A caus review of the situation in China, and of the state of affairs in Asiatic Turkey, will show important points of similarity and give us very instructive information as to the possible advantages and drawbacks which will attend the new attitude assumed by Great Britain with regard to the historic and interesting countries with which the protectorate will interweave our destiny. To begin by clearly stating the position of China. We all know that we have to deal with a large productive territory which has one enemy, and one only, viz. a corrupt and exacting Government. Though in theory the Imperial sway may be defended, in actual fact it is about as bad a form of administration as it is possible to imagine. We conceive that the rule of the Sultan in Asia Minor is very like that of the Chinese Mandarinate. Both are benignant and intelligent compared with the crippling and blighting power of Persia, but neither are favourable to the development of national life or to the expansion of material resources. And the point with which we are at present concerned is that in China since the Treaty of Tien-tin the Powers of Europe have been engaged in attempts similar to those which have employed their attention in Turkey and its dependencies. We mean that they have attempted to bring the Asiatics under state of tutelage, which shall teach them the means of material improvement and guide them in the paths of civilization and Europeanized progress. But, by general confession, we must admit that the results have been unsatisfactory, and the progress spasmodic and dubious. The ineffective results may be traced in China and in Turkey to one cause and to one cause only, viz., that the various Western Governments have had con-fioting interests and diverse objects of pursuit, and that astute Orientals, Mandarins at Peking and Pachas at Constantinople, have plotted and counterplotted to set the objectionable and intrusive Western Powers at variance, and have defeated the great objects which those Powers had in view. The reason is that "what hes been everybody's business has been nobody's business." The various Powers, whose plenipotentiaries signed the Treaty of Paris and the Treaty of Tientsin, have bad jealousies, and, besides, no one of them has had an overpowering acknowledged obligation to insist' on the reforms which it would have been the trae interest of all to see carried out effectually. If one of the Powers bad been made responsible for the porformance of the reform browises entered into after the Crimean war, Turkey would have been spared a ghastly conflict, and would not have bad to give up so much territory. If one of the Powers had been made responsible for carrying out the reformatory measures which all hoped for from the Chinese Government after the capture of Peking, we should have had railroads all over the Empire, an efficient system of coinage, and comparatively pure judicial tribunals, One of the great problems of the present day is the course which European Governments are to adopt with regard to Asiatic nations. We conscientiously believe that the right note has been struck in the recent much abused Anglo-Turkish Convention. The past is a record of failures and shortcomings, and we cohesive that now there is a chance of a new point of departure. The problem is, when simply stated, this:—Given a large wealthy country wholly neglected and ruined by bad government, with a soil which produces little or nothing and a population sank in idleness and immorality. Such a country is a blot on the face of the Earth and a source of untold corruption and misery to all the States which border upon it. Some outrage of exceptional violence or some sudden contact with the interests of neighbouring States brings the condi. tion of this country to European notice. What are the civilized Governments todo? Hitherto, the course of procedure has been for one strong and ambitious country to invade the misgoverned realm and to try and absorb it. Then the rival Powers have stepped in, and after the invader has been paid by obtaining a portion of the territory, there has been a "ce-operative" policy adopted. That is to say, for the word has two meanings. The different European nations have ce-operated with the crippled Asiatic country, and helped her, and have professed to. ce-operate with each other in the work. The results have been heart-burnings and rancours between the tutelary. Powers, and the relapse of the protected country into a state of apathetic indifference, Té has been a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Henceforth, how. over, there may be a botter order of things, for one Power will be respon. sible for the improvement of the ill-governed region, It is an experiment, and, if successful, will begin a new and happier era for East and West,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.