for a thorough repair of these railways. At the same time, a gradual renewal of the rolling stock will be necessary. At the rail, engine and car-building works of the United States work is as well done as in England, and at the same time much more quickly and cheaply; it is therefore certain that the United States will have many opportunities of supplying the Siberian and Manchurian railways with rails and rolling stock. In general, machinery and mechanical industries of America will find a large market in all parts of Siberia for their productions, such as machinery necessary for new manufactories and workshops, and for various mining industries, agricultural implements and appliances for the equipment of fishing and other vessels. It must be mentioned here that the Russian Government, in order to promote the economical development of Siberia, has sanctioned the importation, duty-free until 1909, of all plants necessary for the Siberian and Ural mining industry, through all her frontiers. Besides this, no customs dues are to be levied until 1903 upon fishing nets and machinery necessary for the different manufacturing and mechanical establishments of Siberia, which may be imported through the mouths of Siberian rivers.

Among other important articles exported from the United States, the following may find a market in the districts traversed by the Siberian railways: In Manchuria, cotton goods and sugar and steel and iron ware, which, as contracted between the Chinese Government and the company constructing the Manchurian railway, will be subject only to the ordinary Chinese customs duties when brought to Manchuria via Dalny; in Siberia, chemical goods, soap, fruit, hops, watches, musical instruments, cycles, typewriters, tinware, ready-made clothing and last, but not least, raw cotton for the factories, which, as stated above, will certainly spring up in the Amoor territory. Siberian productions which may find a market in the United States are hides, wool and especially coal.

It is not only the coal-fields of Siberia, but likewise all the rich stores of natural wealth, that are awaiting the advent of energetic and enterprising men. To such the Russian epithet "gold bottom," as applied to Siberia, will prove no misnomer. These vast treasures are lying idle because of the absence of capital and enterprise. In this respect Siberia offers a wide and important field of action to the capitalists of North America,

who are famous for the breadth of their views and their energy. Every serious enterprise in Siberia in which American capital will be invested will be welcomed by the Russian Government.

The Siberian Railway will be an important factor in the trade of the world, as a means of transit between Europe and the Far East. It is true that, in this respect, it has rivals in the sea route through the Suez Canal, and the combined sea and land route through North America. Yet the Siberian Railway has on its side an advantage, which is most important in our day, and which is indicated in the old saw, "time is money." With the completion of this work, Port Arthur will be connected with St. Petersburg by a railway of 5,850 English miles, with Berlin of 6,350 English miles, with Paris of 7,100 English miles and with London of 7,300 English miles. With the quick trains on the European system, these distances could be covered in from eight to ten days (in five and a half days by the Nord Express). But even if we take the present speed of the West Siberian trains (twenty-two versts an hour), it follows that only eighteen days are necessary for the journey from Western Europe to Port 'Arthur. This speed can easily be increased to twenty-five versts an hour. Then the journey from London to the Far East will take the following time by the rival routes:

This great advantage possessed by, the Siberian Railway will cause an important revolution in the communications between Europe and the Far East. Firstly, the mails, for which speed is so essential, will be sent by this railway, and secondly, the greater part of the passenger traffic will come to it. It is true, that some apprehension is felt about the fatiguing effect of a long railway journey on the passengers, but in the special Siberian trains everything is done that can conduce to comfort and amusement. There are a library, bath rooms, and even cars fitted up for gymnastics. Of course, the railway journey is not so pleasant as the voyage on one of the excellent ocean steamers, when the weather is fine. But, first of all, the Chinese Sea and the Indian Ocean are never calm except in March and April, and, secondly, there is for two whole weeks no escape from the intense tropical heat when coming through the Suez Canal. The Canadian route,

on the other hand, involves a double transfer from ship to train. We must also bear in mind the fact that the Siberian route will be the cheapest as well as the most rapid one. At present the journey from Paris or London to the ports of China and Japan, by the transoceanic route, costs, first-class, from 1,800 to 1,840 francs, including food. But owing to the very low fares charged for long distances in the Russian Empire, the overland journey will cost in all only from 800 to 950 francs-that is, only about half the cost of the route by Suez or America.

With the goods traffic, things will be different; for most commodities, the cost of transport is more important than speed; therefore, as far as all heavy merchandise is concerned, the railway cannot compete with the sea route. But, in spite of this, we may anticipate that the greater part of valuable goods from Russia, or Europe, to the Far East will be sent by railway, as, with a tariff of half a cent per English mile, per ton, the transport by land would only be slightly dearer than by sea, not to speak of the possibility of reducing the land journey to twentyfive or thirty days, whereas, by sea, at present, goods from Moscow to Vladivostok are forty-five days in transit. Goods which suffer from sea-damp and tropical heat will also be sent by the Siberian Railway.

