Tr we were called on to note the feature of the Chinese Government most prejudicial to all prospect of progress, we should feel disposed to name the opposition offered to private enterprise of every form, and the desire on the part of the administrators of the Government to take all things into their own hands. It is well known that one of the most efficient causes which led up to the French Revolution, was the evil influence of the farmers of the revenue. Practically irresponsible, they pounced down upon every private indivi whose energy or capacity for bu had placed him in a better position than his neighbours; with the result that wealth, in place of being " thing to be displayed, and made uso of for the general benefit of the community, became a matter of mere hoarding. In much the same manner in China, wealth is a thing to be concealed, rather than made a parade of; no legitimate field is open for its profitable use, and the man who has by his industry acquired @ competency, unless he happen to belong to the favoured class of the Mandarins, finds himself exposed to exactions and requisition of every: possible nature. Few men in China are found to invest their savings in any permanent manner. There are no openings for the rational employment of wealth, and if it so happen that a man does lay up a store of riches for his descendants, it almost invariably "happens that between the greediness of irresponsible officials and the want of a way of making a sensible use of it, a few years are sufficient to disperse the patrimony laid up with the care and anxiety of life-time. It is thus that the heir in China almost invariably turns out a prodigal, and that in but few cases does the career of the son bear out the prospects of the father. Naturally, we believe the Chinese to be a people willing to engage in industrial enterprise. Eleewhere than in China we find them as owners of steamboats, and interested in machinery and manufactures. In China, lone, the Chinese are found dragging behind the time, and apparently holding sullenly aloof from any signs of progress. The reason is to be sought in the jealous and exacting nature of the Government, which for its own selfish ends steadily secks to stifle all signs of energy on the part of private individuals. We have before alluded to the position held by the Government, or what in China is much the same, the individuals who collectively form the Government, with regard to coal mining,-and that pseudo-commercial enterprise the China Merchants' Steamer Ca. The anxiety displayed by certain individuals near the seat of power to gain possession of the Woosung Railway, is only another case in point. Economically speaking, there can be no good reason why such things should not be left to private enterprise. There is much private capital in China seeking an outlet; but all outlet is denied it by the fear that when the undertaking to which it is intended to be applied is got into working order, the myrmidons of government, or rather of the taxing class, will pounce down upon it, to the probable rain, and certain loss, of its promoters. We have before this pointed out the curious fact that the Chinese mercantile flag does not fly on a single vessel owned by a merchant; and that the quasi company of merchants is really an association of mon of sufficient political power to crash private come i petition. Railways in the hands of the same clique would, we may be sure, be made use of solely for class ends, and the good to be derived by their presence would be strained through so many obstructions that it is very doubtful if avy of it would survive the trial. Th is not what we would feel at all dis. posed to call progress in China. The strengthening of the bands of a class, and that class the most bitterly op. posed by all the prejudices of education and position, to all progress for progress' sake, would scarcely be a worthy conclusion to the long drawn negotiations of the past year. Yet rumour has it that Li Hung.chang has been successful in negotiating for the purchase of the Woosung railway, and with the railway, we would suggest, all prospect of fature advancement in the came direction. Doubtless that little line will be permitted to remain open to Woosung; perhaps, as report says, the sale is accompanied with a pro extend it to Soochow; but in either case taken to prevent the natural develop. we cannot but fear that means will be
ment which the introduction of increased facilities for intercommunication would naturally being in its train. The railway, like the arsenals, may be made the means for still farther strengthening the yoke of the few on the necks of the ud the progress of events for the last ten years points to this as the main reason for the anxiety of Li Hung. chang to gain possession of the little thing, whose working between and Woosung has temporarily j i been stopped, for reasons incompresensible to the ordinary outsider. We have before deprecated the attempted purchase of the line by the Chinese Government; the measure is diametically opposed to the true interests of the country, as well as of those connected with it by commercial ties, The Government of China can employ its power better, not in assisting pri-vote enterprise, but in taking measures by the remedy of present abuses to render private enterprise possible, REVIEW, Eanty Max iw Europe, By CuAi Shatighals Kelly 6 York; Harper, 1876, aah.
This book, which we have read with more, than common interest and profit, does not pie to contain any original information, brings together in a cheap and convenient form the results of the investigations carried on in all parts of Europe ducing the last thirty-five years, with His work is model of plain narration, pictures, saved from actual baldness by the skilful grouping of facts, ae well as by the i importance of the facts themselves does not touch upon evolution doctrines, so that the most orthodox reader need not fear to be shocked by tions as to whence we came. All that is to be found the book deals with the question of the ner how, our gare historic history" of man conin the interpretation of relics, relics are of two kinds. They are either human remains or evidences of human industry; or both may be found in conjunction. For reasons not fully determine relicsof human industry stand earliest in the evidences of man's existence on the globe, They are also the most widely distributed, occurring all over the world, and establial ing the one general proposition that each ce at a certain period of its own history passed or is passing through a tage of tion in which metale are wu known, the ago of any wasigne ind fa drawa from the depth at which It is found, from the secular elevations and depressions to which its containing has been subjected, and from the fow flora by of the climate prevailing at th deposit, the climatic conditions determinable by of glacial action either conte with or subsequent to th it in fully established that human beings were in existence between the last two Europe, and were con-h, amongst other long the mammoth or wool, Me lion, ition in geologic time, Th are faint traces of his presence in the tertiary deposits, but ternary contain his relics in relate und: time which hi extant specime behind is less trustworthy: present rate of deposi the rate of growth of the calcareous rate of incre Poematica of peat in the regions where
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.