CHINA IN TRANSFORMATION.*
JUST as there are different schools of painting, so there are different schools of descriptive writing. There are exceptional writers who, like Drummond in his Tropical Africa, have so thoroughly digested the information they intend to impart that the reader whilst reading facts receives in his mind a
• China in Transformation. By Archibald It. Colquhonn. London : Harper *ad Brothers. [168.1
definite picture. There are others who with a light but unerring touch arrive at much the same result, only with less definition as to outline. These are the impressionist writers. There are, again, others who compile books, and write down their facts as they laboriously acquire them. China in Transformation has been most carefully written. There are probably very few people in China or Europe who know, or ever expect to know, half the facts that it contains. But Mr. Colquhonn himself has obviously acquired them for the purpose of writing them down, and, therefore, while very useful for a book of reference, the reading of it is not quite as agreeable as it might be. And this is the more to be regretted, because it is the jaded " M.P.," the ever-busy but influential elector, whom Mr. Colquhoun wishes to arrest by his pages. If they will only altogether skip the two opening chapters, and with only an occasional dip into whatever subject they most wish to be informed upon, not begin really to read till they arrive at the eighth chapter, on "Diplomatic Intercourse," their interest will be sustained to the end, and thus they will arrive at the culminating chapters, the chapters for which this volume was evidently written, and to which the rest of the volume serves bat as background. The text of the whole volume might be, "British enterprise has never, in fact, been supported as it should be since Palmerston's time ; " but it is in his two concluding chapters on "The Political Question" that Mr. Colquhoun really warms to his subject, and painting the present crisis in the dark pigments of a Salvator Rosa, shows himself in his true colours as a Cassandra who has already through five previous works foretold to an impenitent and inattentive generation the disastrous plight in which it now finds itself. It is then also he unfolds, yet surely more powerfully than ever before, his old remedy of knitting together more closely than heretofore the interests of India and the Upper Yangtse by a British Burmali and Chinese Railway,—a line that, he contends, would be far more remunerative, and is far more vitally necessary to British interests, than a railway to Uganda.
And yet there is a certain weakness about this advice, as there would be apt to be about advice in a book written upon "Europe in Transformation," especially by one who had only travelled through Europe. China is about the same size as Europe, as we have often been told. It resembles the continent of America in the variety and the immensity of its natural resources. To treat of all subjects connected with it in fourteen chapters, com- bining a very sharp and stern outlook into its future, is surely beyond the power of mortal man. We notice that whilst dwelling as of course upon the importance of the Yangtse Valley, and in especial of the Upper Yangtse, yet in the list of books consulted at the end the two written by dwellers, and dwellers of a lifetime, in that Upper Yangtse have been, curiously enough, omitted,—John Chinaman, by Rev. George Cockburn, the most tersely epigrammatic as also one of the moat informing books about the Chinese people, and Through the Yangtse Gorges, by Mr. Archibald Little, the chief promoter of steam navigation in the Far West. The books that have been consulted are to a great extent books by the makers of books like Mr. Colquhoun him- self, not by those who have lived in different parts of China,. and know each the special difficulties and needs of his Own locality. It is thus that from man to man gets handed down the belief that all Chinese officials are "experts in style." People who live in China and mix with the Chinese know this is not the case, though it should be, if regulations were complied with; but even in our own country there are golden keys. It is, perhaps, for want of this special local know- ledge that, when Mr. Colquhoun so distinctly advocates a rail- way from Bhamo to Chungking, he, as the Russian proverb says, "leaps the rungs of the ladder." There are difficulties in the way of mountain ranges and profound valleys,. where passing travellers now never dare to tarry for a night even. It is true that obstacles are but incentives to action to men of energy. But is not a regular steam service—so far easier—to be secured first ? And for that it is not necessary to call upon Government to do more than support Englishmen in their treaty rights. For the Japanese fought and regained for us the right to run steamers on the Upper Yangtse which our own Government so strangely threw away nine years ago.
Mr. Oolquhoun says : "The yielding policy had always
failed, both in the object aimed at and in retaining the friend- ship of the Chinese officials to whom we yielded. He also tells us: "Capitalists, manufacturers, and merchants must be alert, and should be supported by their Governments in every possible manner." We are not able to endorse this second statement wholly and unconditionally. Most certainly our merchants should be alert. This is the chief thing needful. We are, however, by no means sure that it is to be acquired by the habit of perpetually protesting that the Government ought "to do something vigorous to help trade."
Mr. Colquhoun's remarks upon the ever-vexed opium ques- tion strike us as just, and naturally his chapter upon the native Press is admirable, although Chinese Progress has evidently made vast strides since Mr. Colquhonn has beard of it. He entirely leaves out one matter with which Chinese Progress is much occupied, the unbinding of the feet of the women. And when the women of China are set upon their feet again we may yet find we have a different elation to deal with from that of the past. He also, in quoting old writers' testimony to the goodness of Chinese soldiery, forgets that the Manchus disarmed the people, and have thus probably brought about their present non-combatant position, which result could not be accomplished in one or two genera- tions. In old days there is no doubt the black-haired were a fighting race, and the sons of Han prided themselves upon the force of their blows.
At the same time, it is immensely to Mr. Colquhoun's credit, that he should have succeeded in amassing so much informa- tion, in many cases of a kind known to very few, if any other Englishmen, and yet committed so few mistakes. It is true, he calls the river between Ichang and Chungking three hundred and sixty miles, whilst Mr. Little, who has lately steamed up it, estimates it at over five hundred miles ; but to point out any such minor inaccuracies seems ungracious in return for such a mine of information,—which must for some years to come serve as a book of reference, and which we devoutly hope may form a part of the holid ty library of all members of the present Government. It is surely, however, France, not Japan, that "has acquired a hold upon Fukien province, with aspirations to a hinterland."
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