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́ ́LI HUNG-CHANG.
"1
THE BONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
with the Chinese, who are anything but re vengeful or vindictive in ordinary matters. especially if money is at stake, that feeling will soon wear itself out, and the men he is now engaging will be turned adrift like the unfor- tnnate foreigners who manfully stood by during | the trying days in January and February at Weihaiwei.-China Gazette.
MR. WETMORE ON BIMETALLISM.
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The first annual general meeting of the Eastern Bimetallic League was held at the Shanghai Club on the 8th inst., when the report and accounts were adopted and the retiring com-
Mr. Wetmore, the President of the League, was nuable to bo present owing to illness, but Mr. G. Jamieson, who took the chair, read some remarks which Mr. Wetmore had prepared in anticipation of presiding at the meeting. After referring to the good accomplished by the League in the publication of its papers, which, he said, had not only been "generally referred to and quoted, but ideas are found in recent writings and speeches at home which originated here, and have evidently been made use of as common property without any apparent knowledge of the source whence they emanated," Mr. Wetmore's remarks proceeded as follows:-
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Our investigations, therefore, have resulted in withdrawing many of the questions connected with the great problem of the day from the realms of theory, and placing them on the substantial basis of fact, which is au achieve. ment sufficient of itself to justify the exist ence and continuance of the League. In some quarters here, however, a feeling has sprung up that cheap silver is not an un- mitigated evil, even for those engaged in trade with European countries; and for those who wish to cast in their lot with the natives of the Far East, and make this part of the world their permanent abiding place, there can be no doubt that not only is this the case, but that the inhabitants of this hemisphere will have a great advantage over the people of the West so long as the present great dis- crepancy between gold and silver continues. In fact this has been one of our great argu. ments in favour of the return to bimetallism so far as the gold standard countries are con- corned. If the present divergence between gold and silver continues, the manufactures that have so largely enriched England will come to China, and make the fortunes of those who take up such industries here. Those who intend to cast in their lot with the Chinese and invest their furds in local manufactures will find their interest in opposing bimetallism, and urging the continuance of gold monometallism in the West. The author of the Splendid Paupers,' in the Christmas number of the Review of Reviews, grasps this point very clearly and forcibly when he represents Pingyang Yaloo, the Chinese bil- lionaire, who has enriched himself by manufactur- ing enterprises, as sending £10,000,000 to his agent in London to be used for bribing Parlia ment to reject bimetallism.
Ths almost Indicrous anxiety of the Peking sheet to whitewash the much abused Li Hang- chang is, we learn, not undertaken from any far-fetched or Quixotic motives of helping the fallen mighty, or pity for the grey hairs of a patron ou whom almost all of his protèges have turned to bite the hand that liffed them up and fed them in the days of his undimin- ished power.
The great Chinese Minister hag no desire to emulate his prototypes in Western history, which contains 80 many examples of the minister being sacrificed to save the name of his King. No spark of the spirit of Wolsely animates the Chinese Grand Secretary who has been blamed for all the sins and short-mittee was re-elected. comings of his Sire and state. Though he has passed the meridian of his glory, and hastens to his satting, it is now tolerably certain that before his star sinks below the stormy political horizon for ever, it will burn for a time again in a bright exhalation in the evening sky. Like Wolsely, Li has found that he has been swimming on bladders these many summers in a sea of glory -far beyond his depth.-and like Wolsely too, has he felt a momentary relief when did the King "out of pity, take a load would sink a navy," but unlike the great English minister Li has never learnt that " Corruption wins not more than honesty nor does he ask anyone to “take an inventory of all he has" and he has no idea whatever of being left naked to his enemies. True, he has lost innumerable portions of his wardrobe, but they belonged rather to his theatrical than to his everyday sartorial equip- ment. Even now the indomitable old man is in the market again for job lots of peas cocks' feathers and second hand riding jackets, though if the truth were known it is shrewdly suspected the worldly wise, wide awake old Chungtang sets very little store upon such trumpory geegaws and wauts only the more tangible spoils of office. We learn that despite all that has been said to the contrary, even in the chameleon-like Tientsin oracle, which did its best to add to the wholesale abuse of Li, when it seemed his sun was set, he is about to be restored to all his honours and. more important still, to his former leading place in the affairs of the state. It is reported that the Empress Dowager has sug. ceeded in raising fatal objections against the names of all the high officials nominated for the post of Viceroy of Chibli, and that through the use of those mysterious means which vast wealth is the key to in China, the advisers of the Throne have come to the conclusion that Li, and Li only, is the man
