THE PROGRESS OF CHINA.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2233, 30 May 1881, Page 3

THE PROGRESS OF CHINA.

In Ohineae official nature all that ia beat and manliest from our point of view ia, aaya the “ Times,” to ba found only among the military officers; with one or two nota'ble exceptions they are simple, straightforward menj and one of the beat typea was Kwo Bungling. The high authorities ia the provinces along the seaboard have been engaged throughout the year in making desultory preparations against an attack by Russia, in drilling troops in the use of the rifle, in purchasing heavy ordnance in Europe, and in building forts after the latest European fashion to guard the mouths of the main rivers. But the national life in military affairs, as in civil, hua been in no way affected by the prospect of a collision with a great European Power. Throughout the whole country the examinations for appointments in the army have been conducted in precisely the same manner as they were hundreds of years ago, and the successful candidates are youths who have succeeded in showing a skill in archery which an English girl would laugh at. It ia a wild burlesque to see these aspirants for a military career ambling along on ponies of some ten hands high, in saddles of thirty pounds weight, trying to hit with bow and arrow, when three yards off, ; largo targets of straw. Except in the camps of defence, the old drill of antics, contortions and somersaults to frighten the enemy is daily gone through in every barrack in China. Canals choke up and public works crumble to ruin just as usual. Despatches between the capital and the provinces are still carried on donkeys. All these things may be seen any day in any prefootorial city of this Empire; and what kind of country China is he who runs may read. Of progress in the development of the country by Western scientific appliances during 1880, there has been none. The surveys made of coal and iron Colds in the STangtsze Valley by three or four English mining engineers in the employ of tbo Chinese Government, have resulted in nothing except the purchase of machinery, which lies rusting at the wharves here. The cotton mill, which was to be a Nemesis for Manchester, is not yet built, its shares are not yet subscribed, and its official promoter is in gaol for inability to pay thq rent of his temporary offices. The woollen mills at Lanchowtoo, in Kansah, are not yet in operation, and it is doubtful whether they ever will be. The prospecting of the Island of Formosa for petroleum wells has resulted in nothing but broken heads for the explorers. There is a promise of telegraphs, but as yet no performance. In one matter, however, the Chinese have made a distinct advance—viz., in the management of their steam navigation company. On one pretence or other the whole official element in the management has been got rid of, and in the report for the year the commercial manager makes a clean breat of the company’s difficulties to the shareholders. For the first time in its history, a proper amount has been written off the value of the company’s fleet for depreciation, and an honest and praiseworthy attempt made to cut down all useless expenditure and to put the company on a sound commercial basis. Its operations are to be extended to all foreign, countries where Chinese merchants are

established, and with this view two of its thirty steamers have begun to ply between China, the Sandwich Islands and California. The enormous amount of public funds which, in the guise of " official advances,” constitutes three-fourth of the company’s capital, is to be repaid to the Exchequer in extra-subsidy freight services, to last over n series of years, to he rendered to the Government in additional transport of Government grain from this port to Tientsin. Whether this plan will succeed or not time only can tell, but it is undeniable that a new spirit of economy, efficiency, and regularity is being infused into the company, and with the magnificent subsidy which it enjoys in the shape of Government rice freights, added to honest management, the Chinese should have no difficulty in making it o permanent success. This, together with the opening of a coal mine in the north by the same management, is the one sign of material progress in China.