Oct, 25.
Wrru the fall of Kiukiang following closely upon that of Ichang it must be admitted that the cause' of the Hupeh: revolt has made notable progress, upon the lines predicted by its sympathizers elsewhere. How far those predictions were based upon intuitive knowledge of Chinese human nature, how far they were the outcome of real acquaintance with an organized plan of campaign. we are at liberty to ask. Nothing succeeds like success, as may be seen from the preparations of certain hot-headed young Chinese of Shanghai to go and join themselves to the revolutionary it Wuchang. At the: same time it is undeniable that the insurgents are entitled to be jabilant. From west to east they are practically supreme for the time being in the whole of the Hupeh reaches of the Yangtze. Whatever may be thought of the so-called fighting of last Wednesday and Thursday at Hankow, there is no' disguising the fact that the Impenalists ran away, when there is reason to believe that with a little determination they might have put an entirely different complexion upon the events of the day, leaving behind them stores which were even more important to the Impenalist cause than the lost position. Finally, it is clear that the insurgents have friends wherever they go, scarcely less amongst foreigners than among their compatriots; while the Manchus have no friends and are, moreover, in hard straits for the money that is all important to their cause.
Unquestionably the methods of revolution have been immensely' improved since the days of the Taiping Rebellion. It is immaterial for the moment whether the insurgents of Hupeh were, primarily, bond fide revolutionists or dis-granted soldiers; whether they owe their success to their own organization or to the inefficiency
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.