To the Editor of the Sin,—While engaged in gulping down my tea the other morning, I got the astounding news that the Formosa question had been ttled, by the Chinese Government paying of money to the Japanese High Commissioner, of Tls. 500,000. This settle ment of the difficulty was come to after the twelfth hour, (as part of the Japanese mission had already left here for Japan), through the intervention of Mr. Wade, H. B. M.'s Minister. The Chinese people may well hold up their hands and exclaim, Heaven save us from our friends, and we will protect ourselves against our foes!"
trust that it will not be considered out of place if I now presume to make a fow observations on the Formosa question generally. While devoting his time to an affair in which China and Japan were alone directly interested, had Mr. Wade alrendy satisfactorily settled with the Chinese reign Office the several matters in which terested—the to represent at the Court of Peking—aud respecting which piles of despatches and letters lie before him in the British Legation? Had, for instance, may I dare to ask, tle dredg"
of the Woosung Bar by the Chinese Government altogether escaped from his mind—a matter officially brought to his notice long ago by the merchants of Shanghai,—and had he, while occupying himself with the concerns of the Chinese and Japanese Governments in relation to the occu pation of Formosa by the latter power, positively not time to urge Prince Kung to undertake that highly necessary work, the completion of which wontd tend so greatly w benefit British mercantile and shipping interests at (he most important rt of China What, after all, may I presume to enquire, has been the result of Mr, Wade's nection in the affairs of China ant Japan? Although [have not the east intention to assume to by an authority on the best mode of transacting the otticinl hi of a Legation, or as to the ways, either straight or' crooked, of Peking' diplomacy, yet with the moderate knowledge 1 possess, T imagine Lam at least able in this particular instance to answer quite correctly the Inst ques tion, and thus:—'That Mr, Wade, by having led the Central Government to pay the money mentioned above to the Japanese Government, har male the lowered and humiliated Uhinese people feel t
but lias made them feel that they ave ao in the eyes ofall the world, What would have been' the solution of the negotiations tween the Japanese High (on missioner, Mr, Okubo, and the chief of the sung. Yann, Prince Kung, if Mr, Wade, (in the minds of the Central Government backed up by his position as the representative of Great Britain,) had not interfered in the concerns of Chins and Japan? T reply, that the Chinese Government would have been compelled to brace itself face the difficulty in a manly and dignified manner; China would have been forced to purchase iron-clads to cope against the Jap: nese vessels of the same kind; she would doubtless, before being a0 provided, have been worsted, but in the end she would have come forth victorious; and would have eventually driven the Japanen out of Formosa, and placed the whole island under the control of her. own laws, he Chinese Government would, after that, have appeared in a dignified and respectable position, not alone in the eye of its own people, but in the eyes of foreign nations. And whatis of more imnportance, both to herself and to foreign China would, from having had to to contend against, and to overcome, the Japanese naval and military forces, have lexrut a practical lesson, which would have spurred her on to further progress—inducing her, in fact, to adopt all the appliances of western civilisation, namely, the establishing of well organized arsenals and dockyards; the building of iron-clads; the making of large cannon and field-pieces on the most approved principles; the making of Martini-Henry rifles; the establishing of a Mint, to mo.ey for general we throughout the pire; the establishing of Government post offices throughout the eighteen provinces, and a cent postage; the making of railways and telegraphs; the working of her mines with foreign plant, and, finally, the establishing of schools in which her youth could be taught Kuropean languages,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.