248 Through the Yang-tse Gofges 



implements of war. " Let us avail ourselves of our enforced 

 intercourse with the barbarians in order to keep them 

 out ! " is the burden of the great patriot, Tseng Kwo-Fan's 

 memorial to the throne, submitted shortly before his death. 

 This is but natural : with half a dozen hungry nations 

 knocking at their doors, and the fate of Turkey and Egypt 

 before them, the Chinese are at their wits' ends to devise a 

 means to retain their antiquated civilization whole and un- 

 contaminated from the upstart barbarian. It is a hopeless 

 task, but one cannot help sympathizing with them. Their 

 talent, in the shape of natural resources as great as those of 

 the United States, lies buried and undeveloped, and they will 

 be forced to give an account of it. Tseng Kwo-Fan has 

 been canonized, and the temple built by the Emperor in 

 honour of his names stands on a hill in Wu-chang, the scene 

 of his labours in the flesh. The Marquis Tseng, late 

 ambassador in England, was his eldest son. Railways, 

 which we are all so anxiously waiting for, have been com- 

 menced tentatively with their own resources ; but the large 

 networks, now planned, are to be carried out with the aid of 

 foreign experience, and with foreign capital. The destruc- 

 tion of the little railroad that ran from Shanghai to Woosung, 

 in 1874, is an instance of the dogged resistance the officials 

 make to any innovation too forcibly pressed upon them. 

 The Chinese people themselves were delighted with this ex- 

 perimental railway of ten miles length, which united Shang- 

 hai to its port of Woosung, and the trains were crowded as 

 long as they were allowed to run.* The local authorities had 

 of course given their consent, but the central Government had 

 never been consulted. Sir Thomas Wade, unwisely in my 

 opinion, allowed the Peking officials to purchase the line, 



* This line has now (October, 1898) been rebuilt, and its opening 

 just reported. 



