February 5, 1906.]
land" open to
THE TRUE GLORY OF KINGS.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
£
taken up by any Power | That the folly of Autocracy, as is called the process in China; the peasant finds the which may have a fancy for so doing. If the fantastic exhibition of disorderly land becoming too straight for him, so joins she can be raised by Japanese teaching to bureaucracy under which Russia groans, a secret society and rises against the such a position that she can hold her own has come home to the canaille of the mandarins. He then proceeds to waste the against any aggregation Japan will be nation is indisputable, but revolution, land and exterminate the industrial clases. content with the
th the removal of what forms a though it may be largely brought about The Government alarmed at the condit constant menace to the safty of her own by terror, and through terror may be led of the country sends untrained troops position. It may, of course, prove that the to the perpetration of the most sickening repress the insurrection, and these set to affects thus made will be abortive, and in atrocities, can never succeed in reconstruct- farn and waste and slaughter all that the that case the present Protectorate will ing a nation until it fall into the hands of a insurgents have spared. At last when the have the
the important effect of placing Japan leader. Now it is precisely the want of land is a desert the officer in charge reporta in a better position thau suy other nation leaders, or a capacity for leading, that to Peking that the "rebellion" is finished for taking control of the country. On the renders so singularly ineffective the whole and order restored, and receives the thanks of whole, if Corea can to maintained as an system of Russian government. As a na the Emperor. One of these worthies was a independent nation, there can be little tion the Russian people are devoid of those man called CHANG HIEN-CHUNG, & Shensi question that the best that can happen in qualities which go towards making a man, who led his forces into the adjacent the interests of all concerned is that she country great. Russia, indeed, a few years province of Szech'wan. He did not love should be taken in hand by a nation like ago looked big on paper. When in 1849 the Szechwanese, so he determined to Japan which knows her customs and wants she sent across the Hungarian frontier tirpate them; he killed off a few hundred and which also is aware of what is necessary some thousands of men in uniform, who thousand of the women, and mirthfully, in to bring her into line as to her policy gained a victory over a few thousands of imitatipu of the Egyptian KEPHEEN, with foreign nations. What the outcome unorganised and insufficiently armed bethought himself of building a pyramid will ultimately be it is, of course, impossible peasants, the world was startled into the with their little feet. When the imperial to predict, but, as matters at present stand, belief that Russia was a great and formid. | general arrived, so complete had been the the course which has been adopted is that able Power. The Crimean war, unluckily, work, be found no more to slaughter. which commends itself as the best that
as we now see, not carried to its legitimate can be taken.
conclusion, showed to those capable of seeing that the gigantic show was little more effective when put to the test than the display of tiger shields which the Chinese army of half a century ago conceived would strike. terror into the hearts of European antagonists, Since then Russia in arts, as in civilisation, has been steadily retrogressing; in 1877 she indeed, after the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands, succeeded in capturing from a poorly equipped and disheartened Turkish army the fortress of Plevna, but the strain so completely disorganised her that she had to yield up at Berlin all the fruits, as she considered them, of the disastrous campaign. All Russia's leaders in all time have come from the alien races. At the beginning of the regime her rulers, themselves of foreign blood, had the ability to recognise this, but their successors, the feeble and truculent bureaucracy who represent government there in these latter days, have been ambitious of kicking down the ladder by which their predecessors ascended. This is the position which M. JAURES aud his companions fail to comprehend. When, therefore, M. JAURES told the meeting of the Socialists of Paris that the Russian "Revolution" was distinctly international in character he misunderstood the position entirely as a fact the French people have no interest one way or other in the emeute in that country-which is merely the wrig- gling of a people who have congregated
But M. JAURES and Herr BEBEL can do some good even here. The ways of his imperial cousin have a curious fascination for the KAISER, and M. JAURES warns him that the shattering of the Russian Thronë would bring down all the other thrones in Europe. This is hardly wise on the Frenchman's part, for the KAISER already has some apprehension to the same effect, and is generally credited with a desire to follow NICOLAS I.'s example and send his troops into Poland. Herr BEBEL is plainly wiser in his generation, and warns him that should he needlessly interfere in his neigh- bour's affairs, the Germau proletariate would ask him, is this a struggle into which we can throw ourselves? As a fact the European thrones are quite safe so long as their occupants keep their fingers out of their neighbour's pies. It precisely this habit of M. LOUBET's which enables him to lay down his temporary throne and retire into private life with the consciousness that he has served his country... M. LOUBET was not born in the purple, but he has taught those who have been the everlasting truth that the true glory of kings is love of country, and that honesty of purpose which teaches them that honour- able dealing is a glory above all the dreama of ambition.
