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Rh expected that the Government will so warily guide the helm of state as to clear the shoals which beset their course on all sides. On the north and north-east, Russia, who used her influence successfully in modifying the Treaty of Shimonosaki and who guaranteed part of the indemnity exacted by Japan, has not failed to advance her interests by obtaining a concession to continue her Trans-Siberian railway through Chinese territory to the seaboard; there she will have a naval station with an open sea at all seasons. The arrangement is ostensibly temporary, but Russian diplomacy may be safely left to secure its permanency. Along the coast of China the land lies open to attack at all points, while on her south-western border the French and ourselves are busily at work, contesting the right to widen the ever extending sphere of influence, and to tap the trade of two of the richest provinces of the Empire. In this region the British have been treated to another example of bad faith in the Chinese ceding territory to France, the small state of Maung U, which by treaty stipulation was never to be transferred to a third power. Negotiations regarding this double dealing have terminated satisfactorily, and one important result for British commerce has been secured in opening the western river of Kwang-tung to trade. By this concession we obtain a direct route to Kwangsi and Yunan. France has permission to carry her railway from Tongking as far as Liuchow in Kwangsi, but Britain may safeguard her interests by the completion of the Mandalay railway to Kun-lung ferry, whence little difficulty would be encountered in continuing the route to a point above the French limit on the Mekong. Given these routes and a fair field for trade, one need not dread the results of the competition of our gallant neighbours, whose trading capacity is far outstripped by their chivalrous desire for Empire in the East. There is no reason