Tar imminent departure of the Chinese squadron to attempt the relief of Formosn ig an event of much interest to those who have watched impartially the struggle between Franco and China, No jastification of this step on the part of the Govornwent is necessary; were it otherwise, however, the situple fact that the French blockade is and has long been notoriously ineffective is sufficient to vindicate an attempt to put an end to the annoyance altogether, We are by no means sanguine of the success of the expedition, Many of the ships Unat are to take part in it are, it is true, excellently equipped and found; they Lave, in fact, been put in as good fighting order as it is possible for them to be. There are others, however, which are foredoomed, and in which even their commanders can place no confidence. lo this must be added the fact to which attention has been already drawn more than once in these columns: the notorious incapacity of the Chinese who are in charge, "Trust me all in all, or not at all," should be the condition of every foreign officer taking service in the navy of China, and this is just the very thing that the Chinese will never do. "One of the gan-boats about to take part in this very expedition, for instance, is commanded by a beardie practical ever, and who owes his position to interest pure and simple. If the German officers on these vessels were in positions of authority, and had absolute control over the projected operations, we should be i clined to think that the chances of success were nots remote. The conditions being, Lowever, so very different, the result can scarcely fail to be different too; and we see small grounds for anticipating anything but a repulse, more or less disastrous according to circumstances, It is part of the fatuity which marks Chinese procedure in every enterprise that they will not make good use of the materials they Lave at their disposal; precedent, or theory, or prestige, or some euch phantasmal opponent is sure to intervene, and forbid the adoption of that which, properly and judiciously employed, would ensure success where otherwise there can only be discomfiture and failure,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.