Awonosr the terms under which the Chinese made peace with the Japanese, was a stipulation that the former should take over the military roads made by the Japanese during their stay in Formosa, It at once shows the great difference between the two races, that this stay of a few months in the island should have been made use of by the Japanese to open up more perfect means of communication than have been accomplished by the Chinese di ing their occupation of two centuries, To Chinese Governments generally, and that of the present dynasty more especially, roads have been what shepherds wore to the Egyptians—a mere abomination. They are objectionable on two grounds; in the first place they enable people ata distance speedily to communicate, a thing which mandarin jealousy dislikes above all things; and, in the next, they cost, or would cost, were they made, money out of mandarins' pockets. Yet the recommendation of roads to the Chinese is of no recent date, so that ignorance of their beneficial effects cannot be pleaded in extenuation, So long ago as the middle of the sixteenth century, Hai Jin, one of the few statesmen of independent thought, and himself born in Formosa, pointed out to the Chinese Government of the day the proper method of reduc cing to order the savages of Hainan. His remedy would have saved much of the ill-will and bloodshed which have at all times marked the Chinese dominion over alien races. He advised the making of two main roads through the island, crossing one another at right angles, and the establishment at frequent intervals of posts to be occupied by military colonists. The Government of the day had, however, many of the characteristics of that of the present. Mr. Mayers tells us the result of his advice* "With its usual supine. ness and obduracy, however, the Chinese Government refused to inaugurate so active a measure of reform as that proposed for the complete subjugation of the island, and from the days of HaiJui to the present time the interior of Hainan has remained a terra incognito, abandoned exclusively to its savage denizens." Hainan was annexed to the dominions of the Emperor of China 1,984years ago; but so little have success sive Governments proved themselves capable of making themselves respected, that to the present time, asin Formosa, the Chinese settlers are restricted to the coast and a few miles inland. The prospect is not a good one for the more important island. Some months ago it was rumoured that a statesman, or a would-be statesman, of the present day, bad made certain suggestions to the Government at Peking with regard "to the island, which if not as clear and straightforward ~TProceslings of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.