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the piping times of peace, but able to bear the strain of a serious and exhausting war. The United States, which less than a quarter of a century previously had started on their own account as a nation, at its conclusion stand out as the most powerful and most advanced of civilised peoples, with a popula- tion, which although it has drawn on every nation in the world, has resulted in forming the most numerous and most homogeneous people on earth. Germany after her appar- ent extinction at Jena has not only turned the tables on her then conqueror, but has succeeded in rising to the front in all the arts which have rendered the century illus- trious; and stands as a military nation unequalled amongst her fellows. Last, but by no means least, we must come to the enormous Empire of Russia, the latest born of European Powers, but already ambitious of dictating to all the rest, and playing in the future the part which a NAPOLEON vain- ly essayed in the past. As a Power Russia was at the beginning of the century practi- cally confined to Europe, where, however, her territories covered not far short of a million and a half square miles, with a scattered and rude population probably under forty millions. This population was not in any sense homo- geneous, and was divided by distances which
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
then rendered communication impossible; so that when NAPOLEON invaded her she found her best and only defence lay in her dis- tances, and her want of population. She indeed nominally reached across Asia to the Northern l'acific, but not the most sanguine of her statesmen ever dreamt that these inhospitable plains would before the cen- tury was over become positive sources of wealth and strength. Now at the end we find Russia a formidable Power in Europe; and not content with this, but laying her plans wide and deep for absolute supremacy throughout the entire Asiatic Continent. All these developments have been rendered possible by the advance of the mechanical arts, and the ruling power now in our states is not the amount of population nor the perfection of their government, but the extent to which they have progressed in the application of the industrial arts, and their ability to apply them to the needs of mili- tary science. Although NEWTON published his great generalisation of the laws of universal gravitation some twenty years before the close of the seventeenth century, the theories thereby established did not make progress till well within the following century. In 1843 Sir WILLIAM GROVE in like manner propounded publicly his lisation of what he called the correlation of forces." According to this new theory, heat, light and electricity were but different developments of an energy already existing, and which could neither be destroyed nor created. Subsequent investigations bore out this generalisation; and acting on its mani- festations Professor JOULE carried out his celebrated experiment, showing the actual amount of energy required to raise the tem- perature of water one degree. Although the experiment threw a flood of light on the nature of the vibrations which produced the effects known as heat, light, chemical affinity, and electricity, it remained for the latter portion of the century to show that the vibrations of the other were by no means confined to these manifestations. HERTZ, RÖNTGEN, BECQUEREL and others showed that there were many other modes of etherial vibrations then those conceived by the earlier investigators, and that for all that we know the number might be incalculable; and more recently there has been a tendency to connect with these the phenomena of gravity. Though conceived long ago as the natural consequence of Grove's doctrine of
genera-
the "Correlation of Forces," the old theory of gravity as a force of attraction still holds general sway; though men's minds are gradually being turned to the more logical view that gravity, like the others, is but the effect of etherial vibrations, and hence that all of these so-called forces are but the emanations of a common cause, and are capable of mutual transformation. Thus, ages ago, the species of energy to which we | give the name of gravity, acting on a num- ber of scattered particles, drove them into a restricted space, where their collisions with one another set up in place of their original vibrations of gravity a modified form of motion called heat. In turn these vibrations reflected to the earth assumed the form of chemical affinity, and this induced particles which had assumed the forms of hydrogen and carbon to unite; and under another form of vital force to produce vast for ests. By and bye, these died and got buried, but the force that had produced them was not destroyed nor diminished, but was only hidden for a time. In these last centuries man, himself a creature of these same forces, comes on the scene, and he uncovers the former deposit, and finding that it still has some of its original energy left, tickles it into burning, which by dis-
solving the union between the carbon and the hydrogen, lets go the energy which as chemical affinity had previously enabled them to combine. This energy is now in the form of heat, and he employs it to separate the particles of a certain amount of water, which he has placed in a boiler. It is precisely the same as if he had used the same amount of energy in raising a weight to a certain height; the steam is under pressure, and in expanding it lets go the en- ergy which had been imparted to it. Finally the man applies this energy, now become force once more to the labour of pumping water, of spinning cotton, or of driving a dynamo, and so once more it is dissipated to go once more the everlasting round, and perhaps in some far off planet to be employed by some other intelligent being for purposes equally suited to his conditions of existence.
