So much for the China of the present. What of the future? She is now fettered by the shackles of blind ignorance, by the prejudices and retrogressive spirit of the tyrannical Manchu oligarchy who rule the land. Her strength is sapped by the poison of corruption. The officials, almost to a man, are mercenary and self‐seeking. Extortion and dishonesty are found in every class. Suppose a tax is laid upon a certain province. The Viceroy orders the mandarins to collect it from their districts. They send forth their myrmidons to wring it from the people, by threats and torture if need be. Enough must be raised to satisfy the many vultures through whose claws it will pass before it reaches Pekin. Twice, three times the amount of the sum asked for originally must be gathered from the unfortunate taxpayers, in order that each official through whose hands it goes on its way to the Imperial Treasury may have his share of the spoil. And how is all the money raised in the vast Empire spent? Not on the needs of the land, certainly. Few roads or bridges exist. They have mostly been constructed by charity. The railways—and there are not many—were built by foreign capital. Is there no hope for China? Must she remain for ever the spoil of the strong? Or will she one day recognise the secret of her weakness, reform and become a power too formidable to be lightly offended? She has an example always before her eyes. Forty years ago Japan was as ignorant and prejudiced. Foreigners were hated; the country was closed to them. The Mikado was then as powerless as the Emperor of China is now. The spear and the sword were the weapons which the soldiers of Japan opposed to the cannons and rifles of the Europeans. Foreign fleets bombarded the coast‐towns and wrung concessions from the rulers of the helpless land. The country was divided between powerful chieftains of warlike clans.