We take the following from the Japan Mail, which states that it was written by Colonel Gordon on his way from China to England.
fu spite of the opinion of some foreigners, it will be generally acknowledged that the Chinese are contented and happy, that the country is rich and prosperous, and that the people are an fond united in their sentiments, und ardently desire to remain enation, At constant intervals, however, the whole of this human hive is stirred by some dispute between the Peking Govern ment and game foreign Power, The Chinese people, proud of their ancient by the Peking Government, crediting the prestige, applaud the high tone taken up Government with the power to support their strong words; this goes on for a time, when the Government gives in, and corresponding vexations felt by the people, The recurrence of these disputes, the inevitable surrender ultimately of the Peking Government, hus the tendency of shaking the Chinese people's confidence in the Central Government. The Central Government appreciate the fact that little by little their pres is being destroyed by their own acti among the Chinese people; each crisis thus becomes more accentuated and difficult to surmount, as the Central Government knows, each concession is another nail in their coffin. 'The Central Government fear that, by the taking up of a tion' by any pre-eminent Chi Chinese would carry the Chinese people with him, and therefore the Central Government endeavour to keep up appearances and to skirt the precipice of war as near as they possibly can, while never intending to enter into war.
The Central Government residing in the extremity of the Middle Kingdom, away from the great influences which are working in China, can never alter one iota from what they were years ago; they are being steadily loft behind by the people they govern: they know this, and endea-your to stein these influences in all way in their power, hoping to keep the people backward and'in ignorance, and to retard their progress to the same pace they themselves go, if it can be called a pace at all, It is therefore a maxim, that no progress can be made by the Peking Government." To them any progress, whether slow or quick, is synonymous to alow or quick extinction, for they will never move.
The term " Peking Government" is used advisedly, for if the Central Government was moved from Peking, into some province where the pulsations and aspirations of the Chinese people could have their legitimate effect, then the Central Government and the Chinese people, having a unison of thought, would work together.
From what has been said above, it is maintained that as long as the Central Government of China isolates itself from the Chinese people by residing aloof at Peking, so long will the Chinese people have to remain passive under the humiliations which come upon then through the non-progressive and obstructive disposition of their Goverment. These humiliations will be the chronic state of the Chinese people until the Central Government moves. from Peking, and reunites itself to its subjects. No army, no purchases of ironclad.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.