Tae Medical Examiner arouses itself by anticipating a time when England shall again be a purely agricultural country, inhabited by only a few million sleepy tillers of the soil, and when the sanitary legislation which is being now 80 carefully built up shall be no longer regarded except as a matter of anti-quar ian curiosity. We are not con-corned with the economical prediction, which may or may not be verified. The present great prosperity of Eugland depends chiefly on her supplies of fae), which must in the course of years be expended; and she may then sub—side into the agricultural calm from which she emerged. But the conceit that an agricultural country is necessar independent of sanitary legislation is a curious one, The writer's experience of agricultural districts must have been singularly favourable if they have Jed him to that conclusion. We might expect to find such an Arcadian theory in @ novel, but hardly in a professional journal. China is a sleepy agricultural country, and an admirable instance of what can be effected by the absence of sanitary legislation. We do not refer to the cities, for they are more or less commercial in their origin; and when England has ceased to be a manufacturing country, Manchester and Birmingham and Leeds and Sheffield will of course have subsided into the little townships from which they sprang. Bat even an agricultural population does not live family by family, each on its individual farm; there are congregations of labourers into villages; and at least some few professional men and tradesmen, to meet the wants of the agriculturists, will cluster together in country towns.—It is, however, as the Spectator points out, always these "{dyllic little villages" which are hardest hit by epidemics. They have been the last to take up sanitary measures, and afford an excellent example of what would be the result of abandoning sanitary laws. But, as we said before, for a perfect specimen of an agricultural country free from sanitary legislation, China deserves the attention of the writer. It is to be presumed that English cottages will not fall back again to the standard of the Chinese peasant's hovel; but the trenches full of black filth which usually line the front of Chinese villages would be a natural consequence of neglect. of drainage. Presumably, too, the laws against overcrowding which are now being pressed with so much energy at home, would then be unzccossary, as we are asked to imagine a country with only six or seven millions of inhabitants; though why agriculture should necessarily be associated with a sparse population we do not quite understand. It does not follow in China, where overcrowding habitually goes on, to an extent that is scarcely exceeded in the worst. pictures of the most "idyllic village" described from time to time in the reports of English Government Inspectors.
Ta no respect more than in this utter absence of sanitary regulations, is the low standard of Chinese civ tion remarkable. If it were not that we hear of such towns as Wenchow, we shoald be inclined to say the bare idea had never occurred to them, We have heard it said by a foreigner, than whom none is better acquainted with the Chinese, that the Shanghai Municipal Council are the best missionaries in China, Every day, Chinese rich and poor, mandarins great and small, are passing through the place on their way North, South or West, and carry away with them a vision of wide ronds, well-lighted street, and general order and cleanliness such as had never ly occurred to them in their moments of most fervid imagination. But the example does not seem to incite them emulation. We need not dwell on the horrors: of the native city; its rooking sewers and open cesspools, its filthy streets and helps of garbage are there in all their pristine abomination, as though no Model Settlement had arisen la the neighbourhood to criggest better things to both governors and governed. "Nor does the proximity of Tzechulin prevent such agricultural pursuits as steeping hemp in the neighbourhood of Tientsin, to the aggravation of cholera and the general discomfort and unhealthinesé of the residents—The country-people who bring in our daily supplies of fruit, vegetables, and flowers, appreciate no doubt the excellency of our municipal arrangements, though doing their best to spoil them by strewing garbage and refaso in the realities they affect; but the idea occurs to them of applying to their "idyllic villages" the principles they see in force. They do not level one stone the more in the rugged pathway, nor improve one plank in their shaky bridge, nor bestow one half-hour's labour on the half-choked ditch which serves as an open drain in front of their habitations. No! the picture of agricultural life unattended by sanitary regelations, as it may be seen every day in Chins, is as far removed as possible from the poetical conception of Arcadia; and whatever may be the future of England, it is to be hoped the day is far distant when such legislation will be regarded as an antiquarian curiosity.
'THE END OF THE REDELLION IN JAPAN.
TaovaH the fate of Saigo is still veiled in mystery, there can be little doubt that the rebellion in Japan is over. It has lasted nearly eight months, and has occasioned heavy losses of men and a drain on the Imperial Exchequer which it can ill afford to sustain. It seems to have been 2 movement remarkeblo for the singular daring of the chief actor, but strangely and perversely barren of any profitable result to the country. All that the Japanese Press can say is, that it is impossible to avoid praising the leader of the insurrection. "The reason for praising Saigo," writes the Hochi Shimbun, "is that although he is a criminal' blackened with great crimes we cannot withhold our admiration of his greatness, His failure or success has nothing to do with our admiration of his character." Bat beyond giving several oppor tunities for bold marches and connter-marches, and for the display of individual valour when in great straits, we fail to seo that the rebellion has produced any results, Many lives have been lost avd many scones of horror enacted, but the profits are absolutely nil, "It is more than likely that, if the insurgents bad posses. sed a gun-boat or two, they might have achieved some successes at one critical period of the strife; but the Imperialists bad the command at sea and of course superior numerical strength on land.
Tt seems clear that the plans of the present rebellion wore laid fully four years ago, In 1874, the samurai of the province of Saya showed unmistakeable signs of disaffection, but as their schemes were not matured the attempt was crashed in a short time; but the leaders, Taniguchi, Ishii and Tokn contrived to escape. They fled to Saigo and asked for his protection, but he had designs of his own and refused to complicate his private plans by involving himself in an alliance with men with whom he might ultimately find himself ab crosa pur. poses. So more than three years were permitted to elapse in order that the grievances of the Satsuma clan might mature and the preparations of their champion be completed. The first stop in the rebellion was taken somewhat earlier than had been intended, and the Government powder was captured from the magazine of Kagoshima. Troops who had been long encouraged to desire a rising, and whose discontent with the existing order of things had been diligently fomented, were collected from Sutsama, Hinga, Osumi, and Higo, and the castle of Kumamoto was besieged. The bravery and conduct of the rebels was proved by the success with which for fifty days they kept the flower of the Imperialist armies at bay. We do not, in the letters of the correspondents at the seat of war in Bulgaria, read of greater courage, or more skilful manooubring than Saigo practised during the critical period that ended with the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.