TaeRe are we believe still some people who prefer China to Japan. They till accuse the latter as flighty, and profess to admire the stolidity of China, as in. dicating more substantiality of character, Not all the railways and telegraphs which have been constructed in Japan, not the wonderful Revolution she accom plished, nor the gradual consolidation of her new Government, have sufficed to relieve her altogether from' the charge of imitativeness. There are'still people who regard the progress of the last eight years as effervescence, aid a half-confessed expectation- of seeing it all subside very much ike the froth of champagne. We havea higher opinion of Japanese intelligence, and if astonished at the changes which have been wrought with such marvellous rapidity, cannot but believe in the genuine appreciation of reforms steadily persevered in, Judged by the test of her coinage alone, Japan would be entitled to take far higher rank than China. Even at the date of our first intercourse, she had- a usefal and elaborate coinage repres senting as many values a8 our own
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.