It is right that China should pay the actual expenses
brought on Europe by her mad folly, but we cannot help fancying that some of the Powers are actuated by a desire to make money out of the transaction. Fifty millions sterling, the minimum sum discussed, is four years of the general revenue of China, and some of the Powers at least declare that it is not suffi- cient, and that China can pay more. Possibly it can, though each province, besides its tribute to the central power, has to provide a heavy Budget of its own, including its local army; but to carry off the whole free revenue of a great State is not exactly the way to produce the prosperity which the avengers profess to desire. The import-duties cannot be increased sufficiently, to bear the new burden, and it must be .borne 'with the aid of new, taxes, especially a Stamp-tax and an increase in the Land-tax, which will carry a knowledge of the facts into every Chinese household.
