THROUGH THE YANG-TSE GORGES 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The government of the Chinese — Revolutions — Trade — Taxes — Our 

 interests in Szechuan — Imports and exports — Comparative tra'le 

 of all the provinces. 



The history of our intercourse with China, from the days of 

 the East India Company until now, is nothing but the record 

 of a continuous struggle to open up and develop trade, with 

 a people who, from the days of Pliny, " ipsis feris persimiles, 

 coetus reliquorum mortalium fugiunt" There is some- 

 thing pathetic in the honest persistency with which the 

 people and their officials have vainly struggled to keep 

 themselves uncontaminated from the outer world, and it is 

 impossible for any disinterested onlooker not to sympathize 

 heartily with them. An enormous population has here 

 solved, imperfectly, of course, but to a comparatively suc- 

 cessful degree, the problem of the greatest happiness of the 

 greatest number. The venality of the officials notwith- 

 standing, the people are, if not well governed, certainly not 

 misgoverned ; riches are fairly distributed, and the contrast 

 of grinding poverty with arrogant wealth, the rule in Europe, 

 is the exception here. Taxation is nominal, and such is 

 the innate and universal love of order, that the reserve of 

 force behind the decrees of the magistrate is limited to a 



