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To any thoughtful observer of Li Hung Chang, the distinguished statesman, whu is at present the guest of the United States government, it is evident that whatever diplulllatic purpose llIay lie behind his visit. it is largely prompted by the desire to e);amine onr commercial and industrial conditiolls, and compare them with those of England, Germany, and France. For sueh a task he is in eyery way qualified. He is a man uf keen ubsL!'nttion and rare intelligence, whose judglllellt is singularly free from the warping prejmlice against western civilization whieh charae!erizes the llIass of his countrymen. He is at once the profound scholar and the practical man of the wurld ; and he is ripe ill the possession of an accumulated wbdum and experience which he has gained in half a century of military, political, and administrative service uf his cuuntry. It must be said in passing that the great Chillese statesman is one uf the most strikiug amI pieturesqne persullalities tu be found in the wide world to-day, awl easily takes rallk with those twu aged statesmen in Europe, BisnJarck and Gladstone. So strongly, indeed, has his formative and masterful influence been impressed upon his cuuntry that he has fre(Jllