25rd Dec.
Canistwas, which at heme is chiefly a season of delight to the young, the welcome accorded to it by the old being for many reasons somewhat fictitious, is welcomed by all ages in Shanghai. Holidays are rare here, but we really} get one or two in Christmas week, and the Christmas bills, which are Supposed to make the season a terror to householders at home, are not any worse here at the end of December than at the end of any other month. At home the grown-up man dreads with justice the consequences of the feasting that custom enjoins at Christmas; here we live so well all the year round, that there is nothing on the Christmas table to specially appel us, Last, but not least, the family gatherings which look so inviting in the pictures in' Chrismas numbers,' but which are such Dead Sea aples in reality, are impracticable here. The ordinary man at home, whatever appearance of jollity he may put on, hates Christmas and is delighted when it is over: here he can have no possible reason for hating it, and may find plenty of reasons for enjoying it.
To most of us Christmas is much more the end of the year than the Bist of December is, and we naturally look back to consider how the past twelve mouths have treated us. Those of us who are Englishmen may congratulate ourselves that our country has gained. rade has improved and is improving. The boundaries of the Empire have been widened, and steps are still being taken for its consolidation. The confession of Pigott has removed a foul suspicion from the fame of one section of the members of the House of Commons. The Queen's government has been well carried on, and the ministry is still as firmly seated in the saddle, while the action of the classes in the dock strike has done something to bridge the gulf, which was never a very deep one, betire on rich and poor in London. If we are Americans, we may fairly rejoice in the continued and unparalleled growth of population and wealth; if we are Republicans we are pleased with the knowledge that our party is in power again; if we are Democrats, we can comfort ourselves with the thought that the recent gains in the State elections are an indication that our Frenchmen huve special reasons to be! arty will return to power in 1893. satisfied with the crucial year of the! centenary of the fall of the Bastille. heir: great exhibition has passed off! with a magnificent, success that was hoped for, if hardly expected. The general election has proved how rightly, those judged who never despaired the fortunes of the Republic; and the collapse of Boulangism has removed a danger which though never impressive, might have become so from the excit ability of the Paris mob. Germans good year. heir indefatigable young Emperor has won golden opinions wherever he has gone, and he has been always travelling. The disagreements between himself and his English relatives have passed away, his country is beginning te make a figure as a colonising power, and if Germania has always to stand girt with her sword, there is less prospect than there has been for many years that that sword will have shortly to be drawn. Alexander III is devoting himself to the removal of the great blot on Russia's fair fame, the system of exile to Siberia. The Nihilist and Panslavist agitations havenet succeeded in driving him to seek in foreign war an antidote to internal dissension. Italy continues to consolidate her unity, and bears uncomplainingly the weight of the heavy taxation necessitated by her military and naval reparations, and her bickerings with race have not resulted in any overt acts of unfriendliness. The melancholy suicide of his only son has given a sad blow to the Ymperor of Austria and King of Hungary, but his personal popularity has enabled him -to keep together his heterogeneous empire. The smaller countries of Europe have gone quietly on, one of them, Portugal, having to lament the loss of a much respected King; and monarchy has suffered another gentle shock in the amicable disappearance of the only Empire in the New World.
China continues to advance, if not as fast as we could wish. The Emperor has assumed the reins of power and the fetters of matrimony quietly and in due course, and the way in which the untoward accidents in Peking that have marked his accession have been received proves that superstition is not so. vital a force in China as it has been often represented to be. Railways have come within measurable distance of construction; and the strenuous attempt that -has been made to get the Telegraph Convention ratified has met again with the failure it merited; nor, from what we can learn, is there much likelihood of Mr. Coumany, at least, interesting himself in it farther. Personally or by his Ministers the young Emperor of China has shown and continues to shew an unwonted interest in the government of his empire, and a determination to promote reforms which promises well for the future.
Shanghai has not had a bad year all round. The wrecking of the Racquet Court will always be a blot on 1889 it was to be hoped that the precedent of the Fives Court would not have had such an imitation. The visit of the Hongkong cricketers has made the year memorable. The municipal history has been enlivened by the discussions as to the Garden Bridge, and there are who assert that the question is to be finally settled by a side-wind, as the steam-roller that has been ordered will have to be confined to Hongkew unless a new bridge is built. The year is also marked by the completion of the handsomest Gourt—that the municipality has ever public building—that behind theRacquet
yet undertaken in Shanghai. The local share list and the building that is going on all round will shew that it has not been an unprosperous year as far as business in concerned.
Personally, no doubt, there is none of us that has not had his troubles,—and his compensations. But whatever his troubles have been, he has this eompensation in Shanghai, that he may rely on receiving from his fellows a hearty sympathy and kindliness, an unvarying disposition to look with the most lenient and helpful eye on his mistakes and misfortunes, that are not always found in small communities. He may sometimes feel inclined to join in the bitter retrospect of Sir Alfred Lyall's Auglo-Indian "Let him ery, as thy blue dev seize him, O step-mother, careless as Fate, He may strive from thy bonds to release him, Thou hast passed him his sentence—Too Lay He has found what a blunder his youth is, His prime what a struggle, and yet Has to learn of old age what' the truth is In the Land of Regret."
But he must own that there is no place where there is more genuine friendliness to all who deserve it at all, than Shanghai.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.