of my readers who propose fishing through the ice by way of cooling their youthful ardour in the winter, to be careful how they set to work. The proper way is to chop a square hole, taking pains to cut down very evenly; the improper way is to do as I did the first time -cut carelessly, get down deeper on one side of the square than on the other, suddenly strike the axe through, and get the hole full of water, while yet there are several inches of ice to be cut through. If anyone will try chopping ice in a hole two feet deep and full of water, he will discover that the splashing, though graceful to look at, is not comfortable to feel in cold weather. Fishing through the ice is chilly and depressing work. I mean such fishing as I am thinking of when you are exposed to all the keen airs of heaven, a solitary shivering mortal out all alone in the wilderness. Of course if two young persons go out fishing for Tommy-cods, as they occasionally do on the St. Lawrence, through a hole in the ice, with a nice little hut built over it, and a nice little stove inside, why things are quite different.

I cannot say that fishing through the ice under ordinary circumstances is very exciting sport, but there is something comical about it, and it affords a certain amount of innocent enjoyment. When I rejoined my pals that evening, I could not forbear laughing at the peculiar appearance of the winter trout-fisher as represented by a staid, respectable member of society, who looked as if he ought to be engaged in some learned or scientific pursuit or dressed in good broadcloth, and poring over his books in some well-filled library. His costume was remarkable. His feet were protected by voluminous moccasins stuffed with many woollen socks; his legs encased in dingy and somewhat greasy corduroys; his body in an ancient, blood-stained, weather-beaten jacket, with two or three pieces of old sacking or gunny bags hung on the shoulders, and strapped round the waist to keep off the wind; an ordinary deerstalking cap, with pieces filched from a buffalo robe sewn on the ear-flaps, pulled over the brows and tied under the chin, and a long and tattered woollen muffler wound round and round the neck, allowed little of the fisherman's face to be seen, except a nose, purple with cold, from which hung a little icicle, and a pair of eyes gazing intently at the hole in the ice over which he stooped. Patiently he crouched over his fishing hole, occasionally stirring up the water to keep it from freezing, holding in his hand a fishingrod in the shape of a stick about a foot long, from which depended a piece of thick twine attached to a hook armed with the eye of a deceased trout as a bait. At intervals he would twitch out a fish, pull him violently off the hook-a man cannot employ much delicacy of manipulation when his hands are encased in thick fingerless mittens-and throw him on a heap of his forerunners in misfortune, where he speedily froze solid in the very act of protesting by vigorous contortions against his cruel fate. We caught, I should be ashamed to say

イ

how
many dozen trout on that occasion. I know we had the best part
of a sack full, but as to the exact size of the sack I propose to retain
a strict reserve, lest I should be accused of taking a mean advantage
of that noble little fish the trout.

On the way home we shot a mountain sheep. We came suddenly and unexpectedly upon three of them, started our host of the Ranche Griff Evan's huge hound Plunk after them, jumped off our horses, and put out up the mountain on foot after the dog. What a pace those sheep went up that mountain, and what a pace old Plunk went up after them, and what a ludicrously long way behind we were left! It made one quite ashamed of being a man to see the manner in which the sheep and the dog got away up the mountain and out of sight before we had panted and perspired up a few hundred feet. We might have saved ourselves the trouble of climbing, for presently down came one of the sheep, followed closely by Plunk and preceded by a small avalanche of rattling gravel and bounding stones, in such a hurry that he as nearly as possible ran between the legs of one of the sportsmen. The animal passed literally within two yards of him with such startling effect that he had no time to do anything but fire his rifle off in the air in a kind of vague and general way. Plunk stuck to the sheep gallantly, and pressed him so hard that he went to bay in the bed of the river, at a place where the water rushes foaming down a steep descent among a mass of huge boulders, and there he met his fate. The mere word 'mountain sheep' evokes such recollections of the emotions I felt on being first introduced to that strange animal, that I will endeavour to relieve my mind by trying to jot down in a future article some reminiscences of sheep.

DUNRAVEN.

DIARY OF LIU TA-JÊN'S MISSION TO
ENGLAND.1

I. RAILWAYS, MINES, &c.

THE first time I met Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister at Peking, he began the conversation by remarking that the end of government was the preservation of the people, and that the subject which required the most urgent attention of China's rulers at present, was the opening of coal and iron mines, and the construction of railways. On my journey from Tientsin to Shanghai also, the foreigners on board the steamer all dwelt upon the same subject. I made them understand that our doctrine held material profit to be of small account compared with moral right [i.e. that in China civilisation is moral, not material]; and that our aim was to benefit the people, not to embarrass them. But they were never weary of arguing the question backwards and forwards; and at first I could not make out why they were so zealous in pressing a measure which, as they said, would add greatly to the wealth and power of China [since it is not to be supposed they have either much at heart]. But, after reaching Shanghai, I made a visit to the Polytechnic Institution there with Fêng Taotai, who showed me a plan, which had been sent by a foreigner, of a projected railway to connect India and Peking by one line of rails running the whole length of the empire and crossing the border! I then understood that this railway question was not one merely of acquiring places of trade [but that its end was conquest]. If our rulers are not resolute in resistance, the authorities in the

1 The following translations are from the Diary of His Excellency Liu, who went to England as joint Minister with Kuo Ta-jên in the autumn of 1876, after the conclusion of the Chefoo Convention. The Diary was written in obedience to instructions issued by the Office of Foreign Affairs at Peking to all China's representatives abroad, directing them to keep a record of what they saw and heard in foreign countries for the information of the home Government, and it has been printed and circulated amongst the high officers of the empire only. By far the greater part of the book describes more or less accurately facts which came under the author's observation in England-more interesting, of course, to his fellow countrymen than to foreigners, who know what Liu Ta-jên saw, but want to know what he thought. Those passages only in which the Minister expresses his inferences and opinions have been translated.

