Political. Tue Chinese Government has given evidence of an advance in its appreciation of foreign affairs, by appointing representatives to countries with which it is more intimately connected by commercial and political relations. This step has been long urged upon Chinese statesmen by the Foreign representatives at Peking; and we remarked in our Retrospect of 1875, that a series of memorials advocating its adoption. had been addressed to the Throne by the chief mandarins of the Empire. The despatch of an Embassy to Great Britain was one of the conditions exacted by the British Minister in the course of negotiations for the settlement of the Yunnan outrage; and the appointment of a Minister at Washington, and Consuls at New York and San Francisco, for which posts also men have been nominated, may probably have been hastened by the earnest persuasions then addressed to the Chinese Government to admit a more truthful view of their foreign relations and of their real position in face of Western powers. "There are other signs, too, that the vessel of State is inclined to move, albeit slowly at first, and with many creaks and groans, down the ways fo which 3¢ she has so long been rusted. Less than ten years ago, the proposal to land a telegraph line at Shanghai was refused. Now, the Great Northern line rans overland several miles on the way to Woosung; and the Provincial Government of Fohkien has actually caused a line to be constracted between Foochow and the Pagoda Anchorage. The Government of the Two Kiang has been persuaded, however unwillingly, to countenance and purchase the Woosung Railway; and we do not. despair that the little pioneer line will be allowed to continue working, and be the precursor of others, when the year for which its existence has been secured shall have ended. Already a tramway is heini constructed in connexion with the coal mines in Formosa; and Li Hung-d is said-to wish one from the Chai-tang mines to Tientsin, though Conservative influence has hitherto been too strong for him to compass this innova-But the willingness to open mines tion in the neighbourhood of the capital.
and to work them by foreign appliances is in itself a forward step; and there are signs of readiness to do this in several parts of the Empire, It cannot be denied that all this is progress; but the prospect is marred by the anxiety of the Government to retain all enterprise in its own hands and under its own immediate control. Pri-vote enterprise is not only not encouraged, bat hindered. "It is the Government which buys the railway, the Government which is about working the mines, the Government which fosters the Steamer Company; and we cannot bat regard as unsatisfactory, measures which seck no sympathy from, and extend no encouragement to, the people themselves, The railway is bought to get rid of the foreign proprietors, and with the avowed purpose.of eventually destroying it, however mach we may hope that this purpose will change; the so-called Chinese Merchants' Steamer Company was created and is supported by officials, to undermine foreign shipowners; and a. further step in this direction has been now taken, by the purchase of the steamers, plant and premises of the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company, which has so long had a chief share in the trade of the Yangtze. One coa-sideration, however, must not be lost ving the people in spite of itself; sight of. The Government is educa-
and is admitting and establishing the very innovations which excite its hostility when proffered by foreign hands. It is said even to en-terrain the idea of creating a mint, and nothing more than the absence of a proper coinage marks the low standard of Chinese civilisation. Alone in this respect among the nations to which she professes herself so superior, China may well think it is time. to Provide something better than the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.