630

Buddhism and Jainism. By Professor Monier Williams 644

Lord Beaconsfield:-- 665

I. Why we Follow Him. By a Tory.

II. Why we Disbelieve in Him. By a Whig.

Contemporary Life and Thought in France. By Gabriel Monod 697

THE FUTURE OF CHINA.

The late reconquest by China of some of her former possessions in
Central Asia, and the firm tone in which she is urging her demands upon
Russia, in respect of the _Kuldja_ territory, are giving her a
prominence as a factor in Asiatic politics which she can scarcely be
said to have claimed before. These signs of tenacity of purpose, if not
of actual vitality, acquire an additional interest when viewed in
connection with the recently modified policy of her Government towards
Western States; a policy which, whether induced by an honest intention
to forego the traditional exclusiveness of past ages, or by a shrewd
determination to cope, if possible, with more advanced nations upon the
advantageous footing secured by the cultivation of the progressive Arts
and Sciences, has had the effect of bringing China into diplomatic
relations with the principal Powers of Europe and America, and
introducing her as a recognised element into the political calculations
of the civilized world. The issue of the _Kuldja_ controversy has a
special interest for England, as the mistress of adjacent territory in
India; but a far greater importance attaches to the result of the larger
efforts which China is making to take up a position amongst the nations,
and upon the success of which all her political future must depend. It
is of that future, and of its bearing upon the interests of China's two
great rivals in Asiatic dominion, Russia and Great Britain, that this
paper proposes to treat.

It cannot be predicated of the Government of China, at any rate at
present, that it is greedy of territory. On the contrary, its
responsibilities are already as serious as it must feel at all competent
to fulfil with credit to itself and satisfaction to its people. But, on
the other hand, it is remarkably tenacious of parting with a single rood
of ground, to which it may claim the right of traditional possession or
more recent conquest. When portions of its territory have been torn
from its grasp by successful rebellion, it has for the moment yielded to
the inevitable. But the earliest opportun