Since last Saturday, when he left London for the North,
Li Hung Chang has been indulging himself with a perfect orgy of questions. The practice is deemed somewhat rude, but after all there is no better way of arriving at interesting information, and most great men have adopted it. Napoleon, for example, never ceased asking questions. By skipping a train or two at Chester, Li found time to visit Mr. Gladstone at Hawarden. As we are told by the reporters, the two aged statesmen sat in a window of the library and discussed many things. Mr. Gladstone was glad that China had followed Free-trade in the main,—a somewhat hard saying for Li, whose main object is to double the present Customs-duties. Li thought it was necessary to put some restrictions on mer- chants, and added that the finances of China were in a con- dition which required a great deal of care and consideration. Mr. Gladstone remarked that England was a great Colonial Power. Li observed that England had a good revenue and could afford a good fleet. Mr. Gladstone could not, of course, let this plea for bloated armaments pass unchallenged, and was understood to refer to the good old days of retrenchment, and the wisdom of the views of the earlier economists. The conversation then turned on railways, and after he had written his name in three autograph-books and received three volumes of Mr. Gladstone'a works, Li drove off amid cheers. Mr. Gladstone, who loves keenness and vigonr, cannot but have been pleased by his eager and inquisitive guest. There is very little of the "brooding East" about Li Hang Chang.
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