As we mentioned now nearly two months ago, orders were sent from Peking in the early spring to thirteen high provincial officials to send to the Throne their views on railways. Some of these officials may have been too much puzzled by the order to do anything in the matter; at any rate only three reports have so far appeared, and they are all favourable, with conditions. It is a good sign that steps have already been taken to carry out the recommendations in the reports that have been received. The Viceroy of Hukuang, Yi Lu, a Manchu believed to be opposed to the innovation, has been quietly shelved by nominal promotion to a post in Manchuria, his predecessor there having been allowed to vacate his ost on the ground of continued ill health, and the Viceroy of the Two Kuang has been sent up to his post at Hankow, or officially Wuchang; and so determined seems the Throne to be that time shall not be wasted, that he is ordered to proceed direct, and dispense ith the usual formality of a preliminary to Peking, a decided saving to His Excellency's purse. There is a general impression that the Viceroy of Chilli is at the bottom of this move, which has for him the farther advantage of providing a post for his elder brother i Han-chang. Li Hung-chang is undoubtedly strongly in favour of railways, and he is particularly anxious to see the existing railway continued to "Mungchow. Chang Chi-tung, whether really thinking the extension dangerous, or with the view of disarming opposition to his own scheme, has reported against 5 the Tientsin-Tungchow line, for which Li no doubt does not thank him, and has suggested a railway from a point some twelve miles south of Peking to Hankow. Of this Great Western Railway the Throne has approved, and Li has proposed that the best thing would be to send Chang Chi-tung to Hankow to build it, which has been done. Li knows perfectly well that the conditions proposed by Chang are quite impracticable, and he has acted sagaciously in sending Chang to Hankow to find this out for himself. The latter Viceroy estimates that the line will take eight years to build, and proposes to use iron from the Pingting mines in Shansi and if any such stipulation is to be made and adhered to, it is obvious that very much more than eight years will be required for the completion of the line. Happily the Chinese, if conservative and slow in taking up new inventions, are thoroughly practical when they do take them up, and we need not be afraid that this stipulation will be adhered to. By sending Chang Chitung to Hankow, Peking has practically made him responsible for the line being built, and he will, of course, have to take counsel with Li, and get his assistance and that of the coterie round Li who have built and are managing the Tientsin-Kaiping railway. In the end the same course will be followed, asin the North. The Chinese, Chan; himself or whoever he may delegate, will keep the nominal superintendence of the work, but he will have to employ foreign engineers, for he can no more wait to train a Chinese staff than to erect foundries and rolling mills and engine works, and he will have to import his plant. For the supply of this there are sure to be plenty of competitors, and we may see Hankow or Wuchang becoming such a nest of syndicates and would-be contractors as Tientsin is, but in the end the supply of material will no doubt be put up to competitive tender, and will be ultimately be obtained at price that will leave very little profit to tne contractor. How the money is to be provided for this trunk line we are not yet told. Our southern contemporary tells us that "a big loan or series of loans will be negotiated, either directly or indirectly, with foreigners." It adds that "it is reported that six syndicates of wealthy Chinese have promised to subscribe ten million taels each, but. knowing how chary of coming forward with pecuniary support for any government scheme the Chinese are, we are inclined to doubt the accuracy of this report." It is safe to say that our contemporary's doubt is well-founded. It is possible that Chinese would subscribe readily to a railway scheme started by foreigners, but that wealthy Chinese would hand sixty millions of their taels over to be disbursed by their own officials is hardly probable. Peking has a not unreasonable fear of putting itself in the power of foreigners by borrowing a large sum, and the would-be lenders, who are numerous enough, have to find some means by which the money may be provided, without the Goyernment's losing face' over it: When the borrower wants to borrow and the lender wants to lend, as in this case, a modus operandi will doubtless be found, but it is more likely to be by a series of loans, which will not strike the imagination tuo forcibly, than by one big loan. On the whole, the indications point distinctly to an early commencement of a trank line, though its construction, we imagine, will be gradual. 'Though we say early,' we should be agreeably surprised if the commencement were made this year, and circumstances might occur in the coming winter to throw the whole scheme back again, It is unfortunate. that the leading spirits in the scheme are all men well on in years, who are naturally—even where favourable to railways. inclined to take many new responsibilities on themselves; and the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.