(enor ovR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
It is already apparent that one of the incidental results of the present year of floods, is to be the reconsideration of the whole subject of foreign relief to the Chinese, in time of general calamity. It is easy to lay down general principles, which shall be theorem tical rules, but when the distress comes, it often becomes evident to the most sanguine that there is no possible opportunity, for the application of such principles. There are many public works which are required in every part of China. How simple, then, to set thave who need relief at work upon the public enterprises which vitally need prosecution. But in China it is seldom the case that the simplest way is the Dest way, for the reason that it is often a wholly impracticable way. A case in point may be recalled from the entertaining, though now almost forgotten, volumes in which Dr. Rennie, who accompanied the British army to Peking in 1860, gives an account of their unique experiences. During the winter of 1860-61 the troops were in quarters at Tientsin, and were much smoked by the immediate proximity of the unspeakably dirty ditch of that trium-pliantly fragrant metropolis. As there was obviously no way to flush and thus purify it, the commander determined to cover it up with earth, against which the Chinese civil authorities vainly protested that it was "no go", Buta British army officer generally knows what he is about, and if not he is unlikely to receive volunteer opinions from ignorant outsiders, especial. ly if they belong to an inferior race,' which has just been conquered. Accordingly the covering of the ditch was carried out, and no trouble was experienced until the early spring, when there began to be ominous signs of a tremendous fermentation going on below, with liability to an outbreak much more detrimental to the health of the troops than the original open ditch. The com. mander was at a loss what to do, for to uncover it again, was to reduce the ditch to the exact state in which he found it. The merchants, however, came forward, and in order to persuade the military man to yield, cheerfully offered to clean out the trench at their own expense. As there was plainly nothing else to be done, this was Ritch comparatively empty, instead of permitted, and the result was an unsavoury full one. The lesson which Dr. Rennie drew from this incident was the undesirability of interfering on a large scale with the smitary (or insanitary) conditions of Oriental cities, unless we are sure of our ground, and of power to carry through a Scheme which is once undertaken. Foreigners in China see so much which requires remedy, and perceive at the same time that those who ought to be most interested in the righting of what is wrong care nothing whatever about the matter, so long as it does not affect them—foreigners seeing this on every hand and all the time, can scarcely refrain from taking an oar themselves, especially when as so often they are invited to (or coerced into) a benevolent subscription for the benefit of the Chinese ple. The feeling of foreigners on this point is well illustrated by a correspondent of the Nes a short time since, who was disgusted by a proceeding in a Chinese court which violated Occidental notions of justice. After rehearsing the facts, he cries, "As an English gentleman I ask, How long are the Chinese to be allowed to practice these deviltries in our midst? Let the assessors tell these savages that we' won't have it". To observations of this nature the Chinese are profoundly indiffarent, and even if they were not, the only reply would be the famous retort of the great municipal robber of New York, What are you going to do about it?" And this is a question which it is desirable to amply considered, before Relief Commitiees are embarked upon such public works as river embankments and the like. It is generally a matter of extreme uncertainty from an engineering point of view, what ought to be done, and also a matter of great probability, from a practical point of view, that whatever is attempted will be blocked by the officials, who have the best reasons for not wishing interference on the part of foreigners, the motive of which is at present as incomprehensible to them as the latest theory of the Glacial Epoch.
