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PROGRESS IN CHINA,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
a risky proceeding at Canton, and was not attempted, but whether the SHENGS will be as particular is another matter. We note that it is proposed now to discontinue the services of European officers on board Chinese steamers on the Yangtsze; and this step, if taken, would be introductory to their dismissal from the whole of the China Mer- chants' S. N. Co.'s fleet. This kind of economy is pretty certain to prove costly in the long run, but the reign of LI HUNG- CHANG, who, whatever his faults, and how ever much he hated the fan-kwei, had some strong common sense, is over now, and various lesser lights, each with his little axe to grind, have stepped into his place. The result of a number of experiments, chiefly undertaken from greed of gain or to gratify whims, is likely to be disastrous to the country, for if most of them prove failures, as they may safely be expected to do, they will only serve to intensify the hatred of change and scorn of foreign inventions still felt by the large majority of the ruling classes.
THE GOVERNOR ON QUEEN'S COLLEGE.
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[February 13, 1896.
engineers by completing their education in England. The real substance of His Excel- lency's complaint against the school, how- ever, is that "the efforts of the Government to promote the spread of the English language have resulted in a complete failure in making any impression on the Chinese speaking residents of the colony." The statement is not strictly accurate, the considerable number of English speaking Chinese in the colony being evidence against it." However, the slow progress made in the spread of the English language amongst the native population is always a safe card to play and will be for many generations to come. The English language has not yet altogether supplanted Welsh and Gaelic in Great Britain itself and it is quite utopian to expect that within any measurable length of time it will supplant Chinese in Hong- kong. If it were given to H.E. the Gov. ernor to return to the colony a couple of hundred years hence we have no doubt he would still find the bulk of the people speaking Chinese, as they do to-day. The success in promoting the use of the English alnguage amongst the natives, therefore cannot be absolute, but must continue relative only, and it is always open to critics to stigmatise merely relative "success as complete or partial failure.
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The tendency in China is much less in favour of progress just now than was hoped would be the case when the Empire lay prostrate at the foot of Japan after a brief but wholly disastrous war. The needs of the country would, it was thought, be so vividly thrown into relief by the short- comings of the ruling class and the inability of the nation generally, that it was con- fidently believed the conclusion of peace would prove but the precursor to new and startling changes. Peace has been secured at a somewhat heavy cost, but the lessons of the war are already beginning, apparently, to lose their virtue in producing an impres sion on the official mind. At any rate there would seem to be no general adoption of any systematic changes; all the movements in the direction of improvement consist in isolated efforts by individuals to adopt such and such an invention, more with the hope of securing some immediate personal gain or advantage than with any design of bene- fiting the people generally. The Central Government has formulated no scheme whereby the communications and defences of the Empire generally can be secured, the administration reformed, the finances im-
Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON is not very con- proved and revenue increased, and the sistent in his complaints against Queen's education of the officials and people in College. His Excellency at the beginning of Queen's College has done and is doing Western science and learning promoted. In his speech on Thursday said he wanted to tell excellent work. No doubt the institution, place of such a project we find, after con- those assembled what the College was estab-like all other institutions, is susceptible to siderable delay, such an undertaking as a
lished for and to ask them whether it was ful-improvement, and the Governing Body and railway to connect Tientsin with Lukou, filling its object. The statement of the object the Head Master, with the Examiners' near Peking, concerning which there has; of the College was made by quoting some high report before them, will be able to make been as much fuss as if it had been resolved flown sentences from Sir GEORGE BOWEN's arrangements to amend the weak spots that to construct the whole of the long talked of speech at the opening of the building now
