146 



CHINA. 



Force," a Chinese legion armed, drilled, and dis- 

 ciplined according to European fashion, led first 

 by the American Ward, who recruited the corps, 

 and afterward by the more celebrated Gordon. 

 Under both these leaders it fought with great 

 valor and success, and was a prime factor in the 

 overthrow of the Taipings. The last campaign, 

 resulting in the capture of Nanking, the rebel 

 capital, was conducted by Li in person, who had 

 developed as much genius in the field as he had 

 shown in council. Prom the very close of the 

 Taiping war Li-Hung-Chang began that per- 

 sistent labor for the adoption of the arts and 

 sciences of the West which has furnished the 

 keynote of his life. He at once began to memo- 

 rialize the throne for the creation of an army and 

 navy on the European model, and found a hearty 

 supporter in Prince Kung, but an uncompromis- 

 ing opponent in the senior Empress Dowager, as 

 also in the Board of Censors, wno were saturated 

 witli the ancient Chinese traditions. In 1870 Li 

 was promoted to the viceroyalty of Chihli, a 

 province of 20,000,000 inhabitants, and made 

 Senior Grand Secretary of State, which gave him 

 direct supervision of international questions. 

 The eyes of foreign powers had now begun to 

 turn to him as best fitted to inspire the foreign 

 and domestic policy of China, so far as one man 

 could move the machinery of an enormously 

 cumbersome system. It was by Li's authority 

 that 80 Chinese boys were sent for education to 

 the United States in 1872, and that the Tung- 

 Wan-Kwan College was established at Pekin 

 under Dr. W. H. P. Martin, with the help of 

 Prince Kung. The nucleus of this as a training 

 school for interpreters already existed. It was 

 now made a college for training in the arts and 

 sciences of the West, under a large and able fac- 

 ulty. Li availed himself of the Russian war 

 scare of 1880 to give his plans a great impetus. 

 He was the authoritative leader of the peace 

 party, and it was with much difficulty that he 

 prevented China from rushing into a disastrous 

 war. His powerful argument was not merely 

 that the army and navy were not fitted to meet 

 the forces of a Western power, but that the in- 

 ternal constitution of an empire extending over 

 an immense area made the transmission of in- 

 telligence tedious and difficult. The telegraph 

 was advocated as a factor of war power. This 

 logic outweighed the Conservatives. Imperial 

 authorization was given, and the work was 

 pressed with extraordinary vigor under the 

 charge of Mr. Paulsen, a distinguished Danish 

 engineer and electrician. The system now has 

 a network of about 10,000 miles ; its nerves 

 everywhere connect the provincial and commer- 

 cial centers with Peking, and it is said to be 

 administered admirably. Simultaneously with 

 his agitation of telegraphs he began to work for 

 railroads in the empire, but the opposition from 

 all classes was overwhelming. A short line had 

 been built by foreign capital in 1876 from Shang- 

 hai to Woosung, but this was bought and dis- 

 mantled the next year by the Government. Li 

 quietly began a propaganda among the high 

 officials, and Prince Kung soon acceded to his 

 views. The viceroy instigated various memorials 

 to the throne, which were followed by others from 

 himself. The power of his influence was specially 

 shown when the late Tso-Tsung-Tang, the gen- 



eralissimo of the Chinese armies, who had always 

 been Li's bitter enemy and rival, adopted his 

 opinions and urged on the throne the authoriza- 

 tion of a railway system, as well as of other pro- 

 gressive movements. " Let railways and mines, 

 and the construction of ships and guns, be un- 

 dertaken at once, as a means of insuring our 

 national prosperity and strength," were almost 

 his dying words. While following up this agita- 

 tion without ceasing, Li was active in remodel- 

 ing the army and navy on a Western model, in 

 establishing arsenals and dockyards, military 

 and naval colleges, and in importing Western 

 experts in the various scientific professions as 

 instructors and leaders in the new movement. 

 As administrator of foreign affairs his constant 

 policy was peace even at the price of concession, 

 so that the empire should have no break in her 

 course of internal development. The various 

 imbroglios with Russia, Japan, and France were 

 honorably settled without recurring to arms, ex- 

 cept in the case of the Formosa war with France, 

 1884-'85. This nominally ended with a victory 

 for the French, but Li's crafty diplomacy at its 

 close left the victors with scarcely a shred of 

 honor or advantage. The Army of North China, 

 which includes the flower of the troops, began to 

 be armed with Remington breechloaders in 1876. 

 The change has been progressing without break, 

 and there are now 150,000 men equipped with 

 the deadliest weapons, and officered by Germans 

 or by Chinese trained in the military colleges, of 

 which there are three, located at Tientsin, Fu- 

 chan, and Shanghai. In 1877, Li, as adminis- 

 trator of the navy, bought 4 ironclads which 

 had just been built in England for the royal 

 navy, but had been rejected as not up to the 

 standard in speed. From this beginning the 

 great viceroy has gradually formed a navy of 12 ' 

 wholly or partly armored ships, provided with 

 the best guns, and a large accessory fleet of 

 cruisers, gunboats, and torpedo boats. It is the 

 ambition of Li to build in Chinese navy yards, 

 which have already begun to exist, and to this 

 end he is actively pushing the opening of coal 

 and iron mines, and the establishment of blast 

 furnaces and steel .plants. It was not till 1888 

 that an active beginning was made in railway 

 enterprises. A small road, which had been oper- 

 ated as a tramway from the Kaiping coal mines 

 to tidewater, was equipped for steam, and it was 

 so successful that it was extended. From this 

 nucleus a road has been built 200 miles long, 

 from Tientsin into Manchuria. Its effect as an 

 object-lesson opened the eyes even of the Board 

 of Censors. Li concentrated every influence at 

 Pekin, and the result has been that another line 

 is projected from Tientsin south along the coast ; 

 and a great trunk line from Pekin through 

 northwest China to Hankow, on the Yangtso 

 river, though now in abeyance, will probably be 

 constructed. Two large and well-equipped steel 

 plants have been established at Hankow, on the 

 Bessemer and Siemens-Martin methods. The rail- 

 way era has just begun, and Li has now the ad- 

 vantage of being supported by such powerful offi- 

 cials as Chang-Chi-Tung, the Viceroy of Honan, 

 and Liu-Ming-Chuan, the Governor of Formosa, 

 who has begun railroad building in his province. 

 It is also understood that Prince Chun, father 

 of the Emperor, and the Empress-Dowager have 





