absorbing her conquerors and converting them into patriots, ready to dare all for their adopted country. The saving force must now come from without, and when once more there is a strong hand directed by a strong brain at the head of affairs, the resources of the unhappy land will be found to be practically inexhaustible. With a prolific soil, vast mineral wealth, and a teachable population, there is indeed no limit to what China, which has been called the India of the future, may become. [Illustration: FIG. 58.--THE TOWN AND BRIDGE OF FUCHAM.] In the imminent partition of China into spheres of influence, should that partition finally supersede the more generous policy of the opening of the whole country on equal terms to the trade of all the European nations, the Yang-tse basin, with its populous towns of Nanking, Hankow, Fuchan, and others, will be the field of action of Great Britain; whilst Shantung, a rich sea-bound province, will be that of Germany; and the French, who already occupy Tonking on the south, will obtain concessions in the neighbouring districts. On every side railways are now being projected, and the probability is that ere the century just about to open has run half its course, the whole of China will be intersected by them. In the Blue Book on Chinese affairs, issued on the 14th March of the current year (1899), the following significant statistics of the railway concessions granted to foreigners in the Celestial Empire are given, showing that Great Britain is more than equal to Russia in the actual amount of mileage secured, whilst Germany, France, Belgium, and America have among them less than Great Britain alone: [Sidenote: TELEGRAPHS IN CHINA] British railways 2,800 miles Russian " 1,530 " German " 720 " Belgian " 650 " French " 420 " American " 300 " More important still, as breaking up finally the isolation on which China has prided herself for so many centuries, is the fact that already pretty well all the important towns of the vast Empire are connected by telegraph with each other, and with the outside world. The search-light of publicity is in fact turned full upon the land once so fraught with mystery, and before long there will be no hidden thing connected with either court or country which will not be revealed to the inquisitive gaze of all the world. THE END Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay. In One Volume, Small 4TO. _PRICE HALF-A-GUINEA._ _Women Novelists of Queen Victoria's Reign_ A BOOK OF APPRECIATIONS. THE SISTERS BRONTË By Mrs. Oliphant. GEORGE ELIOT By Mrs. Lynn Linton. MRS. GASKELL By Edna Lyall. LADY GEORGIANA FULLERTON. } By Charlotte M. Yonge. THE AUTHOR OF "THE VALLEY OF } A HUNDRED FIRES" } THE AUTHOR OF "MARY POWELL" }