I
December 11, 1895.]
5.-Coinage. Instead of the millions of dollars which come in from abroad now annually and which are alloyed with large quantities of lead, coin our own. Besides we do not want the year of Christ put on our coins.
6.-Post offices.
B.-There are four other ways of benefiting the people.
1.-Agricultural reforms.
2.-Technical training and patents. 3.-Encourage trade so as to be delivering instead of destroying the nation. Note the exports and imports.
4.-Provide for the poor.
(1) Let the manufacturers (producers) be increased and the transporters (distributors) lessened. About Tientsin 60 per cent. are carriers, while the producers are only 40 per
cent.
(2) Let there be emigration and colonising as the British do in Canada and the Russians in Siberia.
(3) Let there be reformatory schools. (4) Let there be poor relief. C.-Reform of Education.
2.-There should be au increase in the num- ber of educated, for other nations have 70 or 80 per cent. able to read, while China has no more than 20 per cent.
3-Military training should be changed into technical training.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
+
If our parents were suffering from some dan- gerous illness we would strongly urge them to take the right medicine. China is now in very great danger and we therefore most anxiously urge the adoption of right measures for her safety.
After this follows the names of chijen Kirin, 1; Chibli, 37; Kiangsu, 47; Anhui, 8; Shansi, 10; Shensi, 55; Kansu, 61; Fukien, 8; Kiangsi, 2; Hupeh, 4; Hunan 4; Szechuen, 71; Kwangtung, 87; Kuangsi, 99; Yunnan, 15; Kueichou, 95; Honan, O; Shantung, 0; Chekiang, 0; total, 604.
But the preface says 1,300 signed it. This may be after the original one was completed or including those who signed a similar memorial.
Such is the remarkable scheme of reform presented by the junior scholars of the empire. Considering the conservatism of China none can read this without admiring the boldness and thoroughness of many of the reforms. They have blemishes when they think they can save China by removing the capital, little thinking that the maritime provinces might then go off one by one like Annam. Taiwan, and other de-
for his dinner.
1.-What is studied by all other nations pendencies. When suggesting the raising and should be studied by China.
drilling of an army at once to meet a modern drilled army,
it is just like expecting to sow and reap the harvest while a hungry man is waiting When suggesting a missionary society of the Confucian religion to go abroad, they do not say what they are going to elevate the foreign barbarians to by that process. When they think they can much improve the Chinese officials by a rearrangement of them, it seems very much like trying to make bad dollars good by wrapping them in different parcels and the only change is a new label warranted pure put on. When they suggest the adoption of about 90 per cent. of Christian civilisation, it is difficult to see what ground they have for say. 7.-Found a religious department of educa- tion. The customs of our country are degenerating that Christianity is a depraved religion ing fast because we have no religious teachers!
4-A new system of examination of those who have been studying in colleges without a fixed number of passes.
5.-Have public libraries. 6.-Have newspapers and magazines of all kinds to encourage different departments of learning.
Thus it is that the depraved religions of foreign barbarians spring up and deceive our people. Every province is full of chapels, whilst we have only one temple in each county for our sage Confucius. Is this not painful? Let religious instruction be given in each county. Let all the charitable institutions help. Let all the unowned temples and charity guilds be made into temples of the Confucian religion and thus make the people good and stop the progress of strange doctrines (Christianity).
Let the most advanced students of Con-
fucianism be called up by the Emperor to the capital and given the Haulin degree and funds to go abroad. If they succeed in establishing schools in foreign countries where are gathered 1,000 pupils let them be ennobled Thus we shall fake Confucianism and with it civilise all the barbarians, and under the cloak of preaching Confucianism travel abroad and quickly learn the motives of the barbarians and extend the fame of our country!
D.-Rearrange the officials both in the capital and provinces as suggested by former noted mandarins.
E. Have a college to teach foreign affairs to those who shall become Ministers abroad.
F-Let there be more travelling abroad like Peter the Great instead of the princes and nobility staying at home and knowing nothing.
G-Let the power of memorialising the Throne be much extended instead of leaving all power in the hands of a few Viceroys and Governors as now, by which the Emperor has little chance of knowing the whole truth.
H.-Let the people, say every 100,000 families (half a million), elect one man to come to Peking and meet at the Tai Ho palace in the presence of the Emperor to discuss matters of national interest and make a fresh election each year. In this way the Emperor will soon know all,
When Bismarck thought of the changes that might be made within 100 degrees of longitude, 6,000 miles in length, a popula- tion of 400 millions, and 260,000 different pro- ducts, he could not think of it without dread and at first advised the division of the empire. But finding that China procrastinated he said there was nothing to fear from it.
Turkey, because of its refusal to change, has been divided by six powers. Japan, though only a barbarous island, by changing has taken Loochoo away from us and invaded our empire.
which should be carefully avoided. But all these
really arise out of one source mainly, and that is their imperfect knowledge about these sub- jects.
of incessant abuse.
