For some months past two simultaneous awakenings have been in progress. In the one case the dormant condition Tis been one of ages, in the other of years only. It is next to impossible to say exactly how long China has been asleep; it is quite possible to tell within very narrow limits when England was wide awake, That of late years she has nodded more than once is known to everybody except the stay-at-homes who partake of her somnolency. But not only has China at last started up out of her long, long sleep, but Great Britain, fresh from ber forty winks, is bearing her company, not a little astonished at what has happened during the interval. here is ample evidence of this in Press and Parliament, in delegations to the Prime Minister, and the many other ways in which a free and wide-awake people makes its voice heard. But beyond this we have nothing tangible as yet. Concessions, some of them very promising, have not yet been put to practical test.
With regard to China, on the other hand, the proofs that she really is awake ate satisfactory so far as they go. Particularly rich in potentiality are the alterations in the Government examinations, and the edict which we lately. suromarised respecting now colleges for Western learning, There are, we are told, to be three grades of schools or colleges. Departmental and district city schools of the third class, prefectural city schools of the second, and Provincial Capital schools of the first class. 'I'he provincial authorities are to report within two months on the present educational condition of their various domains, but a uew orders of things is at once to be inaugurated, and Western learning is to proceed side by side with Chinese study. The edict further proceeds to give directions as to such important matters as provision of fands, and the curriculum to be followed. 4 All this is very gratifying to those who like ourselves, have lost no opportunity in recommending educational reform as a primary duty. But it must not be imagined that nothing of this has been done before. Reference to Dr. Fryers Educational Directory for China shows that at the end of 1895 there were over 500 foreign teachers and directors of schools scattered about here and there over the country. They were not all in the Yangtze Valley, neither were they all engaged in teaching Boglish, but the great majority of them were educated ladies and gentlemen with English as their mother tongue, and not a few were actually engaged, as their life's work, in giving instruction in it. How successful they have been.' is plain enough from the ever-incrensing numbers of educated Chinese. We have assisted Lately at the closing exercises of two Anglo-Chinese Colleges, that of St. John's at Jessfield, and that attached to Dr. Allen's mission in Hongkew. It is impossible to speak too highly of the work being done at these institutions, and those of similar nature, such as the C. M. S. school under Mr. Moule, for example. Students graduate from these -year by year with minds enlightened not merely by contact with educated men, but the effect of the stimulus afforded whenever a study is made of a foreign' tongue. They number thousands in the Yangtze valley alone: those with a less knowledge, but still with ability to read and write may be counted by tens of thousands, while a sufficient smattering of English and "pidgin" English is the proud possession of hundreds of thousands more. Could there be a more "effective occupation than this? We have borrowed a term much in evidence of late in West African affairs, where a corporal's guard, a flagstaff, and a bugle were held sufficient proof of occupation. Should there ever be any question as to the prior attachment of the Yangtze Valley, we English shall at any rate be able to prove the strength of our wooing by the spread of our language.
There has always been a division of opinion amongst the missionaries as to the importance of English. Some have held that it is unnecessary, that its results are unsatisfactory, and that Wen-li is sufficient for all possible purposes, Others hoist their English colours and nail them to the mast. Both sides are in the right as usual. It would indeed be a work of supererogation to teach alittle coolie boy in the wilds of Szechuan to declaim "'I'o be or not to be." But when the little coolie gives place to the miniature mandarin the case is quite different. Every argument which learned men have been able to discover—and they are very many—in favour of the study of Latin and Greek by European boys is rue of the study of English by Chinese youth. Do they want noble models of eloquence, of declamation, of persuasion, and profundity of thought Phe English language provides them. Do they want those riches of the West which their own stereotyped tongue so markedly lacks? Let them go to English for them. Do they want to know what truth, virtue, and freedom mean? In no language living or dead can they learn it more thoroughly than in the language of the British Bible, of Milton, and Shakespeare. English has one overwhelming advantage over Greek and Latin; it is a living tongue. Ithas an overwhelming advantage over French and German; it is spoken by hundreds of millions as against their tens of millions; it is the business language of the Globe; it is the diplomatic and social language of the Far Bast, and is destined—if continental statisticians are to be believed—to be the prevailing language of the world in a measurable period of time. Missionaries therefore
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.