13th Oct. Our tientsin correspondence informs us that HE, Li Hung-chang has returned in the best of health, in the highest spirits, and quite enthusiastic about his Western experiences; we are glad to hear it, but none the less are we sure that the Chinese world wil wag on just the same, in all the serenity ofts ancestral calm. The lump is too great to feel the Jeaven of new ideas which the special Ambassador under the stimulus of an enlarged knowledge might. wish to introduce. We say might wish, for to us.it is highly improbable that he has fallen in love with Occidental ways; we rather imagine it is the other way, that he is more than ever assured that Etast is East and West is West, and that our methods can no more be grafted on to Chinese stock than the gulf which divides our minds and sympathies can be bridged. Human nature is an indefinitely modifiable entity, but none the less does it harden and become less receptive "with age. It would be a psychological miracle if a man of seventy-five years whose mind has been steadily biassed in one direction by -heredity, education, and the experience of a long life were suddenly to throw overboard his own past, and take up a new present simply as the result of a five months' itinerant picnic and a short. hob-nob with the great ones of the West. Man's heart is a strange nidus for absurd incompatibilities, and we can well imagine Li sniffing up the evil odours of 'I'entsin native city avd humming the Celestial analogy of "There's no place like home." Neither is there: and much as Cetewayo ex-prosed unfegived delight in craming mite his flea-ridden hut after visiting Windsor Castle, Li and his suite have probably returned home more -than {ever convinced that their own ways are the best ways, Had the tour been made thirty years ago when the Grand Secretary was still modifiable and receptive, and still had a long career of power in front of him, we should have been less despondent as to the sequences and influences of the visit; Li' day is j Almost done; and neither China's policy nor Chinese officialdom will profit much by the experiences he has collected. In this direction it is greatly to be regretted that a greater number of the younger and coming men, and especially of the Manchu princes, were not attached to his suite. No representation that he can make can give to his colleagues in Peking a just sense of Russian solidarity, of German organisation, of French intellect, of British and American industry and resources, A. tale consists as much in the ears of the hearers as in the mouth of the narrator, and Peking officialdom is deaf as a post to the story of foreign merit; it lacks the imagination to receive the plain trath of obvious fact as long as that fact is at a distance: were Li to aim at the rule of Moses and lead his countrymen out of their ignoble Egypt they would not follow: moreover he would but lead them into a desert.
We have no faith in any new departure us a consequence of the Special Mission: what the keen sword of Japan, piercing to the quick, could not effect is not going to be brought about by vagrant Oriental pageant even when headed by a striking personality. "China's awakening" if it ever comes to pass will be brought about by means more commensurate with the greatness lof the end. We do not pretend that the Mission will have no issues; it has already fulfilled its primary raison @étre—that of furnishing a distinguished Chinese representative at the great Russian state festival; in this respect, it is to be noted that China has broken with her own traditions, and has established a precedent which augurs well for the decent burial of many absurd pretensions, 'I'hen again there can no reasonable doubt that the Russian Foreign Office took occasi of Li's presence to advance its polic; is more than probable that the price of the Czar's intervention ye Liaotung has been fixed or at least adumbrated this, however, even if settled now will not be made manifest to the world at large for some time to come. Secondly, after some haggling, tariff revision of some sort will be secured; et voile tout. These results might well have been secured without the trouble and expense of a special Mission, though it is undeniable that Li's personal eminence and, let us add, his ability and charm may have done much to conciliate opposition to a vow tariff avd to mitigate Russian obduracy anent.territory.
There is an old saw about catching aged birds by saline additions to their caudal plumage; we are glad to.note that Lord Salisbury avoided the fowler; the Prime Minister frankly stated that he would do nothing in tariff revision without consulting the British commercial interests. From our point this dictum more than justifies the whole Mission: it would distinctly tend to raise the prestige and appreciation of bodies like the China Association and Chambers of Commerce. We do not suppose that other Foreign Ministers were less astute than our own on this matter, Among the minor features of the tour perhaps the most pleasing is the kindly spirit in which Li Hung-chang has responded to all the efforts made to render his visit enjoyable and profitable to himself, He confesses himself deeply sensible of the kindness extended to him in the court, in the press, and in the streets. He recognised a certain sound at Taku Bar as British cheers, and his subsequent remarks to.our countrymen showed he had been deeply impressed by the friendly bearing of our crowds. "'here is a significant lesson in this which we forbear to press at the moment, as we do not wish to detract from His Excellency's enjoyment. We are glad to know he has returned stronger in body and mind and offer our congratulations on this happy issue.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.