hopes of seeing its course made available as an important artery of commerce. Harassed by wearisome delays, exhausted by privations and sickness, and compelled to part with their European escort, who rebelled at an early stage against the hardships it was necessary for them to share with the leaders of the expedition, Captain de Lagrée's party nevertheless pushed on, and sixteen months after their departure from Saigon they enjoyed the satisfaction of entering Chinese territory, just at the time when Major Sladen's expedition was about to commence its voyage in the same direction from the Burmese capital. The point at which China was now entered, after an adventurous and toilsome march overland through the states of Burmese Laos, was Sze-mao, the Esmok of Captain Sprye, which was found to be a half-ruined military post, kept in continual alarm by the proximity of a Panthay army. From this point Yünnan was successfully traversed from south to north, and the expedition eventually reached Shanghai, bringing with them, however, only the remains of their brave leader, M. de Lagrée, who died in March, 1868, at Tung-chwan, in Yün-nan, near the banks of the Yang-tsze. His young subordinate, Louis de Carné, whose sparkling narrative anticipates in some degree the as yet unpublished official report of the expedition, was prostrated on his return to France by the disease which his exposure in the tropical forests of the Mekong had implanted in his system, and barely lived to complete a partial record of the scenes he had passed through. Although disappointing in its results as regards the navigation of the troubled Mekong, it is unquestionable that Captain de Lagrée's expedition constitutes one of the most remarkable among modern geographical feats, and that the Victoria Gold Medal bestowed by Sir Roderick Murchison as President of the Royal Geographical Society on Lieutenant Garnier at the anniversary meeting of the Society in 1870 was a merited as well as a graceful act of appreciation. In view of the important results in philology and ethnology as well as in other more technical departments of science which are known to have been accumulated, there is much reason to lament that the Report embodying these acquisitions should have remained so long unpublished,* owing to the political *Since the above was in type, the narrative of Captain de Lagrée's expedition has at length been issued by MM. Hackette et Cie, in two large quarto volumes, accompanied by two superb volumes of engravings and maps, under the editorship of Lieutenant Garnier. state of France. We are unable to say that its place is satisfactorily taken by M. de Carné's work, which in fact lays no claim to scientific merit or accuracy of detail; but we should do the vivacious record of his observations injustice if we failed to admit that it presents an interesting picture of the manners and condition of the peoples scattered along the valleys of the Mekong and its tributaries, and moreover affords a valuable insight into the state of affairs prevailing in Southwestern China. From the moment of their entrance into Yün-nan, great as was the delight of the travellers on hailing such tokens of civilisation as now met their gaze in paved roads, walled cities, and varied industrial pursuits, they found every where ruin and desolation supplanting the once prosperous condition and thriving communities of this portion of the empire. At Sze-mao, only three days' march intervened between the expedition and the Mussulman army, which was at that moment threatening to repeat its former capture of the town. The suburbs and villages in the neighbourhood, which were said to have once contained a population of 30,000 souls, were a mass of ruins; and the interior of the town itself presented a similar spectacle. The conquerors appeared to have directed their greatest violence against the temples,* some having been entirely demolished, and others desecrated in a variety of ways. The richer classes had entirely deserted the town, and the population remaining consisted solely of officials, soldiery, and petty traders. The still more important city of P'u-urh (Po-heul in the French orthography) was found in even a worse plight, and as the party neared the provincial capital symptoms of misery grew more instead of less abundant. Everything bespoke the continuance of a cruelly-prolonged and exhausting contest. A daring attempt on the part of Although a certain degree of fanaticism is indicated by this treatment of the Buddhist or Taoist temples in conquered places, it is worthy of note that in a proclamation issued to his followers in 1868 by the generalissimo or 'Sultan' of the Panthays, the duty of religious toleration was especially inculcated, and severe reprobation for all violent acts of pillage or destruction was expressed. No feature in the constitution of the Mahomedan State of Ta-li was more singular, indeed, than the absence of any such claims to supremacy on behalf of the Mussulman faith as has been shown in other attempts at founding an empire on the Koran and the sword which have been witnessed of late years. So completely, in fact, had the Mahomedans of Yunnan become subject to the influences of Chinese thought, that their rebellion was announced as undertaken in defence of 'the rights of the people,' without a syllable of reference to a 'holy war.' Lieutenant Garnier and others of the party to strike through the Mahomedan lines and to reach Ta-li Fu was successfully accomplished, and in February 1868 the adventurous Frenchmen presented themselves under the walls of the Mahomedan capital; but their arrival from the Imperialist head-quarters was sufficient in itself to cause them to be regarded with suspicion, and the dislike thus incurred was augmented by the presence of a Roman Catholic missionary with the party. Concealed among the mountains to the north of Ta-li Fu Lieutenant Garnier encountered a devoted priest, Père Leguilcher, who had clung to this spot, his residence for many years, despite the warfare which had desolated the region around him. For fourteen years this pioneer of the Church had dwelt amid a small community of native converts, without having once set eyes upon a European face; and up to this moment, by carefully avoiding notice, he had escaped molestation on the part of the Mahomedan insurgents. Unfortunately for the success of the expedition Père Leguilcher was induced to accompany Lieutenant Garnier to Ta-li Fu in the capacity of interpreter. Symptoms of hostile feeling greeted the party on their first approach to