less a considerable proportion of the matter to be dealt with would consist of specimens originally obtained through gifts and bequests.

This Act might perhaps with advantage be so framed as to deal comprehensively with the entire subject. Our neighbours the French have already more than once, during the present century, effected such extensive revisions of their national art collections; and the relatively high status to which provincial museums have attained in France, as compared with those of this country, has in great measure resulted from the systematic transference of innumerable works of art not required by the central collections.

Perhaps it will be objected that the measures I now advocate are of too sweeping a nature, and that English methods of procedure are not to be regulated by French models. To this I reply, that English procedure, quâ national museums, is at present devoid of any definite guiding plan or coherent aims; a chaos, in fact, in which all manner of cross purposes are rife, in which forces neutralise each other, and results are minimised. I have endeavoured to call attention to some of the most obvious shortcomings in this field, and whilst so doing I might have refrained from suggesting remedies. The critic, however, who shrinks from the responsibility of offering advice, of the urgency of which he is known to entertain earnest convictions, would be justly scouted as a carping intermeddler. The share I have had in the formation and practical management of public collections in this country will, I trust, be regarded as a justification for again entering the field, and if my opinions and suggestions are called in question, it will at least have the effect of tending to keep alive public interest in the subject.

J. C. ROBINSON.

1

WHEN, three years ago, I described in the columns of a daily paper the progress of the Chinese campaign in Central Asia, and when at a later period I narrated, in my Life of Yakoob Beg, the whole of the events that had happened in the countries between Khokand and China from the year 1862 down to the present time, there were many persons who disbelieved the stories told of the extraordinary marches made by Chinese soldiers, of the quality of the weapons in their hands, and of the tactical, aye the strategical, ability of their leaders, But the evidence has now accumulated, and there is no longer any doubt that the narratives referred to represented facts which belong to the reality, and not the romance of history. We are also to-day brought face to face with the prospect of a rupture between China and Russia, which was then only a remote possibility; and on all sides eagerness is shown to acquire information on a subject which is not only very imperfectly understood, but which promises to become of very urgent importance to this country. It is not so much my desire to discuss here the existing difficulty between these two great Powers -the collision between whom, although appearing imminent, may be yet for a short time put off-as it is to enter into the larger question of the probable future of the Chinese Empire. He would be a rash man who would attempt to cast the horoscope of that most singular of institutions—and certainly I have no intention of incurring the charge. But many gentlemen who speak with considerable authority, and who are friendly disposed towards China, have recently discussed this question, and some of them have gone so far as to describe what that future might be on certain conditions. They have based their arguments on the self-flattering formula that, if the Chinese will only follow their advice and accept the ideas of Western nations, then their Empire will become more prosperous, and the future before it will be of a brilliant hue. I will not affirm that their silence is expressive of what will happen if their advice is not accepted; but at all events they are silent as to what the future of China will be, if shaped by the Chinese themselves in accordance with their ancient opinions. With your permission, I wish to bring this latter side of the picture prominently forward, and to say a few words on the future of China from the Pekin, and not the London, point of view. They

may possibly serve to show that Chinese statesmen have less thought of foreign assistance in their plans than our reformers of their empire conceive to be necessary.

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The present condition of China is such as must inspire the observer with a feeling of respect. In extreme age its Government. exhibits all the vigour of youth, and now, fifteen years after it was supposed to be passing through the throes of dissolution, it stands, having given the most striking proof of military power, unconcerned to all appearance on the brink of a contest the outcome of which no man can see. Nor if we consider the subject in its details is the effect weakened. The supremacy of the law is evident from Yunnan to Manchuria, and from the coast to the Pamir. Rebellious states, and races of hostile creeds are again united under the sway of the Bogdo Khan; and the authority of the Emperor is as much respected at the extremities of his dominions as it is in the streets of his capital. At the same time the Manchu dynasty-which is after all of little importance in comparison with the Chinese nation-appears to have received a further lease of power. It could be wished that it were possible to feel more certain on this point, as one element of doubt in the problem would then be removed. The trade of the country is flourishing, and the resources of several of the larger provinces are being steadily developed. The vast tracts of country, depopulated during the civil wars, are being gradually allotted to colonists, who will speedily restore them to their former state of prosperity. The finances are satisfactory, although there can be no doubt that extensive peculation prevails in the services; and the Chinese find less difficulty than many European Powers in borrowing money for the purchase of ironclads and improved weapons. There is no apparent reason for supposing that China's credit would very soon become exhausted, although a great war must inevitably shake foreign confidence. At the present time China possesses the nucleus of an army, the raw material for which she has always enjoyed, and the first step has been taken in the establishment of the Kiangnan Arsenal towards rendering it independent of foreign manufacturers. The alphabetical gun-boats and the few ironclads that have been purchased represent the beginnings of a fleet which may one day be very powerful in the Eastern seas. The greater knowledge the Pekin statesmen have acquired of European countries and politics enables them to exercise their judgment in deciding when and where to act with vigour; and in many ways this, although the most difficult to grasp, is the most important advantage the Chinese have derived from the progress effected during the last fifteen years. Such then is the present position of China as exposed to our gaze. Her statesmen might be well content if the future were to be only a repetition of it; but they naturally aspire to a continuance of the same progress which would

lead to the attainment of a height of prosperity justifying comparison with anything realised by the greatest of their Emperors.

