Ove readers will remember that last yest, when. the wide extent of the famine in Shansi became too apparent for the Chinese Government any longer to leave it unnoticed, the Peking Gazette was filled with memorials complaining of the inefficiency of the communications, and urging some reform. Foremost amongst the reports was that of Li Hung-chang in the Gazette of the 13th November last, in which the condition of the Yellow River was pointed out, 'At various times memorials,' too, have appeared relating to the condition of the Imperial Canal, and urging some improvement, it having: become practically useless since the change in the direction of the Yellow River upwards of twenty years ago. In the face of those reiterated statements of the condition of affairs, and the abundant knowledge possessed by the Government ofthe probable consequences, it was not unnaturally supposed that the time had at Last-come when some sign of energy would be displayed; and those people whose hallucination is° the approaching regeneration of China did not fail to make the most of what the Chinese Government was going to do, Let us look now to the condition of affairs after three. fourths of the population of one of the largest and best peopled provinces have either perished miserably from famine and its consequent diseases, or been' compelled to sot out as fu-gi tives over the rest of the Empire. Tt might have been expected that, at least along the course of the Canal—where, as we learn from Mr. Morrison, the want is' not of water, but of some means of making it useful—some steps should have been taken to improve the means of access. At the mouth of the Canal opposite Chinkiang, the harvest was abundant and rice was being largely exported by sea to the South of China. Within a little more than a handred miles, and within a few. miles of the Canal itself, the people were suffering from famine! The Government had the condition of affairs so effectually forced on it, that it was actually doling out food in rations sufficient to prolong the agonies of hanger, but not enough to. save: the Tives of the people... Yet the recipients of relief were never once asked to work tthe improvement of the Qsnal, It might be said that the engineering knowledge of the Chinese was unequal to the task, but there was ready remedy at hand, and quite sufficient skill was obtainable at a moment's notice, had it only been asked for. The: opening of the water communication of the Canal, which would have cost the Government nothing, as the amount had to be expended whether the work was done or not, would have furnished access for food to most parts of Honan, and would thus have enabled the scanty crops of that province to have been sent in to Shansi where the harvest had completely failed. This very simple and practicable measure would thus have been felt as an immense relief to districts beyond the immediate reach of the Canal and its tributaries. Yet though early urged on the attention of the Government nothing was done, except to amuse its foreign advisers by dangling out pictures of what it would do, but somehow never does do, Now if we tarn to another phase of the question, we find a still more curious exemplification of the doings of the Chinese Government. While millions were starving for the relief which it was quite in the power of the Chinese Government to have placed in their way, 8 certain number of mandarins high up in the counsels of the State were actually urging the abandon. ment of the Canal. In their eyes it could be of but one service, and that was the carriage of the tribute rice to Peking, and as the steamers of the China Merchants' Company could do this by sea, the Canal to their appre-pensions had lost all its value. Not one word seems to have escaped them as to the possible utility of the people slong its banks, or as to the needs of the population of Honan and a largo part of Shantang, whose only means of communication. with the outer world are by means of the Canal! In fact, the more the actuating motives of the present clique in power in China are looked into, the more are they found based on themest purely selfish considerations. We find the Governor of Shansi to his honour striving against difficulties of every sort to relieve the distress of the people over whom he has been placed, bat how is he seconded? We have but to take up any month's Gazette within the last year to discover that in every way his aims have been thwarted. Placed in immediate contact with the sufferings of the people, ho was the first to point out the approaching danger and to suggest means of relief. It is noteworthy that in place of: being loyally supported, he has been cramped in supplies both of food and money. The ways of approach were go bad, he is informed by Li Hung-chang, that it was impossible to forward grain. -The natural method of overcoming the difficulty would have been to improve the roads, and Tseng is not insensible of the fact, but he memorialises in vain, He is told there is corn in Honan or in his own province, and that such a step would be a thing unheard of. The natural result has followed. The famine in Shansi has literally starved itself out. There are almost no mouths left to feed, and the rice which was conveyed to Tientsin now lies rotting along the bund of the river, a monument.f the incapacity, to use no worse term, of the Government which brought it there.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.