ART. I.-1. Japan; an Account, Geographical and Historical, ... ... ... II.-1. Wellingtoniana: Anecdotes, Maxims, and Opinions 2. Memoir of the Duke of Wellington. 16mo. London: 3. Life of Arthur, Duke of Wellington. By SIR JAMES 4. Life of the Duke of Wellington. By J. II. Maxwell. 5. Historia del Levantamiento, Guerra, y Revolucion PAGE 269 6. Life of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington. By J. H. STOCQUELER, Esq. Illustrated London Library. 293 III.-Les Economistes, les Socialistes, et le Christianisme. Par CHARLES PERIN. Professeur de droit public et ... IV.-1. Le Ver Rongeur des Sociétés Modernes; ou le 2. Recherches Historiques sur les Etudes littéraires du 3. Des Etudes Classiques et des Etudes Professionelles. ... ... 303 321 ᎪᎡᎢ . 3. Erindringer fra en Reise til Shetlandsöerne, Orken- ... VI—1. ΩΡΙΓΕΝΟΥΣ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΟΥΜΕΝΑ: ή Κάτα Πάσων PAGE 336 2. Hippolytus and his Age; or the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome under Commodus and Alexander Severus; and Ancient and Modern Christianity and Divinity Compared. By CHRISTIAN CHARLES JOSIAS BUNSEN, D.C.L. 4 vols. 8vo. London: Longmans, 1852. 365 VII.-History of Europe, from the fall of Napoleon, in 1815, down to the accession of Louis Napoleon, 1852, by ARCHIBALD ALISON, BART., vol. i. W. Blackwood and Son, Edinburgh and London, 1852. ... ... ... ... VIII. Lettres et Opuscules inédits du Comte Joseph de ... ... ... ... IX. 1. Nunneries. A Lecture delivered in the Assembly 2. Convents or Nunneries. A. Lecture in Reply to Car- ... ... 408 418 467 Notices of Books ... ... ... 526 THE DUBLIN REVIEW. SEPTEMBER, 1852. ART. I.-1. Voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet, et la Chine, 1844-46. Par le PERE HUC; 2 vols. 8vo., Paris, 1850. 2. Travels in Tartary, Tibet, and China, during the years 1844-5-6. By M. Huc. Translated from the French by W. Hazlitt, 2 vols, 8vo. (Illustrated Library.) Loudon, 1852. 3. Tibet, Tartary, and Mongolia: their social and political Condition, and the Religion of Boodh, as there existing. By Henry T. Prinsep, 8vo. London: Allen and Co., 1851. 4. A Journey to the Tea Countries of China. By Robert Fortune, Author of "Three Years' Wanderings in China." 8vo. London, Murray, 1852. is to the courage and zeal of the early Catholic missionaries in China that we are indebted for almost all that, until its opening to foreign intercourse since the last war, was known of the geography, the social and political condition, the history, and, above all, the religion, of that singular country. Its jealous and exclusive policy had held the curiosity of Europe for ages upon the stretch. Travellers had gone and returned in vain; merchants had employed every device and every allurement of commerce: negociations had been fruitlessly attempted; and, if it were not for the few vague and uncertain traditions derived from the half romantic narratives of medieval travellers, China, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, might be called a complete blank upon the map of nations. But when, on a sudden, the mysterious veil was lifted at last, the revelation was as complete as it was VOL. XXXIII.-No. LXV. 1 unhoped and unexpected. What the energy of science, the enterprise of commerce, and the craft of diplomacy, with all their appliances and means, had attempted in vain, was rapidly and successfully achieved by the persevering simplicity of a few high-souled men, animated by the inspiriting influence of religion. And in the wise and enlightened policy of that great order to which this success is mainly attributable, the mission which carried the light of the Gospel to the vast region from which it had been so long and so jealously shut out, became the medium through which the knowledge of its strange and interesting characteristics was communicated to the West. By the provident and judicious selection of its members, the Jesuit mission in China and its dependencies, combined with its sacred character the functions of one of our modern exploring expeditions. Many of them accomplished historians, naturalists, and philosophers, the early fathers of the society who penetrated into China, employed their hours of leisure from more sacred duties, in collecting information, each in his own department, which they transmitted, as occasion arose, to their brethren in Europe. In this way the great Jesuit houses of France, Italy, and Germany, became like the learned societies of our times. The letters of the missionaries held the place which the reports of the professional modern explorers now occupy; and the savans of the seventeenth century watched the appearance of the Lettres Edifiantes with the same curiosity with which the interesting communications to the Asiatic Society, or the Syro-Egyptian, or the Geographical, are now occasionally regarded. What the Jesuits were to China, the Lazarist missionaries promise to be for Tibet. The "Annals of the Propagation of the Faith" have taken the place of the Lettres Edifiantes. And if the work of Father Huc upon Tibet and Tartary be not as comprehensive and as detailed as that of Père Du Halde on China, it has, from its being entirely a personal narrative, many advantages in point of interest over the vast and elaborate compilation of the Jesuit father, which was drawn exclusively from the letters and reports of his missionary brethren. Père Huc is well known to the readers of the "Annals of the Propagation of the Faith." His interesting letters have long been one of the chief attractions in this most attractive collection, and indeed the most important facts contained in the present work have been anticipated in these communications. But they are here woven into a continuous narrative; for although the work contains a vast amount of most curious and interesting particulars regarding the doctrines, the institutions, and the usages of the Buddhist religion, as it exists in Tartary and Tibet, yet, as the title imports, its direct subject is but the history of a journey undertaken by P. Huc and his fellow-missionary, P. Gabet, from the north-eastern frontier of China to the capital of Tibet, and of their return from that city, after a residence unhappily too short for the accomplishment of all their projects. The occasion of this journey may be briefly explained to have been the formation of the new vicariate apostolic of Mongolia, the vicar apostolic of which had established his residence at Si-Wang, a small Christian village situated north of the Great Wall, one day's journey irom Susu-Hoa-Fou. For some time before the establishment of this vicariate, MM. Huc and Gabet had been preparing themselves by the study of the Tartar dialects, for the work of the Gospel among the nomadic tribes included within its limits; and as, in organizing the new mission, it became necessary, first of all, to ascertain the precise extent and limits of the vicariate, and the character and habits of its inhabitants, these two fathers were naturally selected by their superior for the prosecution of this enquiry. Accordingly, in the latter part of the year 1844, they set out, with a single companion, a young Chinese convert, named Samdadchiemba, with a very scanty supply of money, and utterly unprovided with those appliances of comfort or convenience by which the difficulties of such an expedition might be obviated or diminished. Their journey occupied nearly a year and a half, part of which time, however, was spent in one of the Lamaseries, or Tartar monasteries, which form so curious a feature in the religious system of this strange people. At last, after almost increditable hardships, from fatigue, from scantiness of provisions for themselves, and of water and forage for their cattle, and, above all, from the excessive cold of the high table-lands over which their way lay, they succeeded, at the end of January 1846, in reaching Lla-Ssa, the capital of Tibet. This was the great object of their mission; and they had made all their arrangements for a protracted residence, and for a systematic investigation of the language, the manners, and, above all, the religion of |