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12 arising from the necessity, caprice or avarice of local officials. It must be noted that the money paid to the central Government falls far short of the amount actually collected by the provincial authorities.

In India every facility is afforded for the development of the resources of the country, and for the expansion of trade, by a network of railways and trade routes, and by the safeguarding of the interests of the entire population. In China there are no facilities for inland transport save by river and canal navigation, which the Chinese discovered to their cost during the late war, no railroads of any commercial importance and no roads worthy of the name. This in a land having boundless stores of wealth in coal, iron and minerals of all sorts, and an unlimited supply of efficient labour; a land famed for the minute economy of its people, who derive warmth and fuel from charcoal and millet stalks, while millions of tons of coal lie undisturbed beneath their feet. The people are remarkable for their utilisation of waste products in food and in tillage, while their rulers can boast of the waste of their country's resources. Mandarins hold commerce in contempt, and may not stoop to trade at the peril of losing caste, and yet some there are who add to their wealth by a quasi-connection with trade, as in the case of Li Hung Chang and the China Steam Navigation Coy., and who, while denouncing foreign opium as a curse to the people, foster the cultivation of the native drug for their individual profit. Li Hung Chang has acquired great wealth by methods sanctioned by custom and best known to himself. He is also not without fame as the figure-head of the modern school of China, from whom better things were expected than the complete collapse of her armaments, for which he is held in a great measure responsible. It can hardly be