The Manchurian railway will have at its own disposal steamers running between the termini of the Siberian Railway and the chief ports in the Far East, which will also tend to attract passengers and goods to the Siberian line.

The Siberian Railway will greatly consolidate Russia's position on the shores of the Pacific, facilitating the transport of important military forces thither at any time.

The outlay of the immense sum of four hundred million roubles for the construction of the railway obliges Russia to do her utmost to recompense herself for this outlay by developing the economical forces of Siberia and attracting as much traffic as possible to the railway. Therefore, from the moment when the railway is completed, Russia's principal task in the Far East will be, not the encouragement of political and territorial aggrandizement, but a ceaseless effort to promote peace and tranquillity, those main factors which will enable the Siberian Railway to play its economical part as the vital artery of Siberia and all the Old World. MIKHAILOFF.

JAPAN AND RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST.

BY JAMES MURDOCH.

'AMONG the many strange developments in the history of the last three or four decades, the rise of Japan to the position of something like a great Power must be set down as one of the most remarkable. Doubtless, when the history of the period comes to be written calmly and dispassionately, and with a full command of materials, this achievement of the erstwhile hermit nation will be ranked with the unification of Italy and the formation of the new German Empire, and Okubo and Kido, with the younger men who followed them and carried on their work-Ito, Inouye, Mutsu, Okuma, Yamagata and Matsugata-will be credited with finding satisfactory solutions for problems quite as difficult and quite as complex as those that Cavour and Bismarck had to confront. In some respects the problems of the Japanese statesmen seemed much harder than those that had to be dealt with in Italy and Central Europe in the sixties. For in Japan it was not merely a matter of stripping a number of petty potentates of some or all of their powers, and of welding their subjects into one strongly compacted nation with all the institutions of a free people, for which the intelligent among these subjects had been longing for years. Here it was a case of passing from feudalism to modern industrialism, where competition is the regulating force, and where caste has no privileges. It was a transition from the despotism of some two hundred and sixty petty local princes, controlled in some ways by the still more crushing despotism of the Shogunate, to selfgovernment and representative institutions, with powers and responsibilities quite as full as in most European States. And, so far from the people expressing any longing for these representative institutions, the very leaders of the national movement at first knew little or nothing about them, or even about their exVOL. CLXX.-NO. 522.

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istence in foreign lands. In the early sixties, we find Kido and Ito in disguise frequenting the house of an American citizen (the first Japanese naturalized in the United States), and eagerly questioning him about the system of government of the great Republic. It was Kido who presided in the first national deliberative assembly in 1869, and it is needless to say that Ito is the father of the present Japanese Constitution.

On the other hand, the makers of modern Japan had factors in their favor on which neither Cavour nor Bismarck could count in their efforts. In the first place, there was no religious problem to be dealt with in Japan; for the Japanese is an indifferentist in religion, and extremely tolerant of all beliefs, provided their profession does not militate against the independence and political interests of the country. In the second place, the apostles of the new order, from contact with foreign agencies, knew far more than their opponents did; and the superiority in knowledge and prowess evinced by the men of Satsuma and Choshiu was overwhelming; and so, backed up as they were by the powerful and progressively inclined clans of Hizen and of Tosa, after they had subverted the power of the Shogunate, they found themselves allpowerful.

Besides all this, in favor of the reformers there was a circumstance still more important. In Italy King Victor Emmanuel counted for something, and in Germany the King of Prussia counted for a very great deal. But in neither of these cases did the royal title carry with it anything like the moral authority that attached to the semi-divine name of the Mikado in Japan. Now, in accomplishing the overthrow of the Shogunate, the men of Choshiu and Satsuma had ostensibly made common cause with the ignorant and anti-foreign court nobles, who were bitterly opposed to all intercourse with the outside world. But once the Tokugawa power was crushed, the reformers soon made it clear to their allies that the exclusion policy on which their minds were bent was impracticable, and that the only course open to the country was the adoption of the very policy of international intercourse pursued by the Shogunate which had so excited their hate. In spite of themselves, the most bigoted exclusionists all of a sudden found themselves committed to liberal ideas. The Emperor himself, then sixteen years old, went to the Council of State, and before the nobles took an oath promising that "a de