he facts so quietly chronicled.
Perhaps none have dreamed that they were reading the first notices of a
new Eastern conquest, which, in extent and importance, may yet be second
only to that which has already been achieved by the British in
Hindostan. Yet so it is. The Cambodia is the largest river in Southern
Asia, and, together with the smaller and parallel river of Saigon,
drains a tract of not less than five hundred thousand square miles. The
region for which the French have been contending includes the provinces
which cluster around the mouths of these two rivers, and command them.
No position could be happier. For while on the one hand it controls the
outlet of a river stretching up into a rich and fertile country eighteen
hundred miles, on the other it projects into the Chinese Sea at a point
nearly midway between Singapore and Hong Kong, and so secures to its
possessor a just influence in that commercial highway. The ostensible
cause of the war in this region was the murder of a French missionary.
If this was ever the real cause, it long since gave way to a settled
purpose of conquest.

In the latter part of the year 1862 the Emperor of Cochin China was
forced to cede to France the coveted provinces. Already new
fortifications have arisen at Saigon, and dock-yards and coal-depots
been established, and all steps taken for a permanent occupation of the
territory. The following advertisement appeared in the London "Times"
for January 23, 1863,--"Contract for transportation from Glasgow to
Saigon of a floating iron dock in pieces. Notice to ship-owners. The
administration of the Imperial Navy of France have at Glasgow a floating
iron dock in pieces, which they require to be transported from that port
to Saigon, Cochin China. The said dock, with machinery, pumps, anchors,
and instruments necessary to its working, will weigh from two thousand
to twenty-five hundred tons. Ship-owners disposed to undertake the
transport are requested to forward their tenders to the Minister of
Marine and Colonies previous to the fifth of February next." Now, if we
consider that the news of the cession of these provinces did not reach
France until the close of the year 1862, that this advertisement is
dated January 23, 1863, and that a dock of the magnitude described could
hardly be constructed short of many months, we shall be satisfied, that,
long before any definite articles of peace had been proposed, the
Emperor had settled in his ow