July 19, 1902.]
freedom, which up to this the Party. had considered its own peculiar property. Those principles had, however, as we have. seen, been the guiding spirit of DISRAELI'S earliest aspirations. Suffice it to say that under his guidance it fell to the lot of the Conservative Party to put into concrete form those great principles of political and religious liberty which their leader aw were the necessary concomitants of imperial greatness.
1
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
RUSSIAN AIMS IN COREA. RUSSIAN
45
reasons Russia cannot afford, having any regard to her prestige, to withdraw her fleet (Daily Press, 17th July.)
altogether from Europe. Russia knowa The game of bluff which Russia has been enough of England to understand the practising in Corea is interesting. It is a position. England, however complaisant noteworthy fact that Russia has never might be her ministry for the time being, hitherto gained anything from war, and has could not afford to stand by and see her almost invariably had to retire when she neighbour in Japan at Russin's feat. A tried its arbitrament, and understanding serious defeat of Japan would mean, as so much it is strange that she has so many England well understands, far more than times been permitted to revert to the did the mere loss of prestige in the Far East, The Liberal Party fell, however, on game. Russia, checked in Europe, has ns a It would, iu fact, be a danger to her Empire evil times; long and severe was the result been thrown all the more on to Asia, in Canada and Australia, and any danger contest between the opposing forces, and here amongst the decayed Mahomedan in so vital a spot would call forth her very centrifugal and centripetal, until in 1886 states of Central Asia has found a congenial | last resources. There is, in fact, in this victory declared for the latter, and the field for her devouring bunger. She is in Corean affair between England and Japan planet under its influence took up its new that stage of semi-civilisation when the sole a bond far stronger than that of mere orbit. But there is danger in the complete idea of progress present in her mind consentiment; and of this Japan has a suffi- ness of the victory. Failing to realise that sists in overrunning her neighbour's dient inkling to be able on hier part to do a the unity of the empire was the one-point territory, little better in fact than in the little bluffing, On the whole though on which all parties were agreed, the days of JINGIS KHAN, and the result to the Count LAMSDORFF has shown a want of superannuated leaders of the old Liberals unfortunate inhabitnuts who fall into her temper unusual in the Russian Foreign hung on to the old fetish of disruption, and clutches but little less destructive. She Office, it is not likely that he will drift so drove the country into the bands of the has succeedel.in carrying her arms from the far from its traditions as to venture on Conservative Party headed by Lord Caspian to the Pacific Ocean, and being hostilities, where success is impossible; and SALISBURY. To a nation accustomed to unable to go any further in an eastward we may safely assure ourselves that with thresh out its measures under the spur of direction is now turning south at the all her desire to spread herself, Russia will party conflict with its checks and safe- expense of her comparatively settled, though end as she has begun, by retiring as grace- guards, the absence of the balance wheel of unready, neighbours of Corea. The fully as possible from an untenable posi a capable opposition may lead to public unexpected èmente at Peking, and the tion. It is not pleasant to have to draw disaster; certainly it is bound to conduce to premature disclosure of the plot between back when the prize of patient preparation public inefficiency. This is the condition of Count LAMSDORFF and LI HUNG-CHANG, seems almost within her grasp, but the affairs at preseut. We do not affirm that came all too early, and took Russia herself | game of bluff is at all times a dangerous any of the measures unged by Lord unawares, and that amiable Power found one, and most dangerous when the enemy SALISBURY'S Government are of themselves her hand forced, and had with an undigni- has not only the cards, but the knowledge bal of the reverse. That is not the object fied display of bad temper to disclose the of the game being played. of cut thesis; the present state of the intended plot. That wily statesman had Opposition does not, however, hold out any fortunately for the world momentarily assurance that the great measures now overreached himself, and placed himself in before Parliament will be adequately dis- direct opposition to the rest of the European cussed on their merits. Such a position is, Powers. England had, equally fortunately, in effect, an invitation to laziness and succeeded in gaining the confidence of the inefficiency; and in the airy manner in Yangtsze Viceroys, and between them the which matters of first-class importance to secret engagements between the late L the Empire at large, such as the proposed HUNG-CHANG and the Russian Minister were reform of the army system, have been refused ratification. True, Russia was shouldered out of the Parliament, there really practically in occupation, but the occupation seems reason to apprehend such a result, to be of any effective utility was straining It is not, of course, that there is no Liberal the financial resources of Russia to a point Party in the country, but that its antiquated very nearly exceeding her limits of resist leaders in Parliament are unable to feel its ance, and Japan was quietly biding her pulse, and wrongly diagnose its tendencies. time to take advantage of the very evident The Party is, in fact, in a similar position flaw. Japan, it is true, is herself somewhat to that in which D'ISRAELI found the embarrassed, but her means in a case of Conservative party in the early seventies. this sort, where her continued existence as One by one the old landmarks have been a first-class Power is in question, may be altered or removed, and the Party is drift-considered as untouched. Under the ing helplessly waiting for a pilot who cau understand the new beacons.
