ABSTRACT
No richer field for examination is presented to inq uiring men at the present time than China. The barriers of that exclusiveness that have so long hindered the investigations of travellers, and cheeked the progress of Christian missions and of lawful commerce, are now broken down. The Chinese national spirit deliberately placed itself in direct hostility to the introduction of foreign customs and ideas, The great wall that forms the northern boundary of the Empire is the emphatic emblem of this national exclusiveness. It is 80 as much in its failure to attain its 'object as in the idea of its original construction. Several times has a l'artar race broken through that ineffectual barrier, and conquered the country it was intended to defend. The law against the entrance of foreigners and freedom of trade has proved equally useless; and China is now, through its whole extent, with its vast outlying dependencies, open to Europeans.. Theoretically it is so, but practically the city of Lhasa and its vicinity are still bermetically closed to the foreigner.
