-ju understands the
machinery of European states is apparent from what he says about public
debts: "Thus the interest of the borrowed money is paid yearly, while
the debt continually increases, inasmuch as the income of the year
suffices not for the wants of the Government. Then are new taxes laid
upon the people which embitters and makes them rebellious, while the
governments grow weaker and fall into decay. The half of Europe is now
in this condition." To the mental superiority of the western nations,
and especially to the talent and energy of the Americans, Seu-ke-ju
renders full justice. On the whole this book is an indication of real
progress among the Chinese, much as it militates against the old notion
which ascribed to them a considerable degree of scientific knowledge.
There can be no doubt that when the prejudice among them, according to
which the Celestial Empire is the greatest country, and its inhabitants
the most wonderful people of the world, is dissipated, their native
thirst for knowledge will urge them forward with rapidity. The habit of
visiting foreign lands which is springing up among them, will also do
its part, in breaking up the monotony and stagnation into which they
have grown. In addition to this book by Seu-ke-ju, a number of other
geographical works, drawn from English, German, and French sources, have
appeared in Chinese, at the instance mainly of high officers of state.

* * * * *

The Society of Horticulture, for Paris and Central France, is about to
issue a large work, entitled _Pomologie Francaise, ou Monographie
Generale des Arbres Fruitiers_. This will be one of the best works on
fruit trees ever published, and our gardeners will do well to look after
it.

* * * * *

The most elaborate and erudite modern work on international law is the
_Histoire du Droit des Gens et des Relations Internationales_, by Prof.
G. LAURENT, of Ghent, of which three volumes were published, in 1850, in
that city. The first volume treats of international law in Hindostan,
Egypt, Judea, Assyria, Media and Persia, Phoenicia, and Carthage; the
second is devoted to Greece, and the third to