Armas in China do not advance very quickly, even when communications are open. As a general rule they may be calculated ov standing still during the three or four months in which ihe Peiho is closed to navigation. The present is therefore not an inconvenient time for reviewing what has been done during the past year. If we sny that none of the questions which remained over from last year hnd been definitely settled, we should be stating the trath, bat scarcely the whole trath, It would express the actual condition of affairs better to say that none of them bad, to outward appearance, advanced a stage towards solution. Daring the year the Chinese Government has succeeded in shutting up Central Asia more perfectly than before; it has patched up a peace with Russia on honourable but somewhat expensive conditions, which may be serviceable or the reverse according to the spot where the next irritating eruption may break out in the extensive but loosely aggregated dominions of that power, Tt has likewise made a turmoil with Japan, not apparently with the object of fighting that bellicose but sadly bobbled little power, but that it may have a Convenient plan to fall back on, should circumstances seem to render advisable a display of martial vigour. Abrond China has been well represented. Kie Ta-jen at St. Jumes's has been succeeded by the Marquis ''song, whose predolic= tions are well-known, and whose personal character, like that of his uncle and his Jate father, is above reproach, Chung How but just returned from Russia, with the credit of having put through an extremely difficult nego-ion without compromising his country, All these things go to prove that there is really the stuff in China for better things, could its Government only be persuaded to take the step of initiating reforms, however small. To. wards this there is, however, no sign of movement, and the old barriers are rather increased than diminished in effectiveness. The unfortunate Convention of Chefvo is an instance of how different things may be from words. The one effect of that instru. ment has been to increase the difficulty of a Settlement on the question of in. ternal dues on imported produce. It is well-known that the other powers interested in trade with China were by no means satisfied with the hastily drawn clause, which, in contra-dis. tinction to existing treaties, seemed to permit unlimited taxation provided only it were veiled under the name of lekin instead of Customs' duties. It-is probable that the British Minister him. self, on a review of the clause and the attendant circumstances, did not look with much favour on thie reading of his work; and it seems that the Gov. ernment of Great Britain was not more favourable to the proposed change, which would have been placed in the hands of un irresponsible faction, than were those of other Powers. Ibis, therefore, believed that serious negotiations have been going on ut Peking with the object of so far modifying, at least, the oblectionable clanse, that some settlement of vexed questions may be arrived at. These negotiations, it is only right to recall, have however been really going on for the last eleven years, and as yet it may be well to remember that so far as foreign relations are concerned ad-matico has been decidedly backwards. Locally we have as little to say for the activity or influence of our representatives. The conservative of the Hwang-po is as far from being an accomplished fact as ever, and the barrier at Wousung still presents as great, or rather
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.