This is the position in which Lord ROSEBERY has come forward, and, like his predecessor Lord BEACONSFIELD, he feels the necessity laid on him of "educating" his party. Measures and surroundings change even more than mea. The Conservative of to-day is not the Conservative of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S time, and the Liberal of to-day is not the Liberal who followed GLADSTONE. It is to Lord ROSEBERY's credit that he has
recognised these facts, and it is still more to his credit that he has had the courage to act on his convictions. Whether we look on the matter from a "Conservative" or from a Liberal" standpoint, it would be a source of self-congratulation to see His Majesty's Opposition once more restored to health and reason.
The Kobe Chronicle nuderstands that the Japanese Government has decided that the cruisers Asama and Takasago shall remain at Sheerness until the date of the Coronation ceremony has been fixed. When this is do...e the cruisers will take a trip along the Contin- ental coasts, returning to Sheerness again in time to take part in the celebrations. Orders to this effect have been telegraphed to Admiral Ijuu, in ccmmand of the fleet at Sheerness.
circumstances, as in the face of Japan's command of the sea, any threat of attack from Russia would lead to contemptuous derision, Russia decided to strengthen her naval force in the Far East, so as to be able if necessary to tackle Japan on her own element. This is one explanation of Russia's intention to send out four more battleships besides additional cruisers. But is Russia, when we come
to
examine her ability, likely to undertake such a task? To exercise any weight in the councils of Europe, Russia is in the habit of keeping a respect- able fleet in home waters; she has lately, it is true, been strengthening her navy, but even for England it would prove indon. venient to send out so large a reinforce ment, and we may certainly be permitted to doubt Russia's ability, without reducing her home force to inutility, to make any such addition to her Asiatic squadron. Russia is not in any wide sense open to attack from se.. Even during the Crimean War, when England had all the will, and was complete mistress of the sea, she did not succeed in making much im pression with her fieet, and Russia's defences seaward are more formidable now than they were- then. Still for many
WATER MAINS FROM KOWLOON,
(Daily Press, 18th July.) Though little now be heard of the Harbour Master's suggestion that a bridge be thrown across the channel from Hongkong to Kowloon, there can be no doubt that it yet lingers in the minds of many who are not mere fanciful speculators. O the many aspects of the yet necessarily nebulous scheme, none was more attractive than the hopeful relief it seemed to offer from our ever-present problem of the water supply. Mains could be laid across the viaduct and water famines would become things of the past; the plentiful courses' of the inainland would supplement the uncer- tain streams of Hongkong with unceasing flow. To a community then enduring all the miseries attendant upon a supply of water painfully limited, it was little wonder, indeed, that the projected scheme should present itself in a rosente hue. It was almost the first proposal put forward for providing a continuous supply of water from Kowloon, and now that this idea has taken root, however slight, it is not beyond the bounds of probability that it will in due time fructify. In the event of a bridge. being built, the mains would require to be lowered to the bottom of the Harbour at the drawbridge in the centre of the structure. But the very fact that the pipes would have to be laid along the sea-bed for this short space is suggestive of the thought that what is practicable over a short distance might be equally so over the whole width of the channel: that the mains could be laid along the sea-bottom from the island to the mainland, independently of the viaduct. In this connection, it is interest- ing to learn that in the city of Amsterdam a scheme of this nature is already in operation. Some outskirts of the city, situated on the opposite side of the River Y, are supplied with water by means of three armoured mains, each 492 yards in length and of two inches inside diameter, laid across the river-bed. To serve the purposes of Hongkong, any such mains