country,* points out elsewhere that none of the English projects for railroad communication direct between India and China can afford any such success as has been imagined on account of the distance they must traverse before the really productive territory of China would be reached, and the vast engineering difficulties of the way. "The nearest town," he says, "situated in the plain of China, is I-chang-fu, on the Yang-tse, and the distance between that point and either Sudiya or Bhamo is as great as that from Berlin to Constantinople, while the intervening country is so mountainous that half a dozen St. Gothard tunnels would have to be pierced, to say nothing of other physical difficulties." He affirms that the

great open way, starting from Signan-fu, in the province of Shen-Si, out through Kansuh into Central Asia, which has been for centuries considered by the Chinese emperors a channel of access and egress of the highest military importance, and on which wagons are now easily used, is the one profitable way of railroad intercourse between the fertile sections of China and other Asiatic countries. A good portion of the region is productive, and it abounds in deposits of coal. We have no space for quotation, but suggest that a perusal of the article referred to, which in a rather negative way illustrates our theme, would well repay the reader. A railroad in that direction, however, if other than Chinese, must be a Russian one. When China gets ready for the great modern instrument of inland commerce and civilization, England, if true to her former history, will not be deterred by any thing but a physical impossibility from pushing in on her side.

From this digression we return to Burmah. We are not concerned with the railroad schemes proposing to connect that country with India, and thus divert to Calcutta the trade which now goes to Rangoon by the Irrawaddy. We have in view the connection of Burmah with China; and here take notice of the attention which the English have given to the old historical trade route with China having its terminus at Bhamo. This

* "China: Ergebnisse Eigener Reissen und darauf gegründeten Studien." Von Ferdinand Freiherr von Richtoven. 3 vols., 4to. Berlin: Verlag von Diedrich Reimer. 1877-1883.

+ Markham's "Geographical Magazine," July, 1874, article, "Land Communica tion between Europe and China."

town of native Burmah is situated on the Irrawaddy, some 800 miles from the sea, where the river has a breadth of one mile and a half, and is navigable for steamers, which it is thought might go 150 miles farther. Bhamo, according to a description of ten years ago, is a narrow town, about one mile in length, of 500 houses with 2,500 inhabitants, who, except the Chinese merchants, are Burmese Shans. The merchants are connected with those of the same nationality in the hill-towns of Yunnan. They control the cotton market, and sell also Chinese yarns, silk and silk fabrics, tea, opium, Yunnan potatoes, some metals, drugs, and fruits brought from and through Yunnan. The caravans take in return into China raw cotton, ivory, and wax, rhinoceros' and deers' horns, peacocks' feathers, precious stones, Manchester goods, and a few other small foreign articles. A stockade then surrounded the town as a defense against the incursions of the Kakhyens.* This semi-savage race, though largely spread over the plain, inhabit the hills some twenty-five miles to the east, 5,000 to 6,000 feet in height, which form the border of Yunnan. The Shwaylee River separates these hills from another range eastward, and flows into the Irrawaddy about forty miles in a direct line south of Bhamo, offering, it has been said, a way into Yunnan more capable of improvement and development than any other in these parts. The Taping, flowing down from the Kakhyen hills, enters the Irrawaddy a mile above Bhamo, and the paths followed by traders lead on both sides of it. There is a way of trade with Yunnan by Theinee, on the more casterly range of mountains, but in point of facility the Bhamo route seems to have been for centuries regarded as superior. We have itineraries of Burmese embassies to Peking by this route, the distance being given at 1,745 miles, accomplished in 121 days. The English took an early interest in this trade route. With the Dutch, they had a factory at old Bhamo (some distance from the present town up the Taping) as early as 1658, and still earlier, establishments at Prome and

*In the prevailing disturbed state of the country Bhamo was assaulted and captured by a body of Chinese and Kakhyens on December 8, 1884, the English (China Inland) and American (Baptist) missionaries barely escaping with their lives, and so far as appears at the present writing, it is still held by them. The political future of Upper Burmah is uncertain, but it is hardly probable that the course of trade will be long interrupted. The intervention of British power in those parts seems called for in the interest of humanity.

Ava, being driven out by the wars between Burmah and China. Political circumstances have favored or restricted intercourse. In 1854, before the outbreak of the Mohammedan rebellion in Yunnan, the trade of Bhamo amounted to half a million sterling. The British obtained, in the treaty of 1862 with the native Burmese government, a provision that trade in and through Upper Burmah should be freely thrown open to British enterprise, and direct trade with China be relieved of burdensome duties. As the first political step toward securing the advantages of this treaty, at the instance of Gen. Albert Fytche, then Chief Commissioner of British Burmah, the expedition of 1868, under Major E. B. Sladen, a very judicious officer, was fitted out with due escort, to journey from Bhamo into Yunnan and discover the cause of the cessation of trade, the disposition of the Panthays (or Mohammedans), the Shans, and the Kakhyens towards commercial intercourse, and to report on the resources and character of the country. Dr. Anderson, professor in the Medical College of Calcutta was the scientific officer of the expedition, of which he has published a full account.* Though favorably received by the Mohammedan population, they penetrated no farther than to Momien, a Chinese town at 5,000 feet elevation and 135 miles from Bhamo, being, on account of the opposition of the Chinese and the generally disturbed state of the country, obliged to return. In 1874, the rebellion having been generally subdued, another expedition under Col. Horace Browne was sent forward. Dr. Anderson held the same position as before, and records the result in a second volume.t To make it plain to the mandarins that these Englishmen were of the same nation and interest as those of the eastern ports, and to provide an interpreter, Augustus R. Margary, the young and talented consul at Shanghai, was commissioned to proceed west and join the company. He reached Bhamo before the

