24th June, Ir was a very great relief to learn by the telegram that we published Rousseat has succeeded in forming yesterday afternoon that M. Waldeck-
a Cabinet. It is now more than ten days since M. Dupuy resigned, and the situation was becoming serious, the gravest fears being entertained as to what might happen if France was left muck longer without a Government; and things looked very black when the President's appeal to M. Bourgeois failed. It was impossible to believe that there were no statesmen in France patriotic enough to throw themselves into the breach: none who felt themselves strong enough to keep order if the return to France of Captain Dreyfus really causes an explosion.
It is a fairly strong Cabinet that Waldeck-Rousseau has collected, the only relic of M. Dupuy's Cabinet being M. Delcassé, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. General Gallifet is a popular soldier and is not an Anti-Dreyfusard, and M. de Lanessan has had some experience of the world outside France. M. Loubet is a consistent Liberal, and he has got some consistent Radicals in the Cabinet; they and their chief M. Waldeck Rousseau will well deserve the thanks of their country if they pilot France safely through the dangers that threaten the Constitution from the passions that the finding of the Court of Cassation' has aroused. It may be noted that the new Cabinet is the thirty-seventh since the fall of the Empire in 1870, interest into them, whichever may be the port at which he is stationed. His report on the trade of Kiukiang n 1898 is no exception to this rule; and old residents who remember Kiukiang as a large tea-port, with a considerable foreign population and a race-course, and who have come to regard it of Into years as almost entirely decayed, will be surprised to read the opening paragraph of the The exceptionally busy appearance of our port during 1898, especially during the Intter half of the year; the thousands of coolies constantly "hurrying with their heavy burdens to and from the various wharves; the many steamers daily arriving and departing with full cargoes; the day, from morning till night. along' the general air of bustle and activity day' after entire front of our Settlement, all led onlookers t" expect thnt our statistics for the year would show some brilliant results, These anticipations have been wel fulfilled; for, although our great staple—tea—hns shown no signs of healthy revival, and although foreign opium (which used to swell our revenue and value tables to such a great extent) continues to exhibit the downward tendency which has charac-tensed it of recent years, the general volume of our trade has been greater than ever previously recorded—making the past year, in fact, a record one,—with Importand Export values exceeding those of any other year in the history of the port, and showing, as was never so clearly shown before, the richness and the capabilities of this important section of the Yangtze Valley. The total value of our trade amounted to Hk. Tls. 17,500,552, or Hk. Tls. 2,634,989 greater than the total for 1897—the previous highest year,—and placing Kiukiang on a level with, if not on a higher plane than, such important ports ai Foochow, Ningpo, and Amoy.
Barring opium duty and tonnage dues there was a significant increase all the branches of the Customs revenue last year, the British flag contributing 73 per cent to the total revenue, and the Chinese nearly all the remainder. To those who remember the days when the steamers Fur East and Robert Lowe and others, and well-known clipper ships used to take in cargoes for London at Kiukiang, it is a shock to read that "the direct foreign trade is too i significant to call for any comment. The exports of tea, however, were on a very satisfactory scale, while "the mantifacture of brick and tablet. teas is still vigorously maintained, two manufactories being constantly at work throughout the autumn months, and the erection of a third one being now in contemplation." Mr. Hughes' quotes from a prominent tea-man the following remarks on last year's season Keemuns.—This district, which was formerly bought nearly entirely for the British market, has now found favour with the Russians; and this competition has.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.