GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 419 



cant about him. Knowing that his country retains the commercial scepter 

 of the world with a failing hand, he would keep China alive so as not to 

 lose a purchaser. His position does not differ from that of any other 

 commercial traveler, except that the commercial house he represents is 

 the British empire, and that the wares which he would press into the 

 market are whatever that empire produces. For the fall of China, now 

 perhaps inevitable, but which once might have been avoided, he holds 

 the inefficient foreign policy of the British government responsible. 

 Meanwhile he forgets or ignores the fact that to China's territorial integ- 

 rity, to the physical welfare of its people, and to the authority of its gov- 

 ernment more staggering blows have been dealt by Great Britain than by 

 any other country. An ardent advocate of an Anglo-American alliance, 

 he insists that " the interests of the United States and Great Britain are 

 absolutely identical." He does notfear Russia, but he reveals an awesome 

 consciousness of Russia's existence. He suggests in his first interview 

 with Chinese authorities "that the British government would allow an 

 officer to help the Chinese to put their army in order." When shortly 

 afterward asked " whether, if China put the whole of her armies under 

 British officers, Great Britain would assist China in any quarrel that 

 might arise between her and any other power," he remarked that he 

 " would not enter into any political questions, but that the last thing Great 

 Britain wanted to do was to mix herself up in quarrels which might 

 arise between other countries." It is not strange that " the idea is gain- 

 ing ground all over China that Great Britain is afraid of Russia." 



The disintegration of an empire containing 400,000,000 people, and 

 yet powerless to protect itself, is an astounding spectacle, unparalleled in 

 history. Yet such impotence is an argument against its political contin- 

 uance. It is difficult to doubt that the break-up of China will advance 

 civilization and even benefit the fragments into which the empire breaks. 



Edwin A. Grosvenok. 



Amherst College. 



Les Lacs Francais. By Andre Delebecqu,e, etc. With portfolio atlas 

 containing plates i-xi. 4°, pp. xii -f- 436, pis. xxii. Paris : Typo- 

 graphic Chamerot et Renouard. 1898. 

 This is an imposing and exceedingly rich repository of information 

 concerning the lakes of France in their principal aspects. Beginning 

 with a lively preface, in which he emphasizes the declaration that there 

 <ne lakes in France, the author proceeds in the first chapter to classify 

 tlit- water bodies by the natural provinces in which they occur, including 

 the Alps, the Jura, the Vosges, the Central plateau, the Pyrenees, and 

 tlic Atlantic and Mediterranean littorals. The second chapter recounts 

 the processes of sounding with the apparatus employed, and sets forth 

 the results which are shown in greater detail in the accompanying atlas, 

 while the third chapter is a detailed description of the more noteworthy 

 lakes. Then follows a chapter on the lacustrine topography, including 

 shores, bottoms, islands, taluses, fans and deltas, submerged ravines, 

 etc.. and another on thelacustral sediments and other constituents of the 

 lake basins. The next chapter is devoted to supply, discharge, evapora- 

 fcion, and changes in level of the lakes, and still another to temperature, 



