A W e ek ly N ew sp a p er a n d Review\
DUM VOBIS GRATULAMOR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS OT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.
From the B r i e f oj H is Holiness P iu s IX . to T he T ablet, June 4, 1870'
Vol. 86. No. 2893. L ondon, O c t o b e r 19, 1895.
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[R e g is t e r ed a t t h e Gen e r a l P o st O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper
•Chronicle o f t h e W e e k :
The Financial Position of China — Chinese Resources--The F rench in Madagascar—The Crisis in the Shipbuilding Trade — The Congo State—The New Peers— The Water Supply of London— The Whale and the Brigantine— Autocars—Lamps and Lamp Oils — The Armenian Question— Prospect of an Ashanti War—Archbishop Walsh on Home Rule— The London School Board . . 613 -Leaders :
The Pope’s Letter on the Italian
Celebrations . . .._ . . 6 1 7 Mr. Athelstan Riley’s Position.. 618 The Speech o f Lord Halifax . . 618 Letter of his Holiness Leo X III.
to his Eminence Cardinal Rampolla, Secretary of State . . 620 Anglican Orders . . .. . .6 2 1 Death o f the President of Ratcliffe
College . . . . . . . . 622
CONTENTS . Page
Page
N o t e s ........................................ — 623 Th Benedictines in Brazil . . 63=) R e v iew s : The Washington University 636
The British Fleet .. Maynooth College..
An Isle in the Watet
“ The Month”
..
624 625 Lord Halifax’s Speech at the Church
62s Congress
Foreign Catholic Periodicals 626 627 Commemorating the Birth of the In the Year of Jubilee 627 Heir to l a l a c r e ......................... 640 Books o f the Week....................... C orrespondence :
627
So c ia l a n d P o l it ic a l
Rome :— (From Our Own Corre
SU PPLEM EN T .
spondent) . . . . . . News from Ireland . . — — 629 630 N ews from t h e S chools:
L e t t e r s to t h e E d itor :
Two New Schemes of Relief for
Voluntary Schools
Cardinal Pole’s Dispensation . 631 The Preservation of Religious Paul IV. and Anglican Orders . 632 Education 645 Education and Catholic Schools 634 St. Cuthbert’s Grammar School, St. Cybi 634 Newcastle 646 The Late Mr. William Palmer . 6J5 Education on the Continent and University Education 635 in Canada 646
Page ,
639
641
615
Page tinued): Mr. Athelstan Riley and the Lon
don School Board . . . • 646 The Cost o f Board Schools . . 646 Literature and Technical Schools 647 New School Boards . . . . 647 The Call to Arms . . . . . . 647 The Master o f Balliol on Culture 647
N ew s from t h e D io c e s e s :
Westminster S o u th w a rk ......................... Clifton ......................... Leeds Northampton
Nottingham.................................... 640 Salford .................................... 649
. 648 . 64S - 649 . 649
649
Text of the French nement ”
' Loi d ’Abon
650
* * Rejected MS. cannot be returned unless accompanied with address and postage.
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
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THE FINANCIAL
POSITION OF
CHINA. I T N U SU A L interest attaches to a letter I on this subject from the special correspondent of The Tim es, who is now contributing a series o f papers upon the various social and political problems which together make up the far Eastern question. In one respect China has been a model to the nations. Foreign borrowings have had no attractions for her. Her selfrestraint in this respect has indeed been so remarkable that at the time o f the outbreak o f the late war her total liabilities would have been covered by half a million sterling, and even that trifling amount would probably have been paid off by this time but for the ambitious plans o f Japan. Nor had she until recently any internal debt. The war caused her to raise two loans •abroad, one, a silver loan o f £¡1,635,000 at seven per cent, in December, 1894, and the other, a gold loan of £¡3,000,000, in February of this year. These two loans were secured upon the Imperial Maritime Customs under the administration of Sir Robert Hart. A sum approaching three millions has also been borrowed at home on the same •security. Other internal loans are put at ,£5,000,000, so that altogether at the close o f the war it is calculated China’s indebtedness stood at about £¡1 2,000,000. By the Treaty o f Shimonoski she undertook to pay Japan a war indemnity o f £¡40,000,000. This enormous fine, added to the loans raised to carry on the disastrous struggle, leave China with a debt of £¡50,000,000. A country with three or four hundred million inhabitants and almost inexhaustible natural resources ought not to find this an excessive "burden. The ordinary revenue which reaches the central treasury at Pekin has been variously reckoned at between ¿£15,000,000 and £¡25,000,000. It will be seen that the margin for error is considerable. The uncertainty is increased by the varying rates at which Chinese currency is •converted into sterling, and the fall in the value o f silver has caused the Chinese revenue to stand at a much lower figure than it would have done some years ago. In the happy days, when the Lord of the Dragon Throne had no heavy gold payments to meet abroad, the depreciation o f silver mattered very little, but with a gold debt of fifty millions the whole situation changes.
N e w S eries, V ol, LIV., No. 2,202.
Herr von Brandt, formerly German Minister
— Chinese at Pekin, and a high financial authority, adopts resources, the lower o f the two estimates as representing the annual revenue o f the Central Govern
ment, and places it at 100,000,000 taels, or £¡15,000,000 per annum, and accounts for it thus :
Land tax Maritime Customs, including inland duty on foreign opium ......................................... Inland transit dues ... Native Customs and native grown opium du ty ..................................................... Salt monopoly ............................ Sale of titles and brevet ranks Rice t r i b u t e ......................................... Licences, &c. ...
Taels. 35.000. 000 23.000. 000 12.000. 000 10.000.000 10.000.000
5.000. 000 3.000. 000 2.000. 000
Total ........................ Taels 100,000,000
It is pointed out in explanation of what seems this exceptionally low rate of taxation per head o f the people that these figures represent only what reaches the Treasury, and takes no account of the sums which get stopped on the way. The correspondent o f The Tim es calculates that (or every tael paid into the treasury at Pekin, at least four or five more are levied for the benefit o f the mandarins who collect them. It is noted as characteristic of Chinese methods of government that with the exception o f the sums coming from the Maritime Customs, the revenue paid into the Pekin treasury never varies. Fat years and lean years, years o f plenty and years o f famine and war, all produce alike. There seems to be a long tradition that the Central Government ought to be contented with a certain sum, and that the fluctuating surplus is a matter which concerns the provincial and Pekin Mandarins. The one source o f revenue which China in recent years has been able to rely upon getting in full is the money coming from the Maritime Customs— levied by foreigners in her employ upon her foreign trade. A t the present rate of exchange this revenue represents about three and a half millions sterling, and so would of itself serve to meet the interest on a loan of £¡50,000,000. It need hardly be said that it is the security for the loans recently raised-— and, indeed, it is the only security which is likely to be looked at by European financiers. But supposing the Maritime Customs are assigned and accepted as full security for the whole o f the loan needed to meet the expenses and penalties o f the war, we have still to consider so far the alienation of a quarter of her total revenue, and that its most tangible and certain part will affect the general financial condition