the Panthay fortress; and it is somewhat to the credit of the rude Mahomedan soldiery by whom they were surrounded that no catastrophe befell them, when swords were actually drawn against the mob which crowded at their heels. Père Leguilcher was summoned to the presence of the Sultan himself, who insisted that the French explorers should return instantly by the way they had come, and warned them in a truculent manner against cherishing dreams of aggression upon his dominions. After a single night's residence in the Panthay capital Lieutenant Garnier and his party were accordingly compelled to withdraw, and beyond the geographical information obtained in reference to the route they followed, the results of this adventurous expedition were scarcely adequate to the risks incurred. So striking is the contrast between the hostility and defiance displayed at Ta-li Fu with the anxiety which was shown only a month or two later by the Mussulman governor of Momien to cultivate friendly relations with Major Sladen's party, that we are driven to search for an explanation of the discrepancy. This, it seems reasonable to believe, may be found in the presence of the Roman Catholic missionary, who, however estimable and inoffensive as an individual, yet represented an organisation whose encroachments upon native authority, under the protection of French officials, has been painfully conspicuous throughout China, and must have been well known by report to the Mussulman leader.* Père Leguilcher was compelled, from regard to his future safety, to accompany the party on their return into Chinese territory, abandoning with mutual lamentations the simple flock among whom he had dwelt so long; and both he and his companions may have felt reason to reflect upon the injury which an excessive degree of official support to the missionary propaganda entails upon the political and religious interests of the French in China. The two expeditions of which we have sketched the progress and results enable us to appreciate with some degree of accuracy the relative value and feasibility of the modes of communication between Western China and the Indian seas that have been proposed of late years, whilst the safety and success with which they respectively penetrated across hitherto untravelled regions into Chinese territory serve as a lesson that the obstacles to be encountered in future by research and enterprise need no longer be greatly feared. M. de Carné frankly admits the failure of such hopes as were based upon the prospect of diverting into a French colonial port, by the channel of the Mekong, whatever amount of foreign trade may be expected to grow up hereafter in South-western China; and the certainty acquired upon this point has deep importance for ourselves, inasmuch as it serves to concentrate attention for the future upon the Irrawaddy route, with its already ascertained facilities. The ardent young Frenchman falls back, indeed, upon projects for a new commission, which, he urged, should ascend the Songkoï or river of Tongkin, to its sources in the heart of Yün-nan; but this undertaking was admittedly proposed with a view to territorial aggrandisement at the expense of the sovereign of Annam, whose northern territories were coveted in addition to the provinces of which he has been despoiled in the south, rather than in any wellfounded hope of discovering a means of access by European shipping into Chinese territory by way of the Songkoï. Ambitious projects of this kind may well have been set at rest by the changes that have supervened in France since Louis de Carné gave the rein to fancy before sinking to his untimely grave; but notwithstanding all existing embarrassments the We have been informed that the Panthay envoy, who recently visited England, when questioned with reference to the treatment met with by Lieut. Garnier at Ta-li Fu, replied unhesitatingly that apprehensions of a desire to compel his subjects to submit to proselytism was the cause of Sultan Suleiman's inhospitable conduct. Possibly Père Leguilcher may have let fall expressions during his interview which gave ground for suspicions of this nature. French Government have still found time to organise a fresh expedition of discovery in the direction thus suggested. If we are rightly informed, a surveying party commanded by one of Captain de Lagrée's former subordinates will ere long ascend the Songkoï and penetrate into Yün-nan from the east, completing the work of exploration by which the province has already been approached from the south and west. The experience of the future alone can decide whether these persevering attempts to establish intercourse between seaports under European control and the far western extremity of the Chinese Empire will achieve success in the growth of a luerative commerce; but be that as it may, science will have cause to rejoice in the opening afforded to its inquiries in fields so long inaccessible, and with our own unrivalled advantages of position and superiority of means, as also of material interests at stake, we shall have but ourselves to blame if the rewards of enterprise be carried off by less favoured competitors. Par L. F. ALFRED Troisième Edition. Paris: ART. II.-Le Sommeil et les Rêves. 1865. WE E place M. Maury's volume at the head of this article, as one of the most recent and remarkable on the phenomena of Sleep and Dreams. He is among the few authors who have made them the subject of experiment as well as of simple observation. But in reviewing his work we shall have occasion to refer to several others, in which these phenomena are treated of, either especially or as a part of human physiology; many of them works of much intrinsic value, though not, as we think, wholly exhausting the subject. Attention has been somewhat too exclusively given to the physical causes and conditions of sleep, without adequate notice of the wonderful characters which connect it with the other portion of our existence; rendering it, through dreams, an interpreter of many of those complex relations of mind and body which have perplexed philosophy in every age of the world. Sleep and dreams may justly be deemed one of the great mysteries of our nature. Our knowledge of them is far from having reached the reali ties of a science. Many of the problems, physical and psychological, they involve, are among the most profound in mental philosophy, and meet us at the very threshold of the inquiry. And if some of these questions do admit of solution, others are so deeply hidden in the ultimate mystery of the mind itself, as |