This is the great problem which the twentieth century finds waiting for solution, a correlation of which GROVE had only an inkling; and it is not too much to affirm that in its solution lies the key to the highest mysteries of our existence, as well as it may be to the production, or rather the transmutation for our use of the vibra- tions of the universal ether. Is there to be a short cut between the etherial vibrations producing the phenomena of universal gra- vitation and the driving, say, of a dynamo? The question may almost seem irreverent, yet upon its solution may depend the future of the human race.
Although for the convenience of the troops serving in Northern China under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Alfred Gasele, Field Post Offices have been established, at which postage stamps are obtainable, says the L. and C. Express, it may often happen that soldiers at the front are not within reach of these offices, and cannot, therefore, prepay their correspondence. In these circumstances it has been ruled by her Majesty's Government that soldiers actually serving at the front may be allowed, within reasonable limits, to send letters home free of charge, the postage, which under ordinary circumstances is recoverable from the receiver of the letter, being debited All correspondence from against Army funds. the United Kingdom for the troops in China should be sufficiently prepaid; but in cases in which the postage is deficient every assistance will be given, notwithstanding, by the postal authorities to ensure delivery to the addressee. The concession noted above is not applicable to correspondence from (or to) Hongkong.
[November 17, 1900. THE CRISIS: TELEGRAMS.
[FROM OUR COREESPONDENTS.]
SHANGHAI, 9th November, 8.10 p.m. Russia has declared two miles opposite Tientsin, from the railway station down to the river, Russian territory by right of conquest, Russia, having defended the Settlement and station on the 23rd of June last.
Yielding to strong pressure from London, the Russians have handed the Northern railway back to the British.
The Chinese officials and censors remain- ing at Peking are strongly urging the Emperor to return.
Fears are expressed that the executions at Paotingfu will persuade the Dowager Em- press to proceed to Chengtu.
SHANGHAI, 11th November, 7.55 p.m. General Tung Fuhsiang, who is now on leave at Ninghsia in Kansu, writes to some friends at Asianfu that if the Empress Dowager under compulsion of the foreigu proposes to behead him, his only resource is to raise a rebellion.
demands
chuan Viceroy is preparing the palace there. A Chengtu despatch states that the Sze-
It states also that the Empress Dowager has recently killed fifteen eunuchs who are charged with secretly trying to assist the Emperor to escape alone to Peking.
A Chinanfu despatch states that the Yuan Shikai, in gratitude for the Allies' promise to avoid Shantung, has sent large supplies of cattle and sheep for the use of the foreign troops.
SHANGHAI, 12th November, 10.30 p.m. The news is confirmed that Prince Tuan has gone to Kansu, but the story that he has become a Buddhist monk is doubtful.
Yu Chi-yuan has arrived in Nanking to collect the tribute. His second in com- mand, Hu, has gone to Hunan to raise a militia on Boxer lines.
Li Hung-chang has been appointed Gen- eralissimo of the Northern Armies in the place of Yung Lu.
Sir Robert Hart has been appointed on behalf of China to arrange the indemnity with the foreign Powers.
SHANGHAI, 13th November, 7.45 p.m. officials at Hsianfu to telegraph to the For- The Emperor prevailed on two of the Palace eign Ministers at Peking that he, Kwang Hsu, has been always anxious to return to Peking to arrange terms of peace, but he is still a prisoner.
The Dowager Empress discovered this and had the two officials beheaded. The telegram's fate is unknown.
and other high officials died from the effect The report is confirmed that Kang Yi of the hardships undergone on the journey
to Hsianfu.
Shanghai, 14th November, 7.55 p.m. Chang Chih-tung is raising troops and has proposed to Liu Kung-yi a combined opposition if the Allies use the Yangtze ports as their basis of operations against Shensi.
A German paper learns that Prince Tuan and General Tung Fuhsiang have begun a rebellion in Kansu. The officials are raising a large war fund in these provinces.
A Chungking despatch states that reliable evidence is to hand that Prince Tuan has ordered the Chengtu authorities to prepare to receive the Dowager Empress there. The Viceroy, however, raises objections.
F