China at the present day, once before resigned ostensibly the control of affairs when her son, the late Emperor Tung-Che, married and entered on his reign; yet, when he dismissed his Prime Minister, Prince Kung, the Regents interposed, and rescinded the imperial decree. The Empress, in order to remove all doubts of her final retirement and of the unquestionable authority of the Emperor after his marriage and assumption of power, has issued a series of proclamations explaining that a female regency was only a last resort to prevent abuses such as took place in previous dynasties, and that constitutional usages can now be reverted to without detriment to the safety and well-being of the empire. When one of the Censors, notwithstanding these plain assurances, proposed that henceforth certain memorials be made out in duplicate, in order that the Empress Dowager might have a copy as well as the Emperor, he received a severe rebuke from the retiring Regent, and was ordered to report himself for punishment to the proper board. In accordance with the privilege enjoyed by all officials of offering suggestions as to measures to be adopted, honors to be conferred, or censures to be passed on other officials, a high functionary named Wu, who had lately succeeded in stopping the breach in the Yellow River, set forth in a memorial his view that high titles of honor should be bestowed on Prince Shun. This proposal was likewise sternly reprobated by the Empress, who gave to the public in the same number of the "Official Gazette " a memorial from Prince Shun, presented when his son was first proclaimed Emperor, but withheld from publication at the author's request until the Emperor assumed personal control of the Government In this memorial the Prince expresses his desire that no honors should be given to him, and that persons proposing them should be treated with ignominy as dangerous characters, intriguing to curry favor for the sake of their own advancement. The young Emperor, who has received a thorough Chinese classical education, under his father's supervision, and the accustomed physical training in archery and horsemanship, is described as slow and hesitating in speech, phlegmatic in temperament, strong of will, and not easily diverted from opinions that he has formed.

Area and Population.-The total area of the eighteen provinces of China proper is 1,297,999 square miles, and the population, according to the latest official data, is 382,978,840. The dependencies of China are Manchuria, with an area of 362,310 square miles and about 12,000,000 inhabitants; Mongolia, 1.288,000 square miles, with a population of 2,000,000: Tibet, 651,500 square miles, with a population estimated at 6,000,000; Djungaria, 147.950 square miles, with 600,000 inhabitants; and Eastern Turkistan, 431,800 square miles, with 580,000 inhabitants. The number of foreigners residing at the treaty ports in the beginning of 1888 was 7,905, of whom 3,604 were British, 855 American, 651 Japanese, 597 German, 515 French, and 475 Spanish. About one half of the foreigners reside in Shanghai. The Roman Catholic Church counted in 1881 about 1,094,000 members. There were 41 bishops, 664 European priests, and 559 native priests. The number of

Protestant Christians increased from 19,660 in 1881 to 33,750 in 1887.

As

China Proper is divided into eighteen provinces, while Manchuria, from a comparatively recent date, has ranked as the nineteenth, and, as the result of the French war, the island of Formosa has lately been endowed with a separate administration. The provincial administration is as carefully organized as the central. members of the official hierarchy, the rulers of the provinces are subject to transfer, removal, or disgrace, but the Government is decentralized to such an extent that there is almost no supervision or control over their executive acts. The provinces of Pechili and Szechuen are each administered by a Tsungtuh or Chetai, called in English a viceroy. Other viceroyalties are composed of groups of two or more provinces, LiangKwang, or the two Kwangs (Kwantung and Kwangsi), forming one; Liang-Kiang, or the two Kiangs (Kiangsi and Kiangsu, with Anhwei), another; Min-Cheh (Chekiang and Tuhkien), a third; Yunnan, including Kweichow, a fourth; Houkwang (Hupeh and Hunan), a fifth; and last, Kansuh and Shensi. There are twelve Futais, or governors, in charge of single provinces under the Tungchus, and four Futais, who administer independently the provinces of Shansi, Honan, Shantung, and the island of For

mosa.

Manchuria was converted into a viceroyalty in the reign of the late Emperor Tungche, but the military administration of the Manchus is still essentially in force.