451
little progress was made with the oars that it Was determined to use the sails, and they were accordingly hoisted, double-roofed. The boat had been already taking water on board, and just after the sails were loisted a squall struck her and she lay over, filled, and sank. Some of the crew of the Russian cruiser Gremyastchy had also been on Roze Island that morning, but had returned at 11 a.m. and the cruiser's steam launch was fortu- nately still alongside, with steam up. One of the Gremyastchy's lieutenants had been watch- ing the Edgar's boat through his glasses the whole time, and he instantly despatched the steam launch to the scene of the catastrophe. She was the means of saving fourteen of those in the water, while a boat from the French cruiser Alger, which was also promptly on the spot, saved eight more, one of them dying after being rescued, though every effort was made for four or five hours to resus. citate him. The Gremyastchy remained at Chemulpo for a fortnight after the accident, but up to that time nothing had been seen of the bodies of the drowned or of the hoat, though everything possible had been done to find them. Captain Henderson of the Edgar was visiting the British Consul-General at Seoul at the time the accident took place. The officers who were in the boat were Gunnery Lieut. E. F. Bruen, Sub-Lieut. E. H. Rymer, and Messrs. C. E. L. Thomas, R. G. Hobson, and G. Mackworth, midshipmen. The bright spot in the calamity is the promptitude with which the men-of-war of other nations in the harbour sent assistance. Political differences, if any exist, cannot weaken the feelings of comradeship and humanity that inspire men-of-war's men under whatever flag they may sail; and there is no British man-of-war afloat on which the names of the Alger and the Gremyastchy will not be remembered from this time forth with feelings of deep gratitude for their prompt kindness to the men of the Edgar.-N. C. Daily News..
TARIFF CONVENTION BETW) EN GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN,
The supplementary Convention provided for in the revised Treaty between Great Britain and Japan having been concluded and ratified, the ratifications were exchanged on the 21st November at the Foreign Office in Tokyo, their Satow representing the Excellencies Marquis Saionji and Sir Ernest High Contracting Parties. It will be remembered that the pur- of this Supplementary Convention, as defined in the protocol to the Treaty, was to convert the ad valorem duties mentioned in the new tariff into specific duties, as far as possible, the basis for such conversion being the medium prices, as shown by the Japanese Customs returns during the six calendar months pre-
pose
As to the other parts we have nothing but immense admiration for their thorough- going reforms. They have about twenty- calculable service to China. seven lines of reform which would be of in- These reforms which they now advocate have been urged by the Christiau missionaries and their best for- cign friends, over since foreign intercourse has been established, with all their might in spite frankly acknowledge their indebtedness to these If these chujen were to foreigners instead of still maligning them as barbarians they would be far nearer accom- plishing their ends. So long as hatred of foreigners is encouraged by the reformers there is no hope for them. When the East and the West agree to recognise each other by good, and do all in their power to assist one another in рко world-wide effort judice and party spirit, then shall real reform instead of simply nourishing up national preceding the date of the protocol, together
begin on a solid and universal basis. All success, however, to such beginners and may these who are first waking up in China as re. formers go on in their noble work till the rest of China are waked up and till all nations are banded together in bonds of mutual regards and hearty goodwill.-N. C. Daily News.
"
THE EDGAR" DISASTER.
The catastrophe at Chemulpo which resulted in the sudden death of nearly fifty petty officers and bluejackets of H.M.S. Edgar is to be the subject of an official enquiry at Nagasaki by Captain Norcock of H.H.S. Caroline and Captain Biggo of H.M.S. Pique. Meanwhile it appears to have been emphatically an accident for which no one can be held responsible. In the various accounts published there are, as might be expected, some small discrepancies, but they all agree in the main points. Sixty-five men and five officers left the Edgar early in the morning of the 13th ult. in a large launch (not a steamer) for Roze Island for drill. It was then calm, and the sea was perfectly smooth. At 11.30 a.m. they embarked again to return to their ship. The wind had got up in the interval, there was a considerable sea, on, and the tide was running very strong. So
with the cost of insurance and transporta- tion, purchase, or fabrication to the port of dis- charge, as well as the commission, if any. The Convention was to have been concluded before
the 16th of January in the present year-that is to say, within six months from the date of the Protocol, but it having been found im possible to finish the work in that time, owing to the immense increase of abnormal functions devolving on the Japanese Foreign Office in connection with the war, an extension of time until 16th July of the present year was agreed upon. The Convention having been concluded by that date was duly ratified, and the ratified document having arrived from England on the 14th November, ratifications were exchanged on the 21st. It may be presumed that the final settlement of this question will promote the progress of the negotiations now going on with other European powers-Japan Mail.
Japanese vernacular papers publish a telegram said to have been received from London by the Yokohama Specie Bank announcing an inten- tion on the part of England and Germany to take up China's bonds to enable her to pay off the whole indomuity to Japan. This, says the Japanese papers, is doubtless a piece of diplo macy directed against the plannings of France and Russia.