REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 277 



The graphs are well made, the method is clearly set forth, and the 

 topics are well selected in view of the special object of the enquiry. 



The last hundred pages are appendices containing tables of statis- 

 tics, clippings, source materials of various kinds, regulations, etc. 

 that supplement the data embodied in the text. A good workable 

 index enriches the volume. 



Taking the work as a whole, a patient reader will find much 

 of interest, because he will see Peking as he never saw it before ; 

 a literary style, sacrificed somewhat for a handbook presentation 

 of findings ; but hardly a model for a social survey. This the authors 

 themselves freely admit pleading their limitations : we would hesitat- 

 ingly suggest a plea of inadequate objective as well. 



Nevertheless, in trying to stimulate surveys in China and in 

 attempting to arouse certain social forces that may make for recon- 

 struction, the authors have produced a work which no one interested 

 in social progress can fail to possess. D. H. K. 



A Diplomat in Japan. The inner history of the critical years in the 

 evolution of Japan, when the ports were opened and the mon- 

 archy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active 

 part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal 

 experiences during that period, by the Right Honorable Sir 

 Ernest Satow, g.c.m.g., ll.d., d.c.l. 



In this interesting record a mature mind and seasoned diplomat 

 describes a period of his early service when the bouyancy of youth 

 and the glamor of adventure were coupled with the ambition to 

 serve his country and to add to her prestige in international affairs. 

 It covers the period from November 1861, when he secured appoint- 

 ment as Student Interpreter of the British Legation to Japan, to 

 February, 1869, when his first home leave occurred. The daily journal 

 of the author and his home letters are the material of the book. 

 The manuscript was prepared just after the termination in 1882 of 

 his service as Japanese Secretary of the British Legation, and then 

 laid aside with no thought of publication, until 1919. Then, as a 

 result of the great interest in Anglo-Japanese relations, younger 

 members of his family induced him to complete the story of the 

 period when these relations began. A double interest is given by 

 the fact that this period was also the one in which the direct rule 

 of Japan was restored to the ancient line of sovereigns which had 

 been in abeyance for over six hundred years. 