The remarkable successes of Chinese armies, which have been the ostensible means of promoting peace and prosperity at home, have not failed to enhance the national credit abroad. All the Mongol and Kirghiz tribes, some of whom are subjects of Russia, and also connected by ancient ties with China, have been stirred to their hearts' core by the victories of Tso Tsung Tang. Nor has the effect been restricted to these semi-civilised tribes. In Western Turkestan the Tashkent Gazette itself admits that there has been and still is great agitation in consequence of the reconquest of Kashgaria; and the independent courts of Burmah and Siam have been much exercised in their minds because of the demands made upon them by the Chinese. Within our own Indian borders, too, something of the same influence is perceptible. Neither Nepaul nor Cashmere has been an unconcerned witness of those events which have made the Chinese power more vigorous in Tibet, and which have brought the Celestials back to Sirikul and Khoten. To understand, therefore, in all its details the position which China at present occupies, it is necessary to take into consideration the reputation she has acquired among her neighbours as well as her internal condition. Without entering into historical particulars, it will suffice to say that the reputation won by Tso's victories, and by the pacification of Yunnan, is increased by the remembrance of China's prowess in the past, not only in Eastern Turkestan, but also on the banks of the Amour, and in the passes and valleys of Nepaul.

At the present time China raises a revenue which, at the lowest computation, exceeds fifty, and possibly reaches sixty, millions sterling; and, although much of this is paid in kind, and consequently re-spent in the local capitals, the Government can depend on this sum under all circumstances. In addition, another four millions are received annually from the customs at the ports open to foreign commerce, thus placing the Chinese revenue almost on an equality with that of India, including the return from the railways. In this direction China has not by any means reached the limit of her capacity, and, apart from foreign trade altogether, there is an illimitable field available for the employment of capital and labour to the advantage of the people and of the exchequer at the same time. The Chinese are among the lightest taxed people in the world, and the burden of contributing to the maintenance of the state only presses upon them in the exceptional districts where a disposition has been manifested to repudiate the obligations of citizenship. Until the means of communication have been improved to a certain extent— not, I must emphatically state, by the construction of railways which, except in a very few places, would be attended with quite as much danger as advantage to China-the progress must necessarily be

slow; but, when the navigation of the rivers has been turned to better account, an expansion of the internal commerce, large as it at present is on the Yang-tse, may be expected on an extensive scale. The coal-mines in Kiangsi and Shantung are now being worked skilfully and successfully, while other provinces are not backward in developing their latent resources. In a very few years the results of this extraordinary activity in a direction where so little had been done must become apparent, and both directly and indirectly the State will benefit by the increased wealth of the people. While most persons are asserting that the dislike to build railways is a proof of China's backwardness in the scale of civilisation, I contend that there are many sound arguments to justify the hesitation shown by the Pekin ministers in sanctioning such enterprises. It may be admitted that railways would give a great impulse to foreign trade, and that consequently the Chinese would derive as much advantage as any one else from their construction; but the Government is guided in its policy by other considerations as well as those of pecuniary advantage. Even without railways Chinese commerce has reached a flourishing point, and it will be long before the Pekin ministry will be induced to disturb the status quo, and incur possible dangers for the sake of benefiting the foreign trade. If things go on at their present rate the Chinese can count on certain and very satisfactory returns as a balance in their favour on the foreign trade of the country. They have little to gain, and, perhaps, much to lose, by attempting to disturb the arrangements on which this trade exists.

Intimately connected with the subjects of the revenue and the trade of the state is the administration of the public service; and here we find many things that should not be permitted to exist. I will not go so far as to say that the Civil Service of China is an Augean stable waiting the advent of a Hercules; but certainly to purge it of the prevalent abuses, to instil fresh life into the ranks of its members, and to make them, in fact, as they are in name, public servants, will task the tact, courage, and perseverance of the ablest of administrators and the most determined of reformers. In this direction much remains to be done, and very possibly the only effectual remedy may prove to be one of resorting to extremities. But unless the labour is attempted everything accomplished in military reorganisation and in statecraft can have only partial effect. The future, power of China does not depend on any single condition being fulfilled or not, but certainly were any real reforms to be effected in the Civil Service, which is composed of the mental aristocracy of the country, a greater guarantee would have been obtained of the future before China than by any other measure that can be called to mind. Nor are the ruling powers blind to this. Various edicts on the subject have been issued, and, what is more important, a disposition has been shown to employ officials in places of great trust and responsibility apart from