Coxuna immediately after the Viceroy's lotter denying the right of foreigners to make roads around their Settle-monts and instructing the Taotai to hinder the purchase of avy more land for such purpose—the hint given to the Council that it would be permitted to buy the line of the Woosung Railway, is romerkable. We mentioned, jas "week, a report that the officials wished the country-people to buy back their land for the same price at which they had sold it; and we had little difficulty in believing this, as the proposal was just such @ specious one as would commend itself to the mandarin mind. What could be fairer?—" You give us back the money you received, and we give you back your land; so you will be exactly as you were before the barbarians introduced their accursed innovation."—Tbe country-people, however, eresnidto hayeshown estrange unwillingness to be replaced in the posi tion from which they bad been dis-tarped. They preferred holding on to their profit and to the double acreage it had in many cases enabled them to acquire, to buying back at double their value the small plots with which they had parted—with the farther prospect of having to clear away, at mach expense, verj'Gurions proposal which has been indirectly made, And nearly as many considerations surround the question, what answer should be returned? In the first place, it is undoubtedly poyoud the functions of the Council to keep up a line of communication between Shanghai and an outlying township. For purposes of "pleasure," as the Viceroy puts it, the extension of the Yangtsze-poo road to Woosung would be preferable; and the acceptance of the new charge would involve not only a heavy outlay at the beginning, but " considerable addition to"the yearly cost of main. taining the alrendy large extent of roadway with which our Budget is charged, We have no opportunity, here, of making the roads themselves or the adjacent land bear—through the medium of turnpikes or local rates—the cost of maintenance, as is done at home. Everything has to be paid out of rates levied within the precincts of the Settlement; and, with the exception of -the four miles between the Ningpo Joss-House and the French College at Sikaway, the privilege is confined to the North of the Yang-king-pang. Of course, good communications tend toincreasethe prosperity of a place; and foreigners as well as Chinese are interested in promoting the prosperity of Shanghai; but there is a limit to the outlay which they can reasonably afford upon outside roads, and it is a question for the Ratepayers to consider whether that limit would be exceeded in buying from the Chinese local government a roadway which it-is clearly the duty of the Native officials to maintain. If we suppose the English Government taking. up the rails of the London, Chatham and Dover railway, for transportation to the Isle of Man, and then offering to nell the Iand to the French residents in London in case they. wadid like to maintain it for purposes of car-ringe traffic to Dover, wean best apprecia atetho "situation." But then we are not in England; and as, we presume, the Chinese are not likely to perform in this case a duty which they.so babitually neglect elsewhere, the question seems to be whether they should be left alone with their land; or whether the advantages of the road to the Municipality would be such as to make it worth while to secure it REVIEW, The Classical Literature of 'We had occasion to notice, a few months ago,* the very marked change which istoking place in the Missionary mind with' regard to the Heathen philosophers and teachers, There was a time, as we all remember, when it was the fashion to condemn to indiscriminate perdition, Plate, Confucius, Zoroaster, Sakyamouni and Mohammed, The toleration which we find in Dante. was not shown by Protestant Preachers. In the 4th Canto of the Inferno we are introduced to a hemisphere of light amidst the daruiieady Wits, in 8 FOLLO castle, the-most distinguished of the Heathen statesmen, sages, and warriors are found; but this doctrine was far too lenient and comprehensive for the Puritans, and the only possible fate for non-Christian benefactors of mankind was the fire and the worm. This view is rapidly dying out; and it is pleasant to meet with proofs that the merits of the great Classical writers of China are being amply allowed, and their place in the education of the world frankly recognized, in religious periodicals. We have read with considerable interest and pleasure a paper by Mr, R, H. Maclay, on the " Classical Literature of the Chinese," which bears out this view and breathes this improved spirit. The article is contained in the Methodist Quarterly Review, a journal of high repute amongst tho Wesleyans, published in Now York.
The following passage is in very markod contrast to the articles on Chinese Philosophy in the old " Repository "The immense love of the philosophers "for humanity dominated over. all their other sentiments, and has made of their philosophy a system of social perfectionating which haa never been equalled. sets forth the higher and more extensive "principles of moral science which come "into use in the conduct of government, "Its objects to illustrate illustrious virtue, "to love the people, and to rest in the "highest excellence." The method reaches "from the cultivation of the Person to the "tranquilization of the Empire; and the "intermediate series involves vest "'igation of things, the completion of Tsee North China Daily News, July Met, W877.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.