6th March.
Cxiva looms so large in our horizon here that we are apt to feel perhaps a little resentful if Chinese affairs do not get a corresponding share of public attention at home. Yet we know that this can hardly be, even in the big gooseberry season. Indeed five years ago a riot took place at a 'I'reaty Port in which every foreign house but one was gutted, and the foreigners barely escaped with their lives, yet, as far as we then read and can now recollect, not single paragraph on the subject appeared in any home paper. it is perhaps needless to say, to the! probably by the Central News Agency. Weénchow Riot of 1885. Things seem, however, to have since improved. A fair gauge of the amount of interest taken nowadays in Chinese matters is afforded by the length and number of the entries under the word China in the index to the Times Weekly Edition for the past year. The index occupies thirty-five columns, of which. little over half a column is devoted to China, France and India each engage nearly two columns, Ireland a column and three quarters, Germany half a column less, Russia three-fourths and Japan one-fifth of a column, There were only three leading articles, properly so-called, on Chinesesubjects, but in addition to these we find six contributed original papers. The leaders are on the New T'runk Railway, (September 13th) the Trade of China (September 27th) and the recognition of foreign aid R.A. in Famine Relief (December 27th). The first is based on a contributed paper on the railway Memorials of Chang Chih-tung and Liu Ming-chuan, the second on the Customs Returns for 1888, and the third on the news, which about that time had reached London, of the Emperor's assent to Viceroy 'I'séug's reposal to bestow a button on Mr.
drummond and honorary tablets (or what an Australian paper facetiously called "the Son of Heaven's postcards") on the most distinguished contributors to the relief fund. Allusion is made in the last article to the shely-ing of the Trunk Railway scheme, concerning which scheme the editors had at first been, and not unnaturally, exceedingly jubilant. The other original papers are on Roman Catholic Missionaries (January 4th), a sketch of the means taken to weaken the French Protectorate; on Protestant Mission Work (May 31st)—a compilation from the Chinese Recorder; on the Navigation of the Upper Yangtze (June 21st)—a review of the Kuling affair from the beginning; on the Government of China (Oct. 4th, and 11th), and on the Emperor and his Father, Oct. 4th. These papers seem to be all from the same hand, except that on the Government of China, a bit (or rather several bits, for it is tediously long) of scissors and paste work worthy of Mr. Boulger or Mr. W. B. Dunlop. Unlike the other contributions it is written by some one at home, a fact betrayed by a dozen little slips such as "the Tsiangkun was invested with the higher title of 'l'sungtuh," "the boating population and actors fill the position of slaves from which they are only relieved by taking the Siutsai degree, which never happens with regard to the former, and rarely in the case of the latter," "the revenue derived from foreign Customs exceeds tive millions sterling, now that the likin [likin generally] is paid as part of the import duty."
By far the greater number of entries consist of extracts from papers and iodicals published or written out ere. These are either quoted verbatim We refer,{or have been previously adapted Phis system of adaptation is perhaps necessary, but it is occasionally carried a little too far. There is a short account, for instance, of the fire at the Temple of Heaven, in which it is stated, correctly enough, that the building destroyed was the blue-tiled shrine containing the Imperial Tablets. But the adaptor spoils everything by explaining that "owing to this unfortunate accident the sacrifice on the altar by fire of a bullock, though it will be performed at the usual time, must take place in the open air"—the fact being, of course, that the burnt offerings are always and necessarily consumed in the open air, and in quite a different part of the ample enclosure. The papers extracts from which are acknowledged this year are the China Review, the Chinese Recorder, the Chinese Times, the Journal of the C.B.
.AS., the London and China Telegraph, and the W.-C. Herald. Often, however, the debt is only admitted to be to. "China papers" or, more vaguely still, "the mail from Chiva." Our translations from the vernacular press and the Peking Gazette are availed of to a considerable extent, and the Consular Trade Reports have been largely overhauled. Excerpts are given from the British Consular Reports for Chinkiang, Canton, Tientsin, Hankow, Ichang, can Heport for Tientsin, the French for Ningpo and Shanghai, from the Ameri-
Canton, and the Customs Yellow books on Tea, on Native Opium in Manchuria, on Silk, and on the general trade of China for 1888.
What after all we are chiefly concerned to note, however, is the nature and amount of China news provided by the past year's Times. Besides the discursus on Missionaries, the Kuliny, Prince Chun and the Grand Trunk Railway we have as news items the erection of a new Peitang Cathedral at Pekitig; Quong art's visit to Canton the riots at Chinkiang and, later, the compensation paid; the appointment of a new Minister to England; the marriage of the Emperor (a very brief account) and the banquet to the Foreign Representatives; honours to Sir R. Hart's ancestors; completion of the Langson-Lung-chow telegraph; the great storm at Hongkong; the lunch which augurated the most recent dredging of the Woosung bar; the riot at Hankow; death of the Viceroy of Yun-kwei; the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.