Tue railroad is the popular panacea for the ills under which China groans. The misery and min which have resulted from the inefficiency of the roads, arid the unsatisfactory condition of vast provinces, owing to the imperfect means of transport, are so apparent that Europeans interested in the condition and progress of this enormous Empire naturally desire to see the locomotive rushing through Shanse, Shansi and Szechuen, and regard the every hour which defers this happy consummation as an hour lost, We need not say how thoroughly we endorse this view, but at the same time there is a much less obtrusive power which we should like to seo steadily ab work, One of the great requirements of China is an illustrated newspaper. It seems a small thing, but it would produce, unless we are much mistaken, extraordinary results in a short time. The Chinese are very anxious to acquire informa. tion, and their curiosity is very inadequately supplied by the papers now in circulation. They want to see for themselves and to get at the truth about this wonderful outside world which, whenever it comes in contact with their world, exercises such a disturbing influence upon it and creates so much irritation and hubbub, At present " Chinaman, though he is the representative of a nation which professes tv be above everything else literary, has very few books to read. Novels periodically denounced by virtrious Taotais are rend on the sly, but these are poor things not calculated to stimulate the imagination in a healthy direction, There are no native maya-zines which penetrate into the households and afford pleasure and convey information, The hours of the average Chinaman are spent wholly without books or periodicals, and therefore when ho is not buying or selling or sleeping or attending the theatre, he is driven from ennui to opium-smoking as a resort and resource, just as the sailor in Shanghai in former days was driven from lack of rational amusement to the grog shop. We have very great hope that an illustrated paper would produce good effects and be a very widely useful instrament in arousing the native mind. There have been attempts made in this direction on a small scale, of which perhaps the best is the Child's Paper, but we should like to see larger capital invested in the undertaking and an attempt made on a wide and liberal scale. It is always difficult to get the Home public to take interest in China, but still the idea of an illustrated paper is sufficiently popular, one would think, to commend it to the English mind. The general scheme is very easily sketched out. The paper should contain a sufficient number of well executed pictures, and these should represent conspicuous objects of nature and art. There should be views of celebrated mountains and remarkable waterfalls, of great buildings and of beautiful statues. The Chinaman above all knowledges craves a knowledge of geography, and nothing could be more beneficial than to give him such a practical acquaintance with the habitable globe as could be gleaned from faithful wood engravings. These would awaken his attention. He would enquire the history of what he saw, and seek to explore the "why" and the "qhorefore." Curiosity in the peoples of other lands would soon be developed. Ethnological subjects and objects of natural history, too, should be freely represented on the pages of the paper, and the manners and customs of men and the habits of animals, wild and domestic, would be brought to his attention. New inventions of a practical character would also be depicted, and scenes which have formed epochs in the history of the great nations of the earth would nob be omitted, if the task of educating the Chinese through the eye was to be effectually carried out, The importance of object lessons is now recognized in teaching, and the illustration is the best attainable substitute for the object lesson. There would at first, perhaps, be difficulties in getting the paper cirealated in the interior, in those provinces where there are very few foreigners, but in time assuredly copies would be carried by travellers and read and studied and handed about from house to house. Purchasers would soon be discovered, and the pictures would kindle an anxiety to become acquainted with the originals, and a curiosity would be awakened which could not fail to be productive of good results. We should like to see some philanthropist with capital start an Illustrated News in China, He would do more lasting good by spending his money in this direction than by employing it in any other way we cen think of.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.