Civil-Service Examinations. There are 20,000 officials in the various grades of the civil service at Pekin, about one fourth being Manchus and the others Chinese. They are actively employed and subject to close supervision, incurring for the smallest mistake the loss of steps in the order of seniority, affecting their rank and pay. The salaried offices in the provincial administrations do not exceed 2,000, but the yamens are filled with unpaid subordinates and hangers-on who have passed the examinations qualifying them as candidates for Government office, and who, while waiting the chance of an appointment which falls to but few, obtain a livelihood from bribes and blackmail. Although admission to the public service has been surrounded with every conceivable difficulty, such is the desire for rank and office that hundreds devote their lives to the vain pursuit to every one who succeeds in entering the regular service. A preliminary examination is held once a year in every prefecture. Those who are successfuland they are less than 1 per cent. of the applicants-must go through a severer examination before obtaining the degree of siutsai. This entitles them to come forward at the triennial examination held at every provincial capital for the degree of ku jin, which confers a claim to office that is still only a chance, for the successful candidates are many more than the vacancies. Many men, trying again and again, reach old age before they win the second degree, and many lives are passed in futile studies. About 90,000 candidates present themselves every three years, and an average number of 1,300 are successful. There is opportunity for favoritism and corruption in the examinations, it is said, and certainly in the bestowal of offices on the suc

2,587,548 taels. The value of the exports to Hong-Kong was 31,393,189 taels; to Great Britain, 16,482,809 taels; to continental Europe, 11,545,406 taels; to the United States, 8,915,920 taels; to Russia in Europe and in Asia, 7,651,353 taels; to Japan, 2,113,137 taels. Hong-Kong is a center for the import trade in opium, salt, cotton goods, and other articles, and for the export trade in tea and silk. About one half of the trade of which this port is the intermediary is with Great Britain, and the rest is divided between India, the United States, Australia, Germany, and minor countries. The imports of cotton goods into China in 1887 were valued at 37,047,931 haikwan taels; opium, 27,926,865 taels; metals, 5,797,367 taels; woolens, 5,424,561 taels. The exports of silk, raw and manufactured, had a total value of 31,690,214 taels; tea, 30,041,100 taels; straw braid, 3,738,310 taels; sugar, 1,869,583 taels; clothing, 1,306,820 taels; paper, 1,216,563 taels; chinaware, 1,113,019 taels. The quantity of tea exported was 2,096,097 piculs, of 133 pounds, of which 793,747 piculs went to Great Britain, 607,376 piculs to Russia, 274,112 piculs to the United States, 172,306 piculs to Hong-Kong, and 147,543 piculs to Australia. The raw silk export has varied in ten years from 51,772 piculs in 1885 to 80,170 piculs in 1880, the average quantity being about 65,000 piculs. The trade in wild silk has sprung up within a few years, the export increasing from 4,289 piculs in 1879 to 13,868 piculs in 1886, and from that to about 73,000 piculs in 1888. The export of silk waste has increased fourfold since 1879, amounting to 59,125 piculs in 1887 and 52,757 piculs in 1888. The export of silk cocoons fluctuates according to conditions of silk culture in southern Europe. It was 4,318 piculs in 1879, 1,324 piculs in 1885, 11,092 piculs in 1887, and 8,981 piculs in 1888. The trade in silk piecegoods has risen steadily from 13,808 piculs in 1872 to 23,016 piculs in 1888. The raw cultivated silk is exported from Shanghai and Canton, which in the reverse order are also the sources of the silk manufactures. Wild silk and cocoons are shipped mainly from Newchang, Canton, and Chefoo. The total value of the imports for 1888 is reported by the Maritime Customs Office to amount to $150,000,000, showing an improvement of 12 per cent. over the previous year, exclusive of the junk trade with Hong-Kong and Macao, which forms a part of the total for the first time. The trade of the treaty ports amounted to $125,500,000. The total value of the exports by sea was $112,000,000. Tea and silk account for more than two thirds of the total exports. The ocean tea trade has fallen off, owing to the competition of India and Ceylon, and in part to the growth of the overland exports to Asiatic Russia. The silk exports, on the other hand, have increased 50 per cent. since 1885. There is a growing export of raw cotton and of products destined for the consumption of Chinamen abroad. Cotton goods constitute 35 per cent. of the imports. The increased import of Indian opium accounts for two fifths of the improvement in the total value of imports. The next most important articles are rice, of the value of $11,750,000; metals, $8,500,000; woolens, $6,000,000; fish, $3,150,000; kerosene oil, $2,650,000.

Navigation.—The number of vessels entered and cleared at the ports of China in 1887 was 28,381, of 22,199,661 tons. Of these 23,439, of 21,149,526 tons, were steam vessels. Of the total number 15,917, of 14,171,810 tons, were British; 8,298, of 5,670,123 tons, Chinese; 2,749, of 1,480,083 tons, German; 409, of 306,196 tons, Japanese; 255, of 66,539 tons, American; and 121, of 180,890 tons, French. There is a very large coasting trade in which foreign vessels as well as Chinese junks and steamers take part. The steamers belonging to the Chinese Navigation Company also engage in the foreign trade.

