“nation and an empire." This policy, he contends, is less self-seeking and nobler than the alternative one of coming to an arrangement with Russin for the division of the Celestial Empire into recognised spheres of authority, influence, and in the end absolute possession; but if it fails of success the future will pronounce it the inferior, and our descendants will blame us for having lost the whole where we might have secured a part. As the holders of the largest stake in the trade and development of the Central Kingdom, Great Britain, Mr. BOULGER holds, is bound to adopt a policy calculated to secure the possession of that trade and to maintain the position she has so long possessed. China cannot save herself, and, in the opinion of Mr. BOULGER, must be saved in her own despite. For he sees clearly that there is no Chinese official who is capable of rising to the situation. China's best public men have Intely joined the majority, the Empress Dowager is self seeking and blind to the dangers menacing the Empire; the Emperor is a weak puppet, incapable of initiating any policy, a tool in the hands of designing ministers; and Prince KUNG, on whose patriotism alone any dependence could be placed and from whom Mr. BOULGER thought it possible salvation might come, if supported by the Ministers, has, unfortunately, died since the article before us was sent to press.
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single concession in return, With а "cynical, but dangerous, humour he wished "it to be given to the world that virtue was "to be its own reward; and this was the man whom we now know to have had in "his portfolio at the very moment of my "interviews with him the Secret Conven- "tion signed with Prince LOBANOFF a few "weeks before at Moscow. Unbeudingly "puctilious towards England, the country "that had refused to play the part of false friend, LI HUNG-CHANG, the figure-head, if not the soul of Chinese policy, had signed away the rights of his Emperor over the "most important strategical point ou the "Chinese coast, and had acquiesced in Russia's procuring that vitally important Liaotung Peninsula, which China herself had paid the Japanese six millions sterling to relinquish."
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Seeing that China can hardly be saved from within, Mr. BoULGER discusses how she can be maintained as an Empire and a nation by outside assistance. He rightly scoffs at the idea of this being effected by the acquisition of a navy. That experiment was tried, and the result, after all the careful training by Captain LANG, R.N., was that, because that officer could not get a free hand, there was, on the outbreak of the Chino-Japanese War, no discipline and no efficiency; the funds had been diverted to other purposes, and the fleet was insufficient There remains the notorious LI HUNG- for the purpose of grappling with the Japan- CHANG, the miscalled "Grand old man ese Navy. The same results would in- of China, the Bismark of the East, fallibly be experienced again in any attempt. but who has nothing grand, or noble, or
to reconstitute the Navy, and as a matter of patriotic about him. Stripped of all the fact time does not admit of the experiment romance with which this man has been being tried, What then remains to be clothed by paid partizans and ignorant done? Mr. BOULGER thinks that, spite of persons, he stands out on the canvas as a the acquisition of Weihaiwei by Great base and sordid knave who has throughout Britain, Peking will in future be mainly his long career preferred his own pocket to under the influence of Russia, and he his country's good. This fact is now only advocates the shifting of the Central power beginning to be recognised in Europe, but from the capital to Nanking, and the it is satisfactory to note that this most formation in the Yangtze Valley of a large cynical mandarin is being estimated more and disciplined army under British officers. nearly at his proper value. This is what In short, what GORDON did for the Ever Mr. BOULGER has to say of him, speaking Victorious Army and what Sir HERBERT from some personal knowledge and after KITCHENER has done more recently for the watching most attentively the progress of Egyptians in the Soudan, he would see his long and somewhat adventurous career attempted once more to conserve China as "LE HUNG-CHANG is the most prominent, a nation and a Power. Mr. BOULGER the most experienced, and in a seuse the believes, perhaps rightly, that outside most clever of Chinese officials. If he is Peking the sense of disapproval of recent not alive to the needs of the situation, we surrenders to Russia is more deeply felt and may reasonably conclude that no other loudly expressed, and calls attention to the Chinese Minister is. He came to England fact that one of the Censors had the courage "in August, 1898, and it was my privilege to call LI HUNG-CHANG a traitor. We note to have two long interviews with him. that WEN TING-SHIH, an ex-Censor, a very The object of those interviews was to ex-out-spoken personage, who was dismissed pound his policy, and to place it in the "clearest and most favourable light, before "the British public. The political interests "of China, the personal interests of LI "HUNG-CHANG at that moment, both pointed "to the necessity of candour, and, as China "wanted a deal from England, it was equally obvious that she ought to cede something on her side, and when she asked for an im proved tariff, she should have been pre- pared to give an equivalent in increased "facilities for trade. To no one should these plain facts have been clearer than to Li HUNG-CHANG, on the assumption that he 'possessed a clear mind and a modicum of cominon sense. Yet he was not to be in- duced or led into any view of the situation "other than that China was entitled, as a
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|July 2, 1898. force until it swelled to the dimensions of a national army. Very good in theory, but not, we fear, reducible to practice. The Chinese mandarin, whether he governs a district in Manchuria or a prefecture iu Kwangtung is the same casual creature, and could not be got to work in harmony with British officers even, much less with British "adventurers," as Mr. BOULGER suggests. If ever a Chinese army, for the defence of the Central and Southern provinces, is formed and is to be a good workable force, disciplined and harmonious, it must be un- der the command of one man, a military officer with a genius for administration, who must be given supreme power, and rendered entirely independent of and free from inter- ference by the provincial officials. Any attempts to raise a military force on Wes- tern models in China based on other lines would fail and be likely to prove potent agents for mischief. The possession of a body of disciplined troops by a provincial satrap would' only serve to render him arrogant and impracticable, and lead to a strained condition of relations with foreigners which would be calculated to bring about hostilities and foreign occupation, the very thing it is now felt most desirable to provide against.
SUCREME COURT.
26th June.
IN APPELLATE JURISDICTION. BEFORE SIR JOHN Carrington (ChiEF JUSTICE) AND MR. JUSTICE WISE (PUISNE JUDGE).
KWAN YUI YEE HOP KEE V. PO FUNG. Mr. J. J. Francis, Q.C., (instructed by Mr. H. L. Dennys) appeared for appellant, and Mr. Slade (instructed by Messrs. Wilkinson and Grist) for respondent.
Mr. Francis said the amount involved in this case was a very small one, but the case, so far as it affected the practice of Chinese traders in question was simply as to which of two persons the colony, was of considerable importance. The must suffer by the fraud of a third. His Lord- ship in the court below held that there was negligence on the part of the plaintiff in the case. His contention, however, was that there was no negligence on the part of plaintiff. They did not dispute the facts of the case. A mau who was known to have been in the employ of sacks of flour. It was not disputed that a defendant came and gave an order for 50. month before the man was in the employ of defendant. A short time afterwards a couple of coolies, admittedly the coolies of de- fendant, came with a delivery order, on receipt for denouncing the Empress-Dowager's in- of which the flour was delivered to the two coo- terference with the prerogatives of the lies and taken away in a curt which was known Throne some three years ago, has recently tiff sent his ordinary delivery book to defendant, to belong to defendant. The same afternoon plain- sent a strongly worded memorial to the
so that the receipt of the flour might be EMPEROR urging His Majesty to throw acknowledged, but defendant refused to "chop" himself and the country upon the protection the book and denied any knowledge of the flour of Great Britain, expressing the belief that having been ordered or received. It appeared from in her friendship alone lies the salvation of the evidence that the man who gave the order for China. Mr. BOULGER is no doubt correct in the flour and who was in their employ a month believing that the flourishing provinces of before had been dismissed for embezzlement, Central China contain the material from The learned judge in the court below held that which a disciplined army might be raised plaintiff was guilty of negligence in not, when the order was delivered, sending to defendant's shop and maintained, but he is not very clear as to to ascertain whether it was a bona fide order or how the movement to inaugurate it is to be not. The contention of plaintiff was that he started. He vaguely hints that the had simply acted in accordance with the ordin- Viceroys CHANG CHIH-TUNG and LIU KUN-ary practice, and that the negligence was on YI would probably provide the funds and the part of defendant. raw material if they saw achieved, say in Shanghai. We gather that Mr. BOULGER wishes to propose that the native merchants in Shanghai should be got to combine with the foreigners to raise a body of say 5,000 trained troops, which would figure so well as to induce the officials generally to advocate the extension of this
some results
Leave to appeal was granted, Monday, July 4th, being the date fixed for the hearing.
27th June.
WEISING LOTTERY APPEAL Mr. Francis (instructed by Mr. H. LA. Dennys, Crown Solicitor,) appeared for appel- lant, and the Attorney-General, the Hon. W.
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