Tux very interesting letter from the veteran missionary Dr. Grifith John which we published yesterday morning records the great news, most welcome to all who hope to see China again united and prosperous, that furlan is opened. This is a fit crown to Dr. John's unceasing work in China since he came here first in 1855. Happily, the time has not come for him yet to sing his " Nune Dimittis," but his joyful report has something of that strain in it: " Hunan is open. I have longed for many years to be able to pen that short sentence of three words, but could not do so till now. Once and again have years that Honan ce opening: bat I said during the past two or three
never till now have I been able to say that it was open. I can say so now, and my heart is full of joy as I do say it. Ido not mean to say that we shall have no further trials in Hunan; and that the missionary after this will find Hunan a bed of roses, Nothing of the kind. Difiiculties and trials are awaiting him there as in every other province. What I mean to say is that the old wall of Perttiion which excluded him from unau is thrown down, and that it will be his own fault if he does not enter in and take possession."
Ina most convenient little handbook published at home last year by Mr. Fisher Unwin, " How to read the War News from China," the compiler says of Hunan: "The Hunanese, although many of them have been distinguished in letters and otherwise, have a reputation for violence and rudeness, and this province has, of al! others, been the most antiforeign." This is the reputation that Hunan has enjoyed always in the past. It has been the birthplace of many of China's great men in the last century; the Tséngs, Generals and Statesmen, the great General Tso Tsung-tao, the great Admiral Peng Yii-lin, and our present Viceroy Liu Kun-yiareallHunan men. They are not courtiers, the Hunanese: but they have always set an example of great ability, patriotism, staunchness, and rugged' integrity. Anti-foreign they have generally been but devoted friends of all foreigners whom they once learnt to know and esteem; and foreign students of Chinese character have felt that when the Hunanese generally once began to know foreigners, they would prove thoroughly friendly and dependable. They are a proud people, pluming themselves on having successfully resisted the Taipings, and they like to think that theirs is a virgin province: Hunan men make the best soldiers, and those who employ them as boatmen on the Yangtze find them thoroughly staunch and reliable. Until quite recently, no foreigner could safely show himself openly in Hunan, and it will be remembered that when the Chinese Government first set about running a telegraph line through Hunan, the people drove those laying the line across the frontier, threw the poles into the river, and cut up the wire. They wanted no devils' inventions in their beloved province.
A change has been gradually going on of late in Hunan. Hunan men, like H.E. Liu Kun-yi, who have come into contact with foreigners i other parts of China, have found that they are not entirely detest table. News has reached cities in Hunan of the strides that towns on the Yangtze have made since they became treaty ports. The teas of Hunan, known in the trade as Oonams, have long been a link between the virgin province and the outside world. General Parsons has been in the province surveying for the railway which his syndicate has since sold out to the Belgians. The "Wan Kwoh Kang Pao" has penetrated the province and done much to enlighten the educated classes. Bible colporteurs and native evangelists have broken through the exclusiveness of the towns and set the people thinking. Steam launches have been traversing the lake and rivers. The preaching of the Viceroy Chang Chih-tuog in favour of a well-controlled reform and the wise adoption of western knowledge has had "its effect, and at last Dr. Griffith John, who has been untiring in his efforts to drag Hunan out of the mists of ignorance, has a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.