A very important epoch has now arrived in the history of the great calamity in the Northern Provinces of China, and we trust that the stress and urgency of the situation will be appreciated both here and in Europe. There are several points which demand attention.
Ist.—It is clear that, at the moment, the supply of money from England is checked in the midst of its generous flow. For eleven weeks the Shanghai Relief Committee received regularly the sum of one thousand pounds por week, Thus the distributors were kept with money in band, and as long as men were ready to venture forth into the field of benevolent activity, there was no lack of means to enable them to carry on their work efficiently. For the time, we repeat, there is a cessation of remittances from England. Of course, while we are writing, the telegraph may be busy informing us that we have more funds to draw upon; but the first gush of spontaneous has stopped.
On the other band, the charge of apathy against the Chinese Government, made with great freedom and with considerable show of trath at the outset, is now no longer to be urged. The machinery and methods that the Imperial Administrators have at their command, are extremely olamsy and unwieldy. It is impossible to improvise methods which shall suddenly enable a country like China to deal with a giant difficulty like that with which she has to contend, as the British Government was enabled to deal with the kindred visitation in Southern India. We cafinot realise, unless we have actually conversed with persons who have been in Shantung, or Shensi, or Chihli, how absolutely useless the Governmental machinery has proved itself to be in this terrible crisis. Still there is hope uow of some amendment. Every batch of Peking Gazettes which we print, proves that ho Empresses and the High Officials at Peking, as well as the Viceroy of Chibli himself, are in sore perplexity as to the best steps to pursue, and are doing all they possibly can to meet the emergency. Provisions are being poured into the famine-stricken regions, and caravans of carts, camels, and males, laden with rice, block up the passes, and hinder each other in the awkward race to make up for lost time and neglected opportunities. Though, of course, what the Government is doing at the twelfth hour isa mere drop in the ocean compared with what they ought to have done at the outset, and though the visitation which is falling upon the rulers is the punishment and the consequence of their deafness to warning upon warning and remonstrance upon remonstrance; ati), we repeat, allowing for all chis, we must say that the Chinese are now bestirring them. selves in a way which speaks well for them.
8rd.—Thore is a very important consideration left us, and that is that the existence of this calamity reveals the extent of our ignorance of China and the Chinese. In spite of the efforts of Catholic Missionaries, in spite of the labours of Baron Richthofen, Williams, and Williamson—What do we know about Honan for instance? Now what we desire is such ample and accurate information about every province of China as shall enable the philanthropist, the statesman, and the man of Science to approach the problems that exist, and which are presented in all their complication and intricacy by such a calamity as the Famine in the North.
In a carefully written article on Indian Famines, which appeared in the Edinburgh Review, the writer says "Frosh information is being annually collected and published. In every part of the horizon, the veil of ignorance of fact, and consequent incertitude as to action, is being lifted or thrust back and year by year the questions of measures for the improvement of India are passing from the regions of opinion, of doubt, and of controversy, to those illumined by science, and therefore brought within the grasp of the statesman." Bat if we are only now gelting at the true state of affairs in India
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.