Rl^SUM^. 367 



in England have much idea of the enormous interests 

 we have in the East — I mean leaving India and 

 Australia out of the question, and speaking of China, 

 and China alone. Japan, of course, is to be considered, 

 but in trade it is as a molehill to a mountain when 

 compared with China ; rather may it be thought of as 

 a pleasant, a beautiful country, with charming inhabit- 

 ants, a fairy-land, where one feels inclined to live with- 

 out thinking of the morrow, but there, comparatively 

 speaking, it ends. 



China, with its vast resources, resources which 

 have never yet been brought into play, and its teeming- 

 industrial population, must go on improving, and be- 

 coming of more and more importance. The Chinese 

 character is thoroughly conservative, and having taken 

 so long before introducing changes, which are now 

 being gradually brought about, they are not likely to 

 do things rashly, hurriedly, and unadvisedly. Step by 

 step they have taken to new modes of warfare. Their 

 old jingalls, and guns with a few inches of windage, 

 are things of the past, and instead, good rifles, torpedos, 

 and breech-loading guns are either purchased or made. 

 At the Kiang-nan arsenal last year, twenty 40-pounder 

 Armstrong guns were turned out, equal in manufac- 

 ture — so the European engineers reported — ta any of 



