The Thirty Years War is just. closing, or rather the thirtieth year of the war is closing, not the war itself. By the phrase "Thirty Years War," we do not mean a contest between Roman Catholics and Protestants such as devastated Europe in the seventeenth century, and was ended by the Peace of Westphalia, We mean the thirty years which have elapsed British military oticer stood just, enclosure of the Temple to Earth near Peking (the walls of which had been breach-for the purpose) with a watch in his hand to give the signal to "fire," when the hands should have pointed to the hour of twelve noon. The object of the discharge of the British artillery was to break down the Anting gate of Peking, and let in the allies, It often seems a pity that that dit charge of the heavy guns never took place; we should a9 much enjoy knowing for certain what would have been the effect of modern cannon upon the solid ramparts of the ancient capital. But it was not to be. A short time before the order to ''fire" was to be uttered, the cry was raised, "Open! Open," and Peking was at the disposal of the conquerors. It is not strange that this triumph filled the minds of the English and of tke French with the most sanguine hopes of the results which might be expected to follow, hopes which it must be owned were not at the time unreasonable. Lord John Russell expressed himself as abundantly satisfied with the ensuing convention signed between Great and China, The' Emperor had apologised for is breach of faith of th year before, China was fined, Her Majesty's government was free from' tangling engag cements, openings had been made for trade, the coolie business was regulated, and Hongkong was relieved from serious The right of residence in ly secured, and scarcely was the treaty signed befure ters were in Peking, where they successors have been ever since, It was affirmed that all the troubles which characterised the relations between foreign nations and China previous to 1860, were largely due to the fact that it was impossible to negotiate with the head of the Chinese Government directly, but only through distant viceroys,' who were powerless to advance business,' but marvellously efficient in obstructingit. Opinions doubtless differ as to the practical value of the residence of Ministers at the Chinese capital, but it would have been rather depressing to the principals concerned, if they could have foreseen that a clear-headed historian, (Mr. Justin McCarthy) writing twenty years later, would be able with much apparent reason to say of the capture of Peking, The practical results were not very great. Perhaps the must important gain to Europe was the knowledge that Peking is by no means so large city as we had all imagined it to be."
It is not our purpose to represent the acts of the nations which opened Peking or of any other of the nations having relations with China as in all respects justifiable, for they were not. It is a melaucholy circumstance that pure philanthropy is not a practical motive in the conduct of states in the last half of the nineteenth century, avy more than in the centuries that have gone before, But there can scarcely be a question that, in their general purpose, the Western nations were in the right, and that in her purpose China was i wrong. That matter requires no arguing now, and argument has long since ceased to be of any use, The only point to which we wish to direct attention, is that the struggle which bevan thirty years ago, is still going on, and that the results of the'long contest are by no means such as we supposed they would be. It makes no difference in what direction we turn, when ther to trade alone, which was the direct occasion of the war, or to the results of the efforts to introduce into China Western science, arts, or religion, the truth every where confronts us that the ratio of the progress realised, to the progress anticipated, is a very humble one. Some success in all these departments there undoubtedly has been; but. consider the vast forces of opposition which all along the line have been aroused, and how practically efficient they have been. Think of all the expectations which have been based upon the potent object-lesson of an honest administration of Imperial Maritime Customs, and what, so far as Chinese government goes, has been the practical utility of that lesson Think of all that was rationally hoped for from the education of so many prominent Chinese youths in Western lands, and what has been the net outcome of all that Think of the vast mass of scientific knowledge which has been poured into China through every available avenue, with an unwearied assiduity worthy of all commendation, but with an apparent absence of practical result, which to those who have worked hardest at the task must at times be most depressing. What the Chinese desire of Western science, is to possess themselves of a means by which their own advantages of number and cohen sion may be reinforced, so that China may be a first-class power. Are we far astray if we say that, so far as nine hundred and ninety nine out of every thousand influential Chinese are concerned, this is all that they want of it? In his late report, Her 'Majesty' Consul-General in Shanghai uses language to which we have already directed attention, and toward which too much attention' can searcely be directed, follows: Until railways are made, Chinese steamers are allowed to ply freely on the inland waters, and means of communication generally improved, thereby facilitate ing a greater interchange' of products than now possible, we need not expect any large or sudden expansion of our import trade." How much is doing in the line of improving the internal means of communication' of the empire is by this time pretty well known to us all, The obituary of each of the countless successive schemes which within the past do-cade have been hatched and more or less developed, for the introduction into China of railways on a practical scale, might be compendiously expressed in the words the Wise Man, "This also is vanity and vexation of spirit." As to what is really going on in Peking, we do not pretend to any information whatever, uor do we desire any. We think, however, that we know quite as well as any one can tell us, that there is nothing at all going on there which has any practical bearing on the future of the empire. When we consider the manner in which the government has dealt with the problem of the Yellow River, one of the most serious problems which any government could have to confront, we seo in its present government no hope for China. When the Director-General of that terrible stream your or two ago memoralied the emperor suggest ing some practicable means of dealing with the difficulty, by means of foreign enginee! ing skill, his proposition was rebuked "premature and ostentatious"! The dit asters which he desired to remedy were somewhat ostentatious' also, and any remedy for evils of that standing could be hardly called premature' by anyone but a Chinese official. And now that these evil are repeated on an enormous scale, who is there that expects to see them dealt with at all, not to say remedied? Look at the K'aip'ing railway. Was there ever such an object lesson of the folly of a government which had so much provocation to be wise? When that railway ought to have been extended to double its present maximum etliciency, it was fortunate that it was not strangled outright, and now when it was covered by the floods and torn up for many miles bythe peasantry, the most progressive Governor-General in the empire seemed to take no more account of it than if it were one of the accidentally inundated dividing banks of a rice-field.
Still, there is no reason to despair. Either all history is mistaken mits teachings or in the end China must yield.—Itis only a question of time and in the long run time is what there is most of. We advise all our readers by no means to lose hope and continue to have firm faith in general ciples, which will conquer at last. Let us enter courageously on another Thirty Years War. And if that should still prove to be insufficient, Let us then extend the time thirty years more.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.