Tue degradation of Li Feng-pud, late Minister to Germany, and the trenchant terms in which it was announced in the Peking Gazette, are no doubt fresh in the memory of our readers, As we! remarked at the time, there need be no question a8 to the guilt or innocence of the disgraced official; that he was very fur from pure, as we understand purity, is no less then certain; and that he might have escaped the heavy punishment meted out to him had be thought pardon worth the purchase, is probable in the highest degree. We need not suppose for our purpose that Li Feng-pao is a sinner above all the other Galileans; be is simply a common, tricky, somewhat under-educated mav, who} has made money in the manner usual among mandarins, and who prefers to keep it rather than to spend it witha view to future employment. That, however, is not the point with which we are concerned to-day, There is a brand lesson to be loamed from the incident, and one which we hope will not be thrown away upon those Earopean officials in China who are expected to keep their Governments an courant with what is passing in this country.
In the firat place, then, the degradation of Li, from whatever cause, imphos and involves slight to the Powers to whom lo was formerly accredited. It is a fact, not, we- believe, generally known, that Li Feng-pao received honourable decorations from no fewer than three European Sovereigns. It is also a fact that in the Decree} stripping bim of his rank and office, no specific charge was brought against Lim;—he was simply denounced for sycopheucy, dishonesty, and self-seeking in vague and general way, and declared disqualified from ever holding office again under the Imperial Government. Now euch @ withering sentence as this, passed upon a man who had just arrived from Europe laden with some of most coveted distinctions, is a grave slight upon the Sovereigns at whose hands he received them, The only way in which this somewhat minister aspect of the affair could have been avoided, would have been for the Ya-mea to compel the recipient to return hia decorations to the Ministers repre-souting the countries in question, and to furnish their Excellencies with a fall and satisfactory statement showing that Li Feng-pao wae unworthy of the, honours that had been conferred upon him, Bat, as matters stand, the Emperor of Germany—to take a single to England, has never been permitted to see the Emperor since his return, and, indeed,. has been condemned to obscurity in his native town, it would be strange if no suspicion arose that popularity on the part of Chinese presentatives among foreigners was regarded by the Imperial authorities with very marked disfavour, The dilemma in the case of Li Féng: pao is, we take it, complete, He is either a good man or a bad one. If the former, be can only owe his degradation to the anger of the Governmentat his having received barbarian honour, and thereby sullying the reflected glory of his Master. If 88 to keep ud decorations which European Sovereigns lave conferred upon him; for a man unworthy to servo his own Sovereign can scarcely be held worthy to receive honours from any other. Now it is well enough known that on the return of Li Feng-pao to Peking, he was on several occasions hospitably welcomed at the German Legation, as a person who had been sent off from Berlin with flying colours. When, therefore, and the Deoree desi who associated with disreputable people, the German Minister was somewhat taken aback; and, with something less is usual adroitvess, applied to the Yamen to know whether Li was a low character before they sent him to Germany, whether he bad learned to be som Europe, or whether he bad been corrupted since his return, With ineffable politeness the Yamen replied that Li had deteriorated since he arrived i from Europe in Peking—a decidedly clover reply, but scarcely one from which Here von Brandt can have deed much personal satisfaction. We, at least, take the liberty of thinking differently, and consider that Li ought never to have been appointed by one Emperor accepted by the other. It is not likely that the Emperor of Germany would accept, as British Ambassador at Bor anslator out of Wool-
Inter out of Kiangnan Arsen ann unuderstrapper, a mau of low birth, with no antecedents to speak of, and even less education. Li ought never to have been: sent as Minister to any European Court. He was not a proper person, and no amount of gratuitous rank cou~ ferred upon him for the occasion could make him so. Ho might have dono fairly well in life had he been left in Chino, and have made a respectable=by which we do not necessarily mean an incorrupt—Che-hsien, But his appointment as instances placed in the invidious Minister to Europe was, we cannot but position of having bestowed an houonrthink, a very serious blunder; aud.the able Order upon a mau who is forth-moral we wish to point is that, if China with denounced by his own Sovereign desires to be well and efficiently rep as unworthy to serve him again in avy sented abroad, she must draw her men capacity whatever, and who is drummed from a class which is at any rate held out of the Chinese Diplomatic Service jin honour among the Chinese them-disgrace. And when we consider the selves. This is a matter which Eu. situation in connection with the fact ropean representatives in this ovuutry that Kuo Sang-i'ao, the first Minister would do well to consider. Tt may not be within the province of a Consul of even a Minister to dispute the nomination of the Emperor, tut it most oct tainly is within the province of such a man to keep his Gov formed as to the raw of the men who are chosen, and to let the Tsung-li Yamen know that he is fully alive to the suitability or unfit ness of the nominees. Had a proper watch been kept in this particular, the appointment of that very uncivil cub, Liu Hsi-bong, who took his cook and lis concubine to Court in Germany, would have been impossible; and we think that, similarly, the selection of Li Feng-pao might with equal propriety been overruled. England and Russia, it is only fair to state, have lees ground of complaint in this particular, Kuo Sang-t'ao, whatever may Lave been his private shortcom+ ings, was at least a mau of education, while Ch'ang Hou and the Marquis Tseng are noblemen of high.rauk, illustrious ancestry, and audoubted culture, Lin, the Minister-cleat to Bugland, does not, it is true, enjoy all these a vantages; it is however reasonable to hope that he will prove equal to the responsibilities of his now post, and no unworthy successor of the eminent di" plomatist whom he displaces.
BOARD OF TRADE RETURNS, 1665, THe Board of Trade Returns for December have a fow figures of a more cheerful character than those of the pra-coding months of Inst year. The mont important of these is an improvement the quantity of cotton manufactures orted to eastern markets, which wore greater than those of the corre ponding month in 1883 and 1884. The total export of these goods was 353 millions of yards in December, 1884, and 378 millions last December. The Returns show a falling off in the values of yt fabrics, metals, and other ports, but in the quantities there i general increase, and the improvement in this respect is especially noticeable in the goods sent to Iadia and China in the last mouth of last year, The total exports of iron during' the mouth exhibit a decrease in value of 11 per cent. bus only 5 por cent. in quantity, compared with December 1884, and iv the export of this moral to the United States there is an me crease in all kinds of from 7,600 ta 15,300 tous. Prices are lower tha they were in 1884, but as regards the cost of exports this is at least partly covered by the decrease in the cost of importa, 80 that the decline in recent markets does not necessarily involve loss to English producers of the whole difference. The decline in imports into England in December was in value £1,930,382, of which within £100,000 was on raw materials for textile.mauu. factures.
the Imports for 1885, show a decrease of £15,940,000, and of this fal ing of £12,653,000., arises on raw, materials for textile manufactures, and.;
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.