Literature.

Keying very welcome at Tientsin . Lord Elgin refused to have anything to do with him ; aud to discredit him with his more peaceful colleagues , his own paper was put into their hands at one ofthe interviews , and read aloud by one of them , in Keying's presence . Keying took the discovery with coolness ; but it produced its effect in bringing the other commissioners to submission , and in iving them a reason for requesting that Keyingwho was

g , naturally viewed by them with jealous } ' , should be recalled : —¦ " While Hivashana was raiding this production , his attention was more particularly directed to th ; ..-e passages which discuss so elaborately the various descriptions of ' stratagem' ivhich Keying was in the habit of resorting to , in order : to keep the Imrbarians in hand . ' "

Ivor was his chuckle upon our gullibility with reference to the Imperial autograph lost upon us . " Hivashana and Kweiliang looked somewhat abashed when they had concluded this dissertation upon the 'blindly unintelligent' race of barbarians with whom they were at that moment negotiating ; and Keying requested to be allowed to see the paper , for the quiet perusal of which he retired into a corner . Meanwhile our envoys informed the Imperial Commissioners that the best of establishing confidence

way in Lord Elgin ' s mind , with reference to their good faith , was to send iu at once the letter containing the propositions originally agreed upon , as the base of negotiations . They further stated their intention of waiting in the yaimm until it was signed aud sealed , which they accordingly did ; and it was not until ten p . jt ., that they finally took leave , with the precious document , signed by Kweiliang , Hwashana , and Keying , in their possession . It was doubtless iu allusion to this communication that Keying states , in the memorial to tho Emperor containing his

defence , that when , after consultation with Kweiliang , Hwashana , it was agreed that a despatch should be written , ' they wept together beneath the window ; they knew not in the morning that they should not die by night . '"

But the result was fatal to poor Keying . He bad been " lifted up for bis disgrace , " and sent to Tientsin—probably , Mr . Oliphaut thinks , by the craft of enemies , bent on finding in his promotion an occasion for his ruin—with instructions to remain there , and " take counsel with himself ; " not necessarily " associating himself with the other commissioners , nor bound by forms in any way , to the end that he might follow up any step of theirs by thc

measures his own policy might require . " But Keying ivas old , and lost courage ; and , iu . violation of these orders he desertect his post and returned to Pekin . " If Keying had any conscience , ivould the sweat have flowed down his back or not ? " asks his indignant master , in' the elaborate judgment occasioned by this step . Keying ' s crime was examined and doomed . "He treated , " says tho emperor , " our commands as a thing of course to be

dispensed with . Full of intrigue , bent on deceit , could a hundred voices excuse him from immediate annihilation ?"—an expression , it is noted , which ivould involve his family in his destruction . But the emperor is merciful , and is perplexed about Keying's punishment . That proposed by his judges , of immediate execution , appears to him too severe . Then the remark in one memorial , that " if left for some months he might die a natural death ,

and so escape with his head" —a proposal illustrated by the state of Yeh ' s prisons of Canton— "is even more out of order . Such words belong to sentences passed on robbers ; they could not , without serious impropriety , be applied to Kej'ing . " So the

imperial resolve is announced m these words : — " We have bestowed great attention [ upon his case ] for several days , seeking to spare his life ; but indeed it is impossible ; and were we to reserve him , as Yih Su and his colleagues propose , for the Great Assize , then certainly to suffer , wo feel that [ when thc time came ] we could not endure to leave him in the market place . In this dilemma , haying given all our thought to a due appreciation of the facts and a just apportionment of the laivwe command . linshausenior tsung-ehingand

, , , Mien Hiun , senior Isuug-jin , of the Imperial Clan Court , with Linkwei , President of the Board oil Punishments , to go at once to the empty house of the Clan Court , and having desired Keying to read [ this ] onr autograph decree , to inform him that it is our will that he put an end to himself ; that our extreme desire to be at once just and gracious be made manifest . . Respect this !" And , accordingly , " we were informed , " says Mr . Oliphaut ,

