TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 173 



India from Ssechuau, find again, witli singular perseverance, to reach China from 

 Asam. 



The French expedition ascertained that there is no hope of using the Mekong 

 as a commercial route from Yunnan. Tliough large spaces of its course aft'ord 

 good navigation, this is not only inteiTupted at no great distance from the head 

 of the delta by actual cataracts, but at intervals by long tracts of rapids, and above 

 the frontier of the Burmese Tributary States the river becomes so rapid as to be 

 continuously quite unfit for navigation. Much the same has been ascertained of 

 the Salweu. Neither of these rivers, therefore, can be turned to account for com- 

 munication with Western China, The Irawadi remains ; and the experience of 

 Major Sladen's ascent to Bhamo, during the month of January, in a steamer navi- 

 gated entirely by Burmese officers and crew, appears to show that this river is 

 fairly navigable to that station by steamers dr.awing not more than 4 feet of 

 water. 



Many startling and inconsiderate statements appear in the memorials and other 

 documents which have been addressed to Government on the subject of the new 

 routes for trade with China — as, for example, when the agitators of the question 

 talk of thereby opening up a new trade for our country with 200 millions of people, 

 occupyiug extensive and rich portions of the earth — as if, forsooth, the trade and 

 products of a vast and varied portion of the earth's surface, merely because that 

 portion happens to be described by one name as China, were like the water in a 

 lake, which may all possibly be drained dry if but tapped at a single point in one 

 of its narrow creeks. The moderation and cautious good sense of one of the 

 memorials, however, forms so striking and refreshing a contrast to such statements 

 as I have referred to, that I will quote it almost in full ; it is not long : — " Your 

 memorialists have long entertained the opinion that it would be of the utmost im- 

 portance to the commerce of this country if a route were opened between Rangoon 

 and the interior of Western China The information which your memo- 

 rialists possess on the district through which the various routes hitherto proposed 

 pass, does not justify them in expressing any decided opinion either vdth regard 

 to any one of these proposed routes, or as to the practicability of opening any 

 route. But the memorialists would respectfully urge upon Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment the propriety of completing the survey which has already been commenced, 

 with the view of authoritatively establishing whether it is practicable to open up 

 such a line of communication." And I am happy to observe that this dignified 

 and reasonable memorial comes from the commercial metropolis of Scotland ; it is 

 the memorial of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures. 



The probability of a great attraction of China trade to the ports of Pegu, 

 even if there were a good highway opened out to the Chinese frontier, depends 

 not on rhetorical statements about tlie vast population and products of the Ce- 

 lestial Empire, but (and here I will borrow a felicitous expression which I 

 remember to have been applied in ludia by that admirable public servant the 

 present Governor of Jamaica, Sir John Peter Grant) on the question where the 

 trade-shed of that produce shall be found to exist — a question on which I have 

 never seen any great light thrown. As regards the important part of the export 

 trade at least, we have to look not to Yunnan and Kwei-Chau, which are in the 

 main mountainous regions, and comparatively unproductive, but to Ssechuau. I 

 observe that Mr. Cooper, a sensible and on this point quite unprejudiced observer, 

 does consider that a large part of the produce of Ssechuau would seek an outlet by 

 the Irawadi if the land route were again open. Looking to the length of land 

 journey from the fertile portions of Ssechuau to Bhamo, this opinion certainly 

 surprises me. But the fact is that we know extremely little of the extraordinary 

 skill of the Chinese in utilizing rivers which we should in this country regard as 

 mere trout-streams, for internal na^^gation, or of the extent to which such means 

 apply in reducing the length and cost of the route in question. My own impres- 

 sion is that the Yangtsi?, in spite of all the difficulties of its upper reaches, as being 

 free from the complications of a double frontier, and the anarchy of tribes imper- 

 fectly controlled, will carry to the sea for many years to come the produce of Sse- 

 chuau and Central Yunnan, rather than any outlet by Burma or the Shan States. 

 I do not myself see how the long land-route by Kiang-Hung could become attrac- 