One of the permanent assets of the floods prevalent during the current year will be the definite knowledge, on the part of all readers of all papers published in China, that such times as these are productive of social anarchy wherever in the empire they occur. This has been known to a considerable number of persons for a long time, but the reports already printed from widely separated districts of battles between villagers over rival banks have been more numerous within " single month than in the preceding decade. The same things have always been taking place in China, under like conditions, but the knowledge of the facts has not come to foreigners. A the time of the great floods in the lotte years of T'ung Chih, hardly any foreigners were living in the' interior of the provinees most liable to flood, while now alike In one district, that of Lini, north of the Yelk River in this province, there are eight villages surrounded by one gigantic rampart, originally thrown up to keep out the marauders with which Shantung was overrun after the T'ai-ping rebellion. Within this rampart are the homes of severa persons who are in active service as and military officials, and no attempt has been made to break down their wall. The rest of that region is almost ruined by the water from the T'uhai river, a stream which runs almost parallel with the Yellow Ri and is intended to act as a side pipe in time of floods. This year the smaller river broke, and inundated a district to the north' of it. At a distance of some thirty-five li to the north, the villagers had the Tru Bla, in case ie broke its banks, from thrown up a bank to prevent the waters of
overflowing them. Still farther to the north was another bank of this nature, and farther on, three more, at irregular intervals. These different banks all ran east and parallel with the T'u hai river, resembling the bars of a grate. Each bank owed its origin to the people to the north of it, whom it was designed to protect. As soon as the T'u Hai broke over the first bank, the people in the interval between this bank and the next, finding their houses soaked down and falling about their heads and their crops ruined, hastened to the bank to the north 2 cut it, in order to let water out. The people in the space stil Eerther north, hastened to. the *defeace. Battles ensued, between men of two different counties; six men were killed, or drowned, and some sent as prisoners to the yamen. Eventually the bank gave way, and' then the came an. who. fed. best defending their own bank, sallied out to attack the one next north, and in the end all the banks were either cut or overflowed, and the whole district to Wutingfu ruined, as has been already explained in letters published by the Chairman of the Relief Committee in Shanghai, At pro-sent very serious lawsuits in this district are pending, many lives having been lost. A wei-yuan has arrived from the provincial capital, and the important and very nu-usual thing to be noted is, that both sides are in the right. Precedents and authorities may easily be found both for attack and for defence. The only certain thing, in the midst of so much uncertainty, is that inthe language of the Spanish proverb, whether the stone hits the pitcher, or the pitcher hits the stone, it goes ill with the pitcher, which is the people.
It is a singular example of the condition of an empire covered with a spider-web of telegraph lines, that after two months of rumours and disaster the people of this ion do not yet know whether the Yellow River has repeated the experiment of 1887, and gone south, or not. We see men every day from the vicinity of the river, and sometimes the report is, no water at all in the Yellow River channel. Then we next hear that the water is higher than ever. The last story is that there is not enough to float a junk, but no one asks where it has gone. The most intelligible account which we have heard was from a young man of unusual bright+ ness, who stated confidently that the Yellow River has gone ' north." " Where?" he was asked, To Moukden," was the immediate reply, to the old home of the Emperor"! This was not said in jest, but in sober earnest. That the Yellow must cross six other rivers and a range of mountains to get to Moukden, was a mat> ter of no moment. It has done stranger things than that, and as long does not drown us, who cares where it oes? The water on the great flat which ws inundated six weeks ago, is not down, owing to the great breach de by the people, with the con-of the authorities. 'Don't ask me to authorise you to cut the bank," the mall official (erh-ya) in charge in' that region is reported to have said to those who waited upon him. This was rightly understood to be a permission to go and do as they liked, provided he was not involved.
But it was still necessary that the district magistrate should be consulted, and as he is related by marriage to the neighbouring magistrate at Techou, the two held a con ference, as is reported, to consider the propriety of opening a way for the water to flow out. But in China it is always safer not to take responsibility than to take it, sv the conclusion to which the officials came was this: Chtien wan pleb po ("On no account open breach "). This was cor-reetly understood as a license to do as they liked, and accordingly the breach was prompt ly made! That the villagers did not fail to get at the true inwardness of the matter is evident from the fact that when the opening was once made, no questions were ever asked of any one.
In the higher parts, the land already begins to reappear, but the crops are ruined. rear numbers of boats have been hastily constructed by those who can raise funds enough, and in some cases it is the blacklegs of a village who get the boats made first, so as to use them to steal such crops as way be left above water. By this pru-cess the ordinary conditions are reversed the poorer people who take to water-stealing have plenty of food, while the bvatless and more honest folk have nothing to eat The prices charged for the hire of boats are very high, and an enterprising individual can easily recover the cost of a $20 boat, by letting it out for a few weeks, It is pitiful to meet men wading out in the deep water up to their necks, breaking off the heads of their kaoliang, which they throw down into the water, and then home as a raft! Travellers from the regions to the north-west. in Chihli report that the floods there are even worse than in this district. The H'u t'o (or P'u t'a0) river has done its usual quota of damage, and over a wide belt on each side there is only devastation. In the Chingchou district, the locusts, which are the inevitable
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.