" on good authority , before leaving Tientsin , that Keying hail drunk a cup of poison in the presence of thc imperial officer nominated to enforce" the sentence . Mr . Oli phaut also gives us a good insight into the nature of Chinese authority , which gives the key to the policy of the Earl of Elgin , whose plan appeared to have been aimed at proceeding to head quarters and treating onlwith the very hihest

y g per sonages , in the state . As a clear and lucid summary of the political state of the Chinese and the working of the executive , take the following remarks : — ' ¦ ' Any person who has attentively observed the working of the anomalous and altogether unique system under which the vast empire of China

is governed , will have perceived that , though ruling under altogether different conditions , supported not by physical force , but by a moral prestige unrivalled in power and extent , the Emperor of China can say , with no less truth than Napoleon (?) ' 'LEmpire (?) c ' est moi . ' Backed by no standing army worth the name , depending for the stability of his authority neither upon his military genius nor administrative capacity , he exercises a rule more absolute than any European despot , and is enabled to thrill with his touch the remotest provinces of the empire ,

deriving his ability to do so from that 'instinct of cohesion and love of order by which his subjects are super-emineiitly characterised . "But while it happens that the wonderful endurance of a Chinaman will enable him to bear an amount of injustice from his Government which would revolutionise a Western State , it is no less true that the limits may be passed , when a popular movement ensues , assuming at times an almost constitutional character . When an entente of this kind takes pjlace , as directed against a local official , the Imperial Government

invariably espouses the popular cause , and the individual whose guilt is inferred from the existence of disturbance , is at once degraded . Thus a certain sympathy or tacit understanding seems to exist between the Emperor and his subjects as to how far each may push their prerogative ; and so long as neither exceed these limits , to use their own expression , - the wheels of the chariot of Imperial Government revolve smoothly on their axles . " So it happens that disturbances of greater or less import are constantloccurring in various part of the country . Sometimes they

y assume the most formidable dimensions , and spread like a running fire through the empire ; but if they are not founded on a real grievance , they are not supported Ijy popular sympathy , and gradually die out , the smouldering embers kept alive , perhaps , for some time , by the exertions of the more lawless part of the community . But the last spark ultimately expires , and its blackened trace is in a few years utterly effaced .

"The late rebellion is in this waning stage . Nor did tho Imperial Government trust so much to its armies as to the inert mass of public opinion , whicli had not yet decided in its favour . So long as the capital is not threatened , and the lives ( if , ; the powers that are "there are not in absolute danger , they contemplate with comparative calmness the vicissitudes through which remote ci ties and provinces pass , contented to wait until the agitation shall have subsided , and then resume tho old despotic sway , as though nothing had happened . It affects their repose

but little at the capital whether rebel or foreigner occupy some distant city . Tho patriotism of the loyal part of the population is evoked by imperial decree ; whether the people obediently respond , and are successful , or whether they are unsuccessful , or whether thoy disobediently refuse , is a matter which seems but little to disturb the philosophers of Pekin . Hither the imperial authority exists absolutely , or it has been entirely extinguished . In the latter case , unprovided with adequate physical means to restore itthe Emperor is forced into a fatalistic view

, of the subject . " Having in onr last volume ( p . 93 ) given a notice of Captain Osborn's Cruise in Japanese M ' aters , we shall not follow Mr . Oliphaut to that country , although his description abounds in interest and adds considerably to our store of knowledge respecting one of the most extraordinary peoples in the world . From the extracts ive have given above , and our general condensation

of Mr . Oliphant ' s Narrative uf the Earl of Flgin ' s Mission lo China and Japan , our readers will agree with us in the main , that the celestials , with their etiquette , double dealing , quaint customs , and peculiar form of government , are subjects well worthy of being studied , both for instruction and amusement , and that Mr . Oliphaut has produced an excellent book for our guidance , and a faithful record of our dealings with such a curious nation .

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE AND AUT . A XEW work is just ready from the pen of Mr . T . Lowe , a medical officer of the Madras Sappers and Miners , descriptive of a section of the repression of the Indian mutinies , to which justice has scarcely been done . It will be entitled "Central India in 1857 and ! 858 , including Generals Rose and Stuart ' s Campaigns . "

One of the most marked successes of a solid book on a subject special perhaps rather than general in its interest is that of "' J'he Leaders of the llofonnation" by Or . Tnllocb , Principal and Piofossorof Theology , St . Mary ' s College , University of St . Andrews . tier Majesty has accepted the dedication of Mr . T . W . Atkinson ' s new work , '' Travels in the 'Regions of the Upper Amoor "—regions on ivhich the recent acquisitions of Russia in that quarter bestow peculiar

importance . Mr . Atkinson was the author of the elaborate and interesting work on "Oriental and Western Siberia , " published a few years ago . " Wo understand , " says , the Court News , " that Lord Talbot do Malahide is engaged upon an antiquarian wivk , to be privately printed , entitled " A Monograph of the Talbot Family , " something upon the plan of Lord Lindsay ' s '' Lives of the Lindsays . " We have also heard that Mr . C . K . Cockerell , R . A ., has nearly completed his elaborate account of the excavations which he carried out at .. Egina in 1810-11 , together