the last examination has brought to light; Grand Trunk Railway from Peking to occupied by the institution. His Excellency but that the teaching of English in the school Canton, at length set on foot. It has been seems to be under the impression that the is very far from being a total failure, as left to the Viceroy CHANG CHIH-TUNG to establishment of the College dates from H.E. the Governor represents, is shown by find the money to construct the proposed that event, but that is quite a mistake; it the following extract from the Examiners' section to connect the capital with the had existed for many years previously and report:- Shakespeare: Three Acts from Yangtsze and Central China. A railway doue admirable work as the Central School. Henry V.' were offered by Class I. The from Shanghai to Soochow is also being When it changed its home into a new build- papers exhibit painstaking and careful pushed on with, the incentive for this working Sir GEORGE BOWEN dubbed it a college, "work both on the part of masters and boys. being the determination to take the wind and a college it has since been in name, "The best average was obtained in section I. out of the Japanese sails by render though remaining in fact what it was before, 'C,A.; in this section every boy passed; one ing the newly acquired treaty privilege a school giving an elementary and secondary received 90 and another 82 per cent, marks. of steam navigation from Shanghai td education. Sir GEORGE BOWEN also ex- It is worthy of note that a question requiring Soochow as valueless as possible, by mak pressed the hope that Victoria (now Queen's)
candidates to summarise in their own words ing still more rapid communication by land College would be developed at some future "the arguments of a long speech was answered Different provincial officials are seeking and date into Victoria University, and Sir" by the majority with marked success.' obtaining ready permission to start new
WILLIAM ROBINSON pow complains that The question suggests itself whether, the enterprises which seem to them to promise that hope is not in course of realisation. boys who were so successful were Chinese or. to turn out good investments or to yield The Education Commission which sat in 1882 European. Assuming them to have been large squeezes when established. Thus, the pronounced against elevating the Central Chinese the passage quoted must be con- result of the experiment of the Mint at School into a collegiate institution and ex-sidered very high praise; and boys who words the Canton, which has proved highly remu pressed the opinion that the most advan- can summarise in their own
erative, has induced other mandarins tageous employment of the public funds argument of a long speech display a better establish similar establishments elsewhere, would be the development of the in- grip of the language and a higher cul- Permission has just been accorded to the stitution on its present basis. And Sirivation of the intellect than if they were father of SHENG Taotai to erect a Mint at WILLIAM ROBINSON himself, after com- plaining in the earlier part of his speech that the school has not developed into a collegiate institution turning out pupils who would have the honour of introducing into their native land the results of the humane and enlightened jurisprudence and of the improved medical science of modern Europe, or as surveyors or engineers helping to cover the vast Empire of China with a network of railways and telegraphs, concludes by ex- pressing the belief that the curriculum actually in force is too ambitious. stating the alleged object of the College in the words of Sir GEORGE BOWEN, the whole tenour of the Governor's speech goes to show that that is not what the object should be. And, moreover, His Excellency seems to i have overlooked a qualification introduced by Sir GEORGE BOWES into his remarks on the occasion referred namely, that the pupils of the school could only be expected to develop into jurists, doctors, and civil
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Soochow to coin dollars and subsidiary money The plant has been ordered from Europe and will arrive very shortly. His Excellency CHAO, Governor of Kiangsu, has advanced Tls. 50,000 towards the enterprit, and will no doubt receive a substantial share of the profits It is tolerably clear that the undertaking is not intended to increase the provincial revenues but will become a profitable private monof poly. The supply of silver dollars, very desirable for the purposes of trade, will form a secondary object of the Mint. The production of a subsidiary coinage is un doubtedly the prime motive of the orige nators of the plłoject, and it is only to be hoped that they will be content with the handsome profit legitimately resulting, There is always the temptation, well nigh irresistible to all Chinese, of augmenting this profit by delasing the coinage, through the use of inferior metal. Under CHANG CHI TUNG's administration this would have bech
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merely able to patter off a few isolated facts as to the dimensions of the British Empire. "Do you know," said Sir WILLIAM ROBIN- sox, addressing the boys on Thursday, "that
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during the Queen's reign her Colonial "subjects of European descent have increased from two millions to upwards of nine mil- lions? Do you know that during the same period her Asiatic subjects have increased from ninety-six millions to upwards of two "hundred and fifty-five millions; and that other races in her colonies have increased from two millions to more than seven millious? Are any of you boys aware "that the area governed by Her Majesty in India is 1,383,000 square miles, and in the “colonies it is upwards of 7,000,000 square miles? Do you know that Her Majesty' possessions embrace one-fifth of the habit- able globe, and are three times greater than the Roman Empire at the height of its success and greatness?" The boys will no doubt take His Excellency's word for
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