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That this recent accession to the great Powers 

 of the world has a great destiny to fulfil, no man 

 living can doubt. But that which renders the advent 

 of Japan a source of anxious and fearful anticipation 

 to Continental rulers and statesmen is her well 

 ascertained purpose of infusing a spirit of progress 

 into the vast population of China, and of opening 

 its eyes to the necessity of making itself strong 

 against all the world, by adopting the material equip- 

 ment of Western civilisation. It is unreasonable to 

 suppose that a people so intelligent and so proud as 

 the Chinese will long continue to suffer itself to be 

 a subject of cheap insult by any European Power, or 

 to remain in a position of humiliating inferiority to the 

 insular Power of Japan, when once it is summoned 

 to tread the same path by which that Power attained 

 its greatness. The reconstruction of the Chinese 

 Empire will of necessity prove a fateful event, and 

 one, I believe, of happy augury for the preservation 

 of the peace of the world. 



To soothe the agony of her irreparable defeat, 

 Russia endeavoured to appal Europe by conjuring up 

 the spectre of the Yellow Terror ; and for her, I grant, 

 it is likely to be no idle menace, inasmuch as China, 

 when prepared for the conflict and conscious of her 

 strength, is almost certain to recover her old empire 

 in Central Asia, wrested from her helplessness by the 

 aggressions of a European Power whose people are 

 far less civilised than her own. I feel assured that 

 in the course of the present century, Russia, except 