for the position. Doubtless also bis suit has bean greatly assisted by the friendly offices of the new Japanese Minister; anyway we expect to hear any day now that Li Hung-chang has been firmly reinstated in the yamen in Tientsin, which has had more to do with the fall and dia- grace of China than will be disclosed in the state papers that Li is understood to be now busy publishing in both Chinese and English in his own vindication. As an indication that he is not quite the ruined power the Chinese would have us believe, we may mention that "To some of those, however, whose chief in- Li is sending far and wide uow to engage terest is in the interchange of commodities be British officers to take charge of his shattered tween silver and gold countries the case is dif- b.tallions and has gathered back the scattered ferent. To those who are chiefly exporters, low officers and crews of his vanished Peiyang silver may be a boon, while a high exchange squadron. He may have been, taken all in all. favours the importers of merchandise. In either more sinned against than sinning, and we case, however, it is essential to a satisfactory cou- fully admit that it his ships and duct of business that stability in the rate should his armies which mostly fought against prevail. Let it be high or low there must be the Japanese-and displayed such incon permanency in it, otherwise, whether one is ceirable cowardice and incapacity-while au exporter or an importer, the transaction all his great rivals meauly kept aloof from the has so many uncertainties that it is little fray, or only covered themselves with the ridi- less than gambling. There can be no cule which moves even the dull-witted Chinese doubt, therefore, that the interest of those' to laugh at such contemptible gas-bags as Liubere engaged in trade with the gold standard Kun-yih and Wa Ta-cheng. But we would once countries, as well as of the large and important more warn any British subjects, before taking class whose means are invested in silver securi service with Li Hung-chang, to remember the ties, and who expect some day to convert their treatment, which has been meted out by money into gold for use in Western lands, lies him to their predecessors, and not to set too in the restoration of a fixed ratio between gold. much store upon the promises made to them in and silver; and that is the object of interna.. moments of such excessivo exuberance as Li and tional bimetallism. This is taking a selfish his friends must feel upon the prospect of an im- view of the question perhaps, and leaves out medi te return to the plunder and other sweets of consideration the vastly more comprehen- of office. The natural rancour of Li Hung-chang sive and important subject of the well-being against his former military protèges for their of gold standard countries which are shameful and disgraceful desertion at Weihai-on the high road to industrial and com wei probably also determines him to try mercial disaster; a goal they will most certainly a new field for military instructors. butreach in the not distant future unless the re-
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|July 18, 188.
storation of silver to its former place in the cur. rancies becomes speedily an accomplished fact, If anything were wanting to demonstrate the soundness of bimetallist doctrines, it has been provided in the most brilliant and striking man- ner by the way in which business has revived in Europe and Americe since the advance in silver there commenced. As a passing shower freshens vegetation and causes plants, drooping from the effect of continued drought, to raise their heads, so the small rise in silver has acted AS a stimulus to trade all over the world, gladdening the hearts of millions who see in it an earnest of the vast good that may be expected when it is carried to its former level. Monometallists, will affect to see in the pheno- menon merely a coincidence; or perhaps attri. bate it to a tardy action of the inert masses of gold that have been so long piled up in hoards without benefit to any oue; but as clearly as the freshened appearance of shrubs and fields can b traced to refreshing rains, so can this improved condition of trade be proved to have but one cause, and that the advance in silver. None here are so ignorant or short-sighted as not fully to realise that what benefits the world at large benefits them, and few will fail to perceive that if a slight advance in silver has produced such world-wide good, a still greater advance will be productive of proportionately greater
benefits.
There can be no question, I think, therefore, that it is expedient to continue to fight the battle of bimetallism with renewed energy and increased vigour; the more so as we realise that onr efforts thus far have not been unavailing, and that we have been able to make contributions to the common cause which have been of material assistance in promoting its ends.
But it may be asked what more can we do? Without going into details in reply to this ques- tion it may be sufficient to say that industrial movements here, more especially the progress of competitive manufacture, the cost of living, the course of prices of commodities, the wages: of labour, etc., all possess a deep interest for those who are engaged at home in studying the subject, and anything new or interesting that we can find to report is most eagerly welcomed by them. With a single bone of an unknown animal Cuvier, and other naturalists since his time. have been able to construct the perfect boing. So with a single index number the trend of the whole trade of a country can be determined.
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Our position bere may be compared to that of a station favourably situated for watching au eclipse of the sun, or some other important celestial phenomenon, which it is desirable to have observed from as many different points of the world as possible; and the data we collect and transmit are taken into account and exercise no small influence in shaping conclusions at headquarters.
"We have, therefore, every encouragement to persevere in our work, and I hope the number of our memb rs will speedily be more than doubled."
THE FIRST TEA STEAMER OF THE SEASON.
The Pingsu y, with Hankow teas, arrived home on the day it was stated she would reach her destination, according to a telegram despatched at 0.30 pm, on the 9lb inst. The Pingsuey has made the run home in 35 days 14 hours. Taking the last three trips of the Moyune, that vessel beat the Pingsuey's time twice We give below the performances of the two steamers,
Pingsuey.
Left Woosung, 3rd June, 10 p.m.; arrived home, 9th July, noon. Time on passage 35 days 14 hours.
Moyune.
1891.
Left Woosung, 28th May, 0.20 p.m.; arrived home, 3rd July, 9.45 p.m. Time 35 days 9 hrs. 25 mins.
1892.
Left Woosung, 30th May, 0.15 p.m.; arrived home, 6th July, 8.15 a.m. Time 36 days 20 brs.
1893. Left Woosung, 29th May, 11 p.m.; arrived home, 3rd July. Time 35 days.
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