Wane foreigners in China, and all who are interested in the country, have been wondering whether certain much needed improvements in almost all the great affairs of the nation would be carried out, or even begun, in their time, the news that, as if by the stroke of a magician's wand, oneforeignerhad undertaken to make China all that we desired her to be, as far as man could do so, startled and puzzled the communities in the north. It became known in Tientsin about a fortnight ago that a stranger in the land, one Count Mitkiewicz, representing it was said certain great and potent financiers in America, havi Philadelphia as the head quarters of the s syndicate or combination, had agreed and covenanted to provide enormous sums of money to the Chinese Government. Their envoy had, as a beginning, advanced the trifle of two millions and a half of taels, or telegraphic material to that value, and had made arrangements for the introduction of a telephone into China, of which his friends in the United States, or some of them, possessed the patent rights. This is a business-like and intelligible transaction, which may result in benefits both to China and the American principals, and it is upon well-Known business lines. Money is often Tent in other countries on a nominal rate of interest, the lenders looking for their profit from the supplying of materials which the pseudo loan is to pay for. It is not a way of getting work done that a prudent well-to-do nation would adopt, but when the other transections into which Li Hung-chang has been beguiled are remembered people will doubt whether China. is any longer to be classed as prudent and well-to- -do.
One thing Li Hung-chang has been able to do which he himself and all the other Viceroys who have been borrowers of foreigner money have hitherto failed in. He has contrived to get a considerable loan without the sanction of an Imperial Decree. Foreigners have been found who have advanced money without the safeguard which all previous lenders have considered necessary. The advantage so far appears to be with the Viceroy. But if our advices from the north are correct H.E. Li Hu chang has resorted to devices in order to obtain this money which a good sider incompatible with "the dignity of many Chinese and Foreigners will con-his office. The China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company and the Telegraph Administration appear in this transaction as the borrowers, they i sign the bond, to which, however, the seal of the Viceroy is affixed. Whether the seal of the Viceroy merely formally the signatures of the two panies, or whether the two company have endorsed his scal—putting their names to his bill, in a friendly way: probably only known in the Yamen." The interest, we are informed, is to be 3 per 1,000 per month, equal to 3.6 per cent. yea amnun, te be paid, it is said, half in Mexican dollars and repaid in 5 years in gold. But besides this loan there has been another of one million of taels to the poses. The terms of this little rane Viceroy, for what are called special pur-
tion are unknown, it may be a loan or it may be something else, a friendly advance at a time when the pressure of the Court for money wherewith to defray the expenses of a certain comi addening the minds of even wealthy officials.
These loans and matters are but trifles, mere sprats set to catch th whale, compared to the gigantic concessions which Count Mitkiewiez has obtained from Viceroy Li Hung-chan "They sweep in everything of which China nds in need, in order to make her even as one of the new nations of the earth. Everything is to be done by means of an Amalgamated Bank—a title that refers we may presume to the union of American and Chinese capital with which it is to be formed. It is also to be managed by Americans and Chinese, and the understanding in Tientsin is that the former are to provide the greater part of the capital. We have not heard what the amount of the capital is to be, but we learn that it will be very large. It has been conjectured that some of the Silver Kings of America and other great men of money there are connected with the Philadelphia Syndicate, but it is also said and believed in well informed circles here that the enterprise owes its inception to and has merely the support of Messrs. Barker Brothers & Company, bankers and brokers of Philadelphia, a respectable house, but one which has not hitherto been known to have the control of hundreds of millions of dollars. The scheme of the Amalgamated Bank has for magnitude no precedent, comprising, as it does, finance in China and other countries upon an enormous scale; coinage; the issue of paper money; the dealing with provincial revenues, Within China it is to be more to China than the Bank of England is to England, outside of China it is to do for her Government and commerce what exchange banks and bankers are doing for other nations. But as if this was not enough, the Bank is to undertake the fina for railway construction, x, re-embanking, and putting in order of the Yellow River and 1 similarly troublesome waters, besides other vast engineering works, the amount of capital required for all these
of financiers might is so large that the most powerful; group themselves with the providing of The Statutes, as the preliminary ereement between the parties are of enormous length, very complic their purport is to catch the Chin in every way and to give every possi means of exit to the Syndicate. What wonder then that men of business refuse to idler the scheme as prac ticable or as likely to be ratified either capitalists or by_ the Throne. But the American negotiator has ingeniously got the Chinese to consent to a method which may smooth some of his diflicultie concession is'saleable separatel if it ives an appearance of feasibility to the plan can scarcely fail to injure the credit of China in foreign coun the head of affairs in Spain concessions for every' conceive able object: that Spain needed, and for many others which she did not need, were given to almost every applicant, upon conditions that were more favourable to the Marshal and the concessionaries than to the country. They was afterwards hawked about London and Paris, and indeed everywhere that it was thought a market could be found for them. The credit of Spain, never very good, suffered greatly and even legitimate enterprises in her were neglected, for capitalists refused to look at them, simply from the bad odour into which the reckless conduct of the administration had brought everything Spanish, There is a danger of similar ill fortune falling on China from these concessions. The Chinese are an acute race of business men, accustomed to take things soberly, and it is no wonder that already munuurs are heard in Tientsin, that many high officials were much agita ated, and that the common opinion there was strongly against the surprising transaction, into which the Viceroy had been led by the clique of advisers which he has about him. We have yet to consider whether it is possible that the improvements for which concessions have
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.