Railroads. The introduction of railroads into China has encountered not only superstitious prejudices, but the powerful opposition of the classes engaged in the carrying trades. An experimental railway between Shanghai and Woosung that was opened in 1876 was purchased by the Government in the following year for the purpose of tearing it up. A railway for the conveyance of coal from the mines at Kaiping to the river Petang has been working for some years. It was continued in 1888 to Tientsin by way of Taku, making its total length 85 miles. The whole line was opened for traffic in October, 1888, after being inspected and approved by Li-Hung-Chang, Governor-General of Pechili. An imperial decree was issued ordering its extension from Tientsin to Tungchow, only twelve miles from Pekin; but suddenly, on account of the strong objections of the conservative party at court, the project was dropped altogether for the time. It came under discussion again in 1889. But the Censors declared against the project. The destruction by fire of a very sacred temple, the Tien Tan, or Altar to Heaven, at Pekin, in September, 1889, was attributed to the railroads by their superstitious opponents, some of whom, it is suspected, may have set the building on fire for the purpose of laying the blame on the foreign innovation. On August 27 an imperial decree was issued sanctioning a railroad from Pekin to Hankow. In the edict the Emperor declares his opinion that to make a country powerful railroads are essential. Recognizing that the people will have at first doubts and suspicions, he orders the viceroys Li-Hung-Chang and Chang-Chitung, who are to build the line, and the governors of the provinces of Pechili, Hupeh, and Honan, through which it will pass, to issue proclamations exhorting and commanding the people to throw no impediments in the way, as it is the Emperor's desire that all should work together to make this great work a success. The line will have a length of nearly 800 miles, and is estimated to cost 16,000,000 taels. When LiHung-Chang's favorite project was defeated, owing chiefly, it is supposed, to the machinations of officials who derive illicit profits from the transport of tribute rice between Tientsin and Pekin, the Emperor, induced probably by Prince Shun and the ex-Empress Regent, sent orders to high officials, among them Tseng, Viceroy of Nankin, Chang, Viceroy of Liang Kwang, and the Viceroy of Min-Cheh, to report on the construction of railroads in China. Strengthened in his purpose by their reports, he announced the new policy of railroad construction, and ordered this important trunk-line to Hankow to be built as soon as possible.

Telegraphs. At the close of 1884 the Chinese telegraphs had a length of 3,089 miles, with 5,482 miles of wire. They have since been extended so as to connect all the principal cities near the coast and on the Yangtse-Kiang and carried into the interior to the provinces of Yunnan and Szechuen.

Famine. In the autumn of 1888 and in 1889 Northern China was afflicted by the most widespread and disastrous famine that has occurred in a period of many years. The resources of the Government were already strained by the Yellow-river disaster, which deprived 1,500,000 persons of their livelihood, exclusive of the great number who lost their lives, and caused the expenditure of $12,500,000 in the endeavor to repair the breach. Then came terrible inundations in Manchuria, which covered nearly the whole face of the country from Moukden to the sea and destroyed one of the sources of the food-supply. In the early summer of 1888 the rains on which the rice and wheat crops depend failed throughout a great part of the province of Kiangsu, one of the most densely populated in China, and in the Luchow, Chinchow, Gnanching, Yangchow, Kiangning, Chuchow, and Chinkiang districts in the Yangtse valley, where the people were obliged to kill their draught cattle for food. Upon that came an unprecedented downpour of rain in August, culminating in a deluge, which swept away the millet, bean, and sorghum crops, and in many villages melted out the foundations and brought down the houses. Manchuria was flooded. On Aug. 18 the river burst its banks near Moukden, and swept the fertile plain, carrying down whole villages. Thousands were drowned, and tens of thousands perished from cold and hunger, to which were added later the ravages of typhus fever. The parts of Honan that were still impoverished by the effects of the Yellow-river inundation of 1887 were again submerged. This river now overflowed also the prefectures of Fungyang, Yungchow, and Shuchow in the province of Anhui. The southern part of the great province of Shantung suffered even more severely, and a portion of Pechili was swept by floods.

In Shantung the people throughout a district covering 6,000 square miles, containing 1,500,000 inhabitants, were reduced to eating wild herbs and chaff and fresh blades of wheat in the autumn, and to selling their clothes and other belongings for a tenth of their value. About 2,000 persons left the stricken district daily, thronging the roads in all directions. In many valleys the mulberry trees were torn up by the roots and the soil was buried under a thick covering of sand and stones. The local authorities remitted taxes. Missionaries and wealthy Chinamen began to distribute relief in November and December. In Honan and the adjacent districts the energetic efforts of the Chinese Government to avert distress in 1888 were continued, and were extended to other places that were brought under the observation of the central authorities. The tribute grain was stopped on its way to Pekin, and employed to relieve the sufferers. Large contributions were raised in London, and China merchants in New York added to the fund, which was expended through the instrumentality of missionary committees

and the Government authorities. The Chinese at home and those settled in all parts of the world gave liberal amounts. The sufferers numbered as many as 10,000,000 people. The worst of the distress and hunger ceased when the early crop of wheat was harvested about the first of June. In August, 1889, the Yellow river again broke its banks, submerging a large part of the province of Shantung. The recent floods have called the attention of the authorities to the subject of arboriculture. China has long been denuded of her forests, and in many parts is almost treeless except for the pines and cedars growing in the cemeteries. Li-Hung-Chang has been the first to move in the matter of reafforestation, issuing a proclamation requiring officials to plant trees in public places and urging the people to do so on private lands.

CITIES, AMERICAN, RECENT GROWTH OF. Brunswick, a city of Glynn County, Ga., on a small peninsula in the southern part of the State. Brunswick was founded by James Oglethorpe a century and a quarter ago, but had no commercial importance prior to 1871. Its growth has been mainly within the past four years, in which its population has nearly doubled, and the investment of Northern capital has led to important results. In 1880 it contained 2,900 inhabitants; in 1884, 5,000; in 1889, 10,000. It is surrounded on three sides by salt water, and protected from the ocean by out-lying islands, the largest of which is St. Simon's. Its harbor, with over thirty miles of water-front, is land-locked, and as early as 1837 attracted attention as a desirable location for a United States navy-yard. It was reported on by Commodores Claxton, Woolsey, and Shubrick as the best deep-water harbor for the purpose on the South Atlantic coast, and 1,100 acres on Blythe Island were purchased, under authority of an act of Congress, in 1857, at a cost of $130,000. The appropriation for improving the harbor for 1889 was $35,000, of which $18,000 was expended in dredging and $12,000 in jetty-works. The depth above the bar at high water is 22 feet clear, and the anchorage safe; and as fresh water is sixteen miles distant, unusually healthful conditions prevail. Port charges are low, and railroads deliver cotton direct to ships. The position of Brunswick, at the inward curve of the Atlantic shore, places the port nearer to inland centers than any other point on the coast. It is 500 miles in an air-line nearer San Francisco than is New York, and, in comparison with Savannah, is nearer Montgomery by 77 miles; 135 miles nearer Albany, Ga., by one railroad, and 85 by another, and 24 miles nearer Atlanta. Brunswick has $197,000 invested in shipping. During the year ending Nov. 1, 1888, 312 vessels entered the port (total tonnage, 151,182), of which 117 were from foreign ports; and in the same period 292 were cleared (tonnage, 141,652), half of which were for foreign and half for domestic ports. In 1879 the city owned but a few pilot boats. There is a line of steamers to New York, and one to Savannah. In 1875 the total exports were about $639,000. In 1888 they reached $8,000,000. The chief export has always been lumber, from vast and easily accessible forests of yellow pine and hard woods. In 1888 there were shipped to foreign and coast-wise ports 88,273,847 feet. There has

