G2 SUEGEOX-GENERAL C. A. GORDON, M.D., C.B., Q.H.P., ETC. 



in general have been educated. A few other innovations 

 may be simply enumerated. These include the adoption of 

 warlike appliances according to European models and plans, 

 European machinery and factories, ship-building, docks and 

 arsenals, the manufacture of guns and ammunition, the estab- 

 lishment of a regular fleet of mercantile vessels, the electric 

 telegraph from north to south, and from east to west across 

 the empire, a mint (at Canton) for the manufacture of 

 dollars, and at this moment a medical college is being 

 organised at Tientsin. Mining for metals and coal has 

 moreover been extended throughout the empire, and emigra- 

 tion on a large scale is in progress to Manchuria where 

 colonies of Chinese cultivators are being established.* 



China in the Future. 



But it is recognised that China's progress is beset by 

 difficulties and dangers, some so serious in import that it is to 

 be hoped their significance may be recognised by the 

 responsible authorities ere the clouds now threatening burst 

 upon her. The chief of the difficulties thus alluded to are 

 considered, with more or less reason, to arise from the 

 following circumstances, namely : Her merely passive politi- 

 cal existence is at an end ; she is now in contact with the 

 three great western powers (Russia, France, and England) — • 

 all superior to herself, and looked upon by each other as rest- 

 less and over-reaching, hence she must either resolutely knit 

 herself togetlie]' or run the risk of being broken up. Whether 

 there be nerve and public virtue enough in those authorities 

 to enable them to play the new part so indicated remains to 

 be seen. Should the future prove that they are not, then, 

 China is destined to undergo a process of dismemberment 

 and compression, not sudden or violent, but inevitable.! 

 AVhat are the means by which such a catasfrophe may be 

 most readily and effectually delayed, or altogether pre- 

 vented? That she should be roused to the necessity of 

 forming closer relations than at present exist, between her 

 and the two nations which have the least desire of promoting 

 their own interests at the expense of her disintegration. 

 And what are these two nations ? On the one hand the 

 United States of America, on the other England. 



* See Fortnightlij Review, October, 1889. 

 t Asiatic Quarterlij, D. Boulger. 



