Dec. 22, 1881] 
NATURE 
179 
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peaceable conclusion the Chinese Government had ordered 
dargze quantities of telegraph material from England, and 
within a few months of the ratification of the treaty with 
Russia, we find the port of Peking connected by telegraph 
with the rest of the world. The Chinese may occasion- 
ally be slow in their mental processes, but the present 
instance shows that when once the utility of an innova- 
tion is clearly presented to their minds, they seize and 
assimilate it with a rapidity worthy of their more mercu- 
rial neighbours, the Japanese; and this, it will be 
observed, is as true of the Government as of individuals. 
It is not yet known how far the new lines will be open 
for public use ; but, judging by the rapid spread of other 
foreign inventions in China when once introduced, we 
cannot be far wrong in anticipating a vast extension of 
the telegraph for all purposes in that country. Ten or 
twelve years ago there was hardly a Chinese-owned 
steamer engaged on the coasts or inland waters of the 
empire ; 84 per cent. of this trade is now carried on in 
Chinese bottoms. Large and well-appointed steamers, 
Chinese-owned and manned, now ply to every port along 
the coast and on the Yang-tsze. As we write, a Chinese 
steamer has arrived in the Thames, bringing several 
native merchants who are about to enter into competition 
with us on our own ground. From time to time we have 
recorded in NATURE the various stages in the progress 
of the new telegraph line, because it marks one of the 
most important steps that has ever been made in China 
towards the adoption of the results of Western science 
and civilisation. It is one of the very few improvements 
which she has adopted without external advice and _pres- 
sure; in this instance she has sat at the feet of the 
best of all teachers, experience, and has profited by its 
precepts. Nor is the event any the less important when 
we reflect on the development possible for the other ap- 
pliances of steam and electricity, now that the ice of 
dislike and distrust of innovation has been spontaneously 
broken. The intelligence and enterprise of the three 
hundred millions of the people of China will not long 
remain content with a single line of telegraph across a 
comparatively small corner of their vast territory. A race 
of men with strong mercantile instincts who seize with 
avility on every time—or labour-saving appliance, the 
Chinese, now that their government has abandoned its 
most cherished prejudice, may well be expected to call 
for the extension of an invention such as the telegraph. 
We may fitly conclude this attempt to forecast the 
future in China of one of the most remarkable produc- 
tions of western science in the nineteenth century, by 
mentioning the lesson which may well be derived from 
our past intercourse with that country. It is worse than 
useless to thrust our improvements by force or threats on 
the Chinese. When left themselves to the results of their 
own experience and slow methods of thought, their 
advances, though occasionally tardy, are surer ani more 
satisfactory. It can hardly be a matter for wonder that 
a people who have been taught to revere the teaching of 
their sages for nearly 3000 years as the highest products 
of human wisdom, and whose minds have been cast in 
the same mould from a period long anterior to our era, 
should look askance at the inventions of the modern man 
of science who knows nothing of the system of ethics and 
politics of Confucius and Mencius, and the other sages of 
antiquity. A few years ago a foreign company in China 
constructed, without the formal sanction of the Chinese 
authorities, a line of railway a few miles in length 
between Shanghai and Woosung, at the mouth of the 
Shanghai River. The government repeatedly called for 
the cessation of the traffic on the ground that its consent 
had not been obtained, and that it did not want railways 
in its territories. Finally, in order to prevent any com- 
plications respecting ownership, it purchased the line, 
destroyed it utterly, and sent the materials to Taiwan in 
Formosa, where, according to the latest accounts, they 
were lying rotting ; and they did all this notwithstanding 
the arguments and protests of foreign ministers and 
diplomatists. They were determined at all cost to rid 
themselves of an innovation which had been thrust on 
them, On the other hand, a recent Peking Gazette pub- 
lished a memorial from the Governor-General of Shansi, 
one of the most powerful officials in the Empire, request- 
ing authority to lay down a line of railway to certain 
mines in his province. Preliminary surveys have already 
been made, and the memorialist goes so far as to demon- 
strate to the Emperor that had such a railway been in 
working order a few years ago, much of the misery and 
horrible loss of life in the Shantung famine might have 
been prevented. It is from bitter experiences such as 
these that the Chinese learn ; the devices of diplomatists 
or promoters are thrown away on them. 
THE VOYAGE OF THE “VEGA” 
Apes voyage of the Vega will be in many respects one 
of the most memorable events in the history of 
navigation. For the first time a continent has been cir- 
cumnavigated, so far as authentic record goes, and at 
last the North-East Passage has been won, after heroic 
efforts begun nearly three and a half centuries ago. As 
Baron Nordenskjéld reminds us in these volumes, the 
North-West Passage, although explored, has never been 
navigated entirely by any ship, McClure’s famous jour- 
ney having been accomplished partly in sledges over 
the ice. But the voyage will be still more memorable 
by the two rich volumes in which it finds copious 
record, volumes which have scarcely a parallel in the 
whole literature of geographical exploration. For Baron 
Nordenskjéld has not contented himself with merely 
telling the story of his own successful voyage and its 
results. That voyage, as we have said, crowns the efforts 
of centuries, and it has been by the results of these efforts 
that the Vega bas accomplished her work with scarcely an 
adverse incident. It will be remembered that some six 
years ago Baron Nordenskjéld showed that the voyage 
from Norway to the mouth of the Yennissei could easily 
be accomplished in a week or two, if taken at the proper 
time. Since then trading ventures have gone over the 
course every year, and a regular trade-route may be held 
as established by the well-informed enterprise of the emi- 
nent Swedish professor. For something like twenty years 
Baron Nordenskjéld has been at work in the seas to the 
north of Europe, and mainly in Spitzbergen, and the rich 
results of them are known to all students of science, and 
their story was told about two years ago in an interesting 
work noticed in these pages. Thus he became probably 
more familiar with the ice-conditions of these northern 
seas than any other authority; and his success in the 
Yennissei expedition led him to think that there was no 
reason why the whole North-East Passage should not be 
navigated. But Baron Nordenskjéld is, above all, a man 
of science, and accustomed to go about his work in a 
scientific method. That he has the true spirit of adven- 
ture is proved by the work of half his lifetime, but then he 
has a weakness for entering upon his enterprises with his 
eyes open, of knowing where he is going, and what are 
likely to be the results to science. So before making up 
his mind about the North-East Passage, the Baron ex- 
amined carefully all the records of previous voyages 
along the north coast of Europe and Asia, from the time 
of Othere, a thousand years ago, down to the latest 
adventures of the brave Norwegian skippers. Thus he 
found that at one time or other the whole of this stretch 
of coast had been navigated piecemeal, except the most 
northerly point of the old continent, Cape Chelyuskin, 
t “ The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe; with a Historical 
Review of previous Journeys along the No:th Coast of the Old World.” 
By A. E. Nordenskjéld. Translated by Alexander Leslie. Five steel 
portraits, numerous maps and illustrations. Two vols. (London: Macmillan 
and Co., 1£8r1.) 
