Tue Peking Gazette of the 4th December contains another of the laments with which we have been lately familiarized, regarding the unproductiveness of taxation and the insuficieucy of revenue. It is from Szechuen, this time, that the plaint comes. The Governor-General memorialises that the regular revenue has, in past ears, habitually fallen short of the liability of the provincial treasury, and, notwithstanding that: resort has been had to the sale of titles and the levy of lekin tax, there will still be a deficiency this year of upwards of a million taels. "The limit of possible exaction has, in fact, been evidently passed; for the receipts from lekly, both on ordinary merchandise and salt, have largely diminished. No alternative, therefore, remains but resort to the last expedient of Oriental financo—a forced contribution from the wealthy inhabitants.
What is the ordinary revenue and what the provincial expenditare proper of Szechuen, we have no means of Imowing; but the Governor-General enumerates a list of extra requirements which leave little room for surprise at his embarrassment. Besides Tle. 1,500,000 for the military expenditure of the province itself, there are upwards of Tls. 700,000 called for in the shape of subsidies from Peking, for the' drilled troops in Chibli, public works, &c,, &0.; and a third demand under the same head has been made.for. subsidies towards the coast defences of Chibli, Yellow River works in Shantung, copper mining in Yinnan, pay of troops on the frontier and of other special military forces. Over and above this, again, are military subsidies ordered on behalf of Yunnan and Kansuh, payments to the military. chest in Sungaria, and other items, such as "an amount which has to be repaid to Shantung for advances made to the Government of Kweichow," that must take rank among the mysteries of Chinese finance. That. the ordinary revenue should fail in faveof these manifold requirements, is not surprising, nor need we be much surprised that the extraordinary sources have been pushed to their last limit. What is more surprising. is that, at a time when the whole country is at peace, the Govern ment should have to fall back upon expedients which are considered to be a Inst resort in time of war or famine, The extraordinary sources of revenue which Dr, Williams tells us are resorted to in such emergencies, are precisely those which we. find num. erated in the Governor-General's memorial. Yet, at a time when he admits that the harvests are good, and when there is no war except the insane pro ject of recovering Kashgar, extraordinary sources of revenue, are drained to the Inst dregs; and there isyno doubt that it is military expend. ture -whioh is in great measure responsible for the drain, The active operations in the North-west have been scarcely a greater source of expense than Li Hung.chang's army in Chibli and the outlay on coast and river defences, arsenals, and naval yards comes to supplement the tale. If blamed for all this outlay, the Chinese may certainly point to Europe; where military armaments and military oxpenditure are on a scale that dwarf their utmost efforts. But China differs from European countries in that she bes no neighbours against whom it is necessary for her to arm Russia may be a standing menace to her on the north, as she is believed to be at Peking. But it is not against Russia only that all this preparation is made; and wise policy would dictate concentration of resources, rather than their dissipation in expeditions beyond the Great Wall, to recover territory that would be a source of weakness even if recovered. The idea of invasion seems to weigh morbidly on the minds of Peking statesmen, whereas no country in the world is really safer from attack, if its ralers will behave with moderate decency, and exhibit a reasonable senso of right and wrong in their dealings with Foreign nations, If war nearly arose out of the Yunnan outrage, it was because the Chinese authorities would not make amends for cruel murder, and #'gros:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.