August 12.
Roans have been well described as the arteries of commerce, and though the advent of railways in Europe and America has to a large extent robbed them of their importance us highways for the conveyance of passengers and goods over long distances, they still remain an indispensable adjunct to the commercial and social life of the West. Every great colonizing nation from the time of the Romans has realized the importance of road-making for the development and administration of its possessions and the magnificent work of the Roman road-makers has left an indelible impression upon every country over which Rome held sway. In our own days the first steps taken in the administration of new colonial sions by any of the great owers is the construction of well-made highways, which not only serve to develop the trade of the districts through which they pass, but also render it possible to civilize the natives and to ensure law and order. Especially are good roads a necessity to a country that is densely populated, for so long as means of communication are confined to narrow paths, travel and commerce are carried on at a disadvantage, and it is impossible either to police or light the neighbourhood..: tisfactorily.
Tu the ease of China it is, perhaps, unfortunate that the eagerness both on her part and among Western nations to extend railway development in this country should have arisen before the indispensability of roads has been recognized. There is the consequent danger that railways will be regarded as a permanent substitute and the need for good roads in the general development of the empire will be ignored. Strictly speaking, except in and around the treaty ports, China has no highways that could lay claim in Europe to the title of roads. The great highways that have been trade routes between
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.