Amona the many contrasts between the Chinese and Japanese character, not the least striking is the way in which the two nations have set about the matter of army reform. The result of collision with Earopean troops satisfied arch that their old armament was useless; but while the Japanese seized the idea, and set to work to carry it out with activity and thorough ne: seems to be still working slowly through the heavy folds of the Chinese brain, and has produced hardly any useful effect. The only portion of the trath they have.been able to grasp, seems to be the worth of our arms and the superiority of our discipline. The comparative helplessness of men without officers, and the need that the latter should be scientifically educated, if their men are to be usefully mancuvred, has not yet occurred to them; they no more recognise their inferiority in this respect than they do their inferiority in—well,—sanitary science, Some germ of the idea may be wandering about somewhere in their head, but it has not yot reached a sentient part; they have not got beyond the idea of the drill. instructor, 80 far; and have not thought out the difference between European and Chinese discipline any farther than the ability to "form fours," or execute a smooth "wheel." The idea of a scientific service has not occurred to the necessity of an active com. missariat and transport service, with all its costly accessories, if an army is to march or manceuvre in face of an enemy, is as far from them as eyer. The soldier gets his pay and buys his own rico—a beautifully simple process when in garrison, but apt to prove less practical, if the question becomes one of moving a largo army far afield. The clothing is as bad as bad can be, and the circular badge which it is the fashion to imprint on it, simply constitutes the men targets for their adversaries; no Chinese force could approach within 400 yards of men who knew, how to use breechloaders. They have no medical service, and apart from the barbarity of showing no care for the wounded, this defect will always have an effect on the morale of the men. Experience has shown that even European troops become disheartened if they find their wounds cannot be attended to, and the inference is reasonable enough. A wound that might be mortal if neglected, might be trifling if skilfully dressed; and the knowledge that his risk is thus enormously diminished, must have a great effect on the readiness of the soldier to face fire. As we have said before, then, the Chinese army is as defective in ganisation, and as completely deficient in scientific and transport services, and its officers are as unskilled, as they were during the campaigns of Tientsin. The improvement is only in the matter of arms and in acertain modicum of disciline, which is next to useless before the want of organisation in other respects, and would virtually preclude an army from warlike operations in the field. Practically, the increase in their power of resistance to invasion may be measured by the greater power of resistance behind earth-works, conferred upon them by the possession of better cannon and rifles.
The Japanese have appreciated the question very differently; with the greater quickness of intelligence which characterises them, they have gone to the root of the matter while the Chinese are scraping the surface. They have appreciated the necessity for the various adjuncts to an army, to make it a moveable and serviceable machine; and #0, with inferior material, have already organised a force infinitely superior to the Chinese. They have an excellent medical service, a fair scientific service sufficient for their wants, and their officers are of a far better class and far more skilled than any to be found in China, The result is that they are capable of movement and combination, and would hopelessly out-march, out-manceuvre and out-fight the Chinese if ever war arose, It is likely some two or three men in China realised their own inferiority when the contingency of war arose in the spring of Inst year. Shen Pao-chen for instance, the present Viceroy of Nanking, can hardly have failed as an intelligent man to distinguish the superiority of the Japan when acting as Special Commissioner in Formosa. But the Chinese intellect at best does not appreciate a question of reform energetically; it may perceive the wrong and wish it remedied, but it scarcely throws into the subject the same energy which Mr. Gladstone, for instance, brought to bear on the disestablishment of the Irish Church. And the dead-weight of opposition which any would-be reformer has to encounter in China is sufficient to drag the wheels of the most energetic. We doubt whether even such men as Li and Shen actively appreciate the necessity for the scientific adjuncts without which even Li's army is reduced to the condition of a huge garrison. Certainly there is no indication yet of a desire to supply them, nor of any higher conception of military science than the drill-master.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.