WAS
PARTNERSHIPS REGISTRATION-
(Daily Press, 29th January). There have been in all ages crowned heads who would have esteemed it the acme of human felicity to have been able after seven long years to take off their crowns, and retire from business with the sure convic- tion that they had served their country well, and had added honour, not only to themselves but to their country: such will be the happy conditions under which on the 16th of next month President LOUBET will yield up the emblems and pomp of royalty. Even such confirmed and expressed social- ists as M. JAURES have nothing to allege against his rule, and M. JAURES himself stands up in the Chamber of Deputies and is able to point to the contrast between the manner in which he is received and the threatening invectives hurled at the heads of Herr BEBEL in the Reichstag by the Imperial Chancellor. Yet Herr BEBEL's is the largest party in Germany, and while ministerialists can send to the poll their million and a quarter of voters Herr BEBEL found himself backed by no less than three millions. Fortunately for Germany there still exists in the Reichstag a refuge for free speech, and the outspoken tribune has been able to speak out some truths, very unpleasant to the Government, and all the more so that the hectoring Prince von BUELOW has been unable to deny their on the land in numbers so great as to over- with fraud and ́deceit." These words were truth, and has been driven by the irony of tax its capabilities. To support himself said, not of Hongkong, but of Singapore, fate to take refuge in the last asylum of and wife, the peasant, according to in connection with the promotion of the untruti invective. More than once or statistics, needs at least two acres Bill for Registration of Partnerships, which, twice the extraordinary sympathy evinced of land; owing to his improvident after long discussion, was read a second by the Government of the KAISER with the ways there is only left to him at best time. The words are too strong to apply reactionary party in Russia, which has two and a half acres, and the odd half to Hongkong, perhaps; but the gentleman brought that country within measurable goes to support his landlord and the who said, "it will be apparent to any one distance of extinction, has fallen under the Chinovnik, who take care to help the selves who over some years back has closely lash of the redoubtable leader of the Socialist to the best. In the peasant's eyes the watched the course of mercantile and tradal Party, who points to the ominous object situation is simple; relief can only come by affairs here that the methods of conducting lesson being enacted across the frontier. disburdening the land of the latter; if they these have changed considerably—and one Strangely the lesson as yet has been un- go quietly he is content; but if they will regrets to feel that the change has not been heeded, and the KAISER'S advisers still try uot his remedy is to cut their throats. But in the direction of higher morality," might the old and worn out expedient of dragooning the landlord and the Chinovuik have very have been speaking of Hongkong. There an entire nation, as if ever in history that similar ideas with regard to the pensant, and was a good deal of claptrap talked by the expedient had proved successful, or had they have the Cossack at their back, and do Singapore opponents of the principle, some had other result than undermining the very the cutting of throats by deputy. There is of which will doubtless one day be repeated springs of national existence. We can under very little of international interest in all locally, about unfair imputations, and so these circumstances, and remembering the this, and the world at large has no social on. As a matter of fact, no mer very similar course of action attempted nor political lessons to learn therefrom. community has any right to be thin-skinned by these same advisers towards France, Up to the present the Chinovnik has had in such connection. The late Mr. SPH
and the TSAR as its in the volume of essays published shortl should evince the great interest which | figurehead has been able to thank his Cos- before his death, pointed out very simply comprehend why the people of France rather the better of in they undoubtedly do in what some en- sacks for having killed off the greater num- fact that is so obvious that it is overlooked. thusiasts call the Russian "Revolution.” ber of his subjects. We are familiar with This, by the way, is no paradox, at all
T
(Daily Press, 30th January.) "The trade of this Colony is honeycombed
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.