*"Report on the Expedition to Yunnan via Blamo." By John Anderson, M.D., Medical Officer and Naturalist to the Expedition. 8vo. Calcutta: Office Superintendent of Government Printing. 1871.

"Mandalay to Momien." A Narrative of the Two Expeditions to Western China of 1868 and 1875 under Cols. E. B. Sladen and Horace Browne. With Maps and Illustrations. By John Anderson, M.D., Curator of the Imperial Museum, etc. London: Macmillan & Co.

1876.

"The Journey of Augustus Raymond Margary from Shanghai to Bhamo and back to Manwyne." From his Journals and Letters, with a brief Biographical 36-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. I.

expedition set out, which it did February 5, 1875. But the Chinese were jealous, owing to different causes, and gave token of hostile feeling. It was probably by one of the wild bands under Li-sieh-tai (or "Brigadier" Li), a rebel chief pardoned and intrusted with military command, that Margary was murdered, February 21, at Manwyne, whither he had gone forward to negotiate. The whole party was attacked, and returned to Burmah.

At Peking, Sir Thomas Wade, the British minister, demanded an investigation and passports for a new mission, which was accordingly dispatched from Hankow, March 5, 1875, under Hon. T. G. Grosvenor. Mr. E. Colborne Baber, a member of the party and an observer of recognized ability, has made a particular report of that portion of the route in Yunnan, through Yunnan-fu, Tali-fu, and Momien to Bhamo, which had not been previously detailed.* This investigation, which fixed the probability of guilt upon the Chinese authorities of the province, resulted in the convention of 1876, according to which, with an indemnity and other concessions, a proclamation was to be posted in all the towns and cities of the empire placing foreign travelers under the protection of the emperor. Capt. Gill, who traveled in Yunnan in 1879,† found this proclamation, or convention, effectual. He says: "On the whole, there can be no doubt that the central government of Peking wields a potent sway even in these distant provinces. It is due to the Che-foo Convention, to Sir Thomas Wade's administration, that Englishmen may travel with comfort throughout this vast empire."

Preface, to which is added a concluding chapter by Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B. Portrait and Route Map. 8vo. London: Macmillan & Co. 1876.

*See "Travels and Researches in Western China." By E. Colborne Baber. From Supplementary Papers of the Royal Geographical Society. 8vo. London: John Murray, 1882. The paper referred to is No. III: also issued separately as Parliamentary Blue Book, China No. 3 (1878).

The River of Golden Sand." The narrative of a Journey through China and Eastern Thibet to Burmah, with Illustrations and Ten Maps from the Original Survey. By Capt. William Gill, Royal Engineer: with an Introductory Essay by Col. Henry Yule, C.B.R.E. Two vols., 8vo. London: John Murray, 1880.

ART. V.-THE LAST TESTIMONY TO THE ATONEMENT. Ir we glance rapidly through the five chapters of St. John's first epistle, in which, probably, we have the final document of revelation, we find that in each of the first two and the last two there is a distinct statement or definition of the atoning work, while in the middle one there are three. Thus there are seven clear testimonies, independent and emphatic: a larger number, it need hardly be said, than can be found anywhere else within the same space, and running through the whole as its "bond of perfectness." Then it will not require any artifice or pressure to make these manifold testimonies deliver one evidence to one truth; in other words, to show that the epistle is a prism which gives all the several colors that make up the one uncolored light of our redemption. On the other hand, it will not be a difficult task to show that each one of these testimonies is really distinct from every other; and not only so, but distinct from all others in the Scripture: in fact, that we have here seven absolutely unique presentations of the doctrine, which is, notwithstanding, the very "same that we had from the beginning." Again, it will appear that, while some of the current definitions and illustrations of the atonement are absent so far as concerns the word and expression, not one is really unrepresented in deed and in truth. And, finally, it will not escape notice that the several testimonies which the last apostle lays down have more or less the nature of apologetic protests, providing against errors already commencing and certain in future times more distinctly to appear. All these several points of interest we must try to keep in view while discussing the series of passages in their order.

I. The first allusion enters as soon as it possibly could. After St. John has paid his tribute to the great manifestation of the personal Word he introduces the substance of the evangelical record, that Christians have fellowship in the light of God. This is the positive side of their high privilege; but it demands the negative: "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth from all sin." We need not pause to consider more carefully the connection between the two: suffice that they are counterparts, and teach when united that whatever impurity or stain the