Ir we were anxious to trumpet forth progress in China, we might find a better theme than even Mr. Burliv-; game or the Pall Mall Gazette have done, iv the undoubted change which has taken place in public, or rathuc official, opinion, as regards the status of those engaged in mechanical arts. It is not many years since, when an arsenal was proposed to the Chinese Government, no civil mandarin or literary student could be found to condescend to connection with it, and the post of director had to be conferred on the' despised class known as military mandarins. By degrees, this feeling of degradation seems to have given way and now the position of mandarin superintendent of an arsenal has become high civil appointment, and in many cases a stepping stone to the highest and most lucrative posts in the empire, It is never held by an officer under the rank of Taotai, and it seems now to be looked upon as the precursor to the Taotaiship of one of the treaty ports. The present Taotai at Kiukiang owes his appointment to his having previously been mandarin-superintendent of the Vientsin Arsenal; a short time ago Wu 'Tajen was taken from the same establishment to be made Taotai at Tientsin and but the other day Feng was promoted from the Arsenal here to fill the position of Taotai of Shanghai, an' appointment against which the most enterprising scholars of the Empire put a red mark, and which they keep constantly in view as an object to be aimed at, and, if possible, secured.
Though it is gratifying to see the Chinese recognising the importance, nay the necessity, of having men of culture and position in such situations, and sensible enough to break down the absurd prejudices which led them to depreciate the useful class of the artisan, it is to be regretted that they cannot find some means of rewarding mandarins who have distinguished themselves in charge of Arsenals, without removing them to other stations for which they may have no official aptitude. It is an easy task to find a mandarin capable of discharging the duties of Taotai at Shanghai. It is a difficult one, amongst the i literati of China, to discover titude for the post from which Feng Yajen has just been removed. So many years in the life of an able and energetic man like Feng, cannot have been passed without his accumulating a stock of experience valuable to the Government, in its endeavours to place the country in a state of defence sufficient to prevent another such humiliation as it lately received at the hands of Japan. While, therefore, congratulating the present Taotai_on his promotion, those friends of who would like to see her becoming a strong power, cannot but regret that the Government has had to throw away the experience gained by bim during his connection with the Arsenal, for lack of means of rewarding him in the field in which he acquired his honours, Another loss which we regret to hear the Arsenals are likely to suffer, is the retirement of Dr. Macartney, now superintending the Arsenalat Nanking. Mr. Seward, in a dispatch addressed to Mr. Fish, Minister for Foreign Affairs at Washington, a short time ago, declared it to be a fact within his own knowledge that Li Hung-chang vas beginning to sink under the worry which opposition to his measures and ameliorations had created. Some such feeling is said to influence his protege at Nanking, in wishing to retire from the Imperial service. It is well known that, for some time past, but more especially since the discharge of the foreign staff serving under M. Gigquel at Foochow, there has been a growing disposition amongst the mandarin class to show themselves, as they imagine, independent of Foreign assistance. When dictated
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.