Liu Ta-jên is probably a fair representative of the literary, and therefore ruling, class in China, and his opinions on European civilisation are interesting on that account. He shall speak for himself.-F. S. A. BOURNE.

maritime provinces, in their delight at what is new and strange, will find themselves playing into the hands of the foreigners before they know where they are. Merchants may spread reports of the desirability of these changes in the hope of gain, and delude the officials; officials may take up the cry in the hope of reward to ensue and deceive the throne; until the evil is too great to be stopped. But, in truth, can anyone be deceived by such reports? The empire cannot be governed by the yard measure of the merchant: first principles cannot be reached by those who excel only in the use of their hands.’ Does not the old saying hold good yet?

With such a railway completed, a few days would be sufficient to involve the safety of the whole empire-in truth, no small matter. I think the views of the Chinese Government on this question should be stated with no uncertain sound. Such a railway would be dangerous not only to China, but to England also. For even now the ill-feeling against foreigners has by no means died out amongst the people. If a railway is made, and graves, houses, and land again destroyed, the people's resentment will become stronger than ever, and ruffians will take advantage of the state of popular feeling to murder the English. And when once disturbance reigns, the foreign communities in China will not alone suffer: the new railway will be ready at hand to convey the rabble into India, and the tables will be turned upon the English. A whole people of one mind is not easily withstood. They resemble a mighty stream that sweeps all before it : something more is needed to oppose them than machinery and firearms. There are the examples of Washington and the War of Independence in former times, and of the San Yuan Li case in recent times, to show how things would go. Let not the English forget that if they light a fire, the wind may change, and the flame kindled for others may cause their own destruction. When the sun has reached the centre of the heaven, it declines; when the moon is full, its wane begins. The great emperors and statesmen of China were by no means inferior in ability or wisdom to the men of the West; and they never engaged in this riving of heaven and splitting of earth, nor rashly put their trust in mechanics and brute force, nor entered into rivalry with the powers of Nature, in the pursuit of wealth and power. For their mental vision could reach to first principles of right, and they discerned calamity afar off; but the English are ignorant of everything but the road to wealth, rushing madly on with never a look behind. If we tell them all this in so many words, can we hope that they will see their error?

II. INSIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF TROOPS STATIONED AT SINGAPORE, &C. In amount of shipping, the Straits Settlements hardly yield to Hongkong. But the number of troops does not exceed two or three

hundred men at each of the three stations (Singapore, Penang, and Malacca). Even at Ceylon, an island by no means insignificant in size, only four hundred men are stationed. It would seem that to get possession of trading stations all over the world, for the advantage of her commerce, is a principle of British policy; but, being unwilling to face the expenditure which the maintenance of large garrisons at many points would involve, the British at last hit upon the expedient of telegraph lines and steam-vessels. The French invented steam.. vessels, but the English brought them to their present state of perfection. Thus, by means of rapid communication, the English effect a great saving of military expenditure-an excellent device. But Russia intends to extend her sea-board to the south at the expense of Turkey, and, should the latter Power succumb, the Russians will come down the Red Sea, like water from an upturned jar, and England will not only have to watch over the safety of India, but to maintain large military garrisons at Aden and all the stations on the South-East. England will then have to be on the qui vive in every direction; she will not be able to secure the safety of so many stations; and she will be in the position of the crouching wolf who, if he moves forward, treads on his dewlap, and, if back, on his tail.

III. JOINT-STOCK ENTERPRISE.

In China, whenever a great work is undertaken, the necessary expense has to be defrayed from the State Exchequer; and this is no doubt a great bar to improvement. But although we might wish the people to learn the foreign custom in this particular, (joint-stock enterprise,) we cannot force them to do so. Habits of fraud and deceit are common in China, and are becoming every day more so. When two or three persons put a hundred or so together for purposes of trade, unless each one of them gives his most careful personal attention to the affair, he will be robbed by absconding partners and shopmen. If, then, it were a question of hundreds of thousands, who would be confiding enough to risk his money?

IV. RAILWAYS.

But if railways were laid down in China, the large class engaged in the transport of men and goods-carters, boatmen, trackers, &c.— would find their occupation gone. Now for hundreds of years it has been a principle of Chinese rule that no measure likely to injure the people should be entertained.

In the number of tourists, rich merchants, and those who go to reside in foreign countries for purposes of trade, China cannot com pare with the States of Europe. But the capital required for railway enterprise is considerable, and, if high freight is not charged, financial