been an increase of 50 per cent. in resin, and over 150 per cent. in spirits of turpentine exported since 1880, the shipments for 1888 being 149,549 barrels of the first, and 57,142 casks of the latter. The cotton trade has developed since 1885. Prior to that date, there were no dealers, but now docks are being built, an immense compress is under construction, and shipments are made not only to New York and other home ports, but direct to England and the Continent. The shipments for 1886-'87 were 35,000 bales; for 1887-'88, 85,000; and for 1888-'89, to June 13, 128,362. Brunswick is the Atlantic terminus of two lines of railroad, the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia and the Brunswick and Western, which renders not only the cotton belt of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida tributary, but also the coal and iron fields of northern Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Other lines of railroad are contemplated, particularly the Brunswick, Waynesville and Cordelle. Brunswick is supplied with water by nine artesian wells, yielding from 20 to 575 gallons of water a minute; there are fine water works of the Worthington system, gas works, electric lights, and a line of street railway. It has all telegraph and telephone facilities, a volunteer fire department, and a graded system of public schools. The aggregate capital of two national banks is $155,000. There are seven churches for whites, including a Jewish synagogue, and eight belonging to negroes. Prior to 1884 there was not a brick house in the town. In 1889 there were under construction a bank building costing $27,000, an operahouse and stores costing $25,000, a colored Odd Fellows' Hall, $6,500, and a dozen stores ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. Manufacturing enterprises are in process of development. Rich deposits of phosphate have been discovered in close proximity to the city, and it is proposed to establish extensive works. There are numerous fine drives around Brunswick, and a handsome hotel has been erected for winter visitors. St. Simon's Island is a place of resort, and has a fine hotel. There are many points of historic interest. The last slave-ship, the Wanderer," that crossed the ocean, landed at Brunswick harbor with 500 slaves on board. The Brunswick Land Company, chartered in 1888, has a capital of $5,000,000. The death rate at Brunswick for 1888 was 8 per thousand.

Charleston, the capital of West Virginia, on the northern bank of Great Kanawha river, at the mouth of the Elk. The population in 1889 was about 8,000. Its history is long and interesting. Hither, in the days when pioneering from Virginia and Pennsylvania began, just before the Revolutionary War. came hunters and land-seekers, who had learned the way down the Kanawha. At this point were extensive bottomlands and a great salt "lick," or spring, where game thronged. Washington pre-empted land near the present city site in 1774, and some of his kindred still reside in that neighborhood. In 1775 a man of means named Clendennin built a fort and house here (the latter is still occupied), and soon after the Revolution there was a rapid increase of population in the Kanawha valley. Daniel Boone was a resident for eleven years, at this period, opposite the salt lick. This saline spring had been utilized by the Indians and

earliest settlers for salt-making, and about 1784 a few kettles were set up in which to make salt for sale. The crystals were tinged red by iron, and the "strong, red salt of the Kanawha" soon acquired a wide reputation on account of its peculiar meat-preserving power. This led to the establishment of boiling-works on a large scale, and to experiments in boring for wells. Deep boring was then untried, and it was in the course of study and experiment, to which these saltseekers were compelled, that the "slips" or "jars," the "seed-bag," and several other tools and devices, without which the vast industry of deep well-boring could never have been developed, were invented. A great number of wells were bored, and salt-making became an extensive industry, supporting a large population for several miles above Charleston, and giving employment to many flat-boatmen. In 1841 there was an important change in the conduct of the business. On Washington's land, eight miles above Charleston, a "burning spring," or exudation of inflammable gas, had long been a curiosity. A salt-well, bored near by, struck a reservoir of this gas, which drove the water out of the well in an immense geyser. After some trouble, this gas and water were led to a furnace a mile and a half distant, and separated, the gas being fed into the furnace and the water to the kettles. This was the first utilization of natural gas for fuel in America; and the plan was adopted and improved upon in several other furnaces, many wells being subsequently put down to strike the reservoir. Exposures of bituminous coal had been observed by the earliest explorers, but it was not until 1834, when charcoal began to be scarce and costly, that it was used in the saltfurnaces as fuel. Grates having been adapted to it, its use became general, and coal-mining on the Kanawha began. By this time, too, steamboats were ascending the river; but navigation to Kanawha Falls, one hundred miles from the mouth, was uncertain, and the subject of an improvement of the river was much discussed. The French Government proposed to build a magnificent system of canal-locks and tunnels over the Alleghanies, to connect the navigable waters of the Kanawha with those of the James, and thus secure cheap coal for Europe, and its plans would probably have been begun had not the civil war interfered. Charleston now had about 1,500 population, including many rich families of salt-makers and slave-owning farmers, who held the rich bottom-lands along the Kanawha and Elk rivers. These were generally in sympathy with the secessionists of the coast, but the body of the people were Union in sentiment. The salt-making continued profitably during the war; but afterward, deprived of slave labor, and unable otherwise to compete with the new field of production opened in Michigan, it steadily declined. Now all the old furnaces are in ruins, except one small one. Charleston has prospered, however, by the development of other resources. It is the most important commercial point in the large area between the mountains and the Ohio river south of Wheeling, and enjoys the exclusive trade of more than twenty counties. About fifty commercial travelers "drum up" trade for its wholesale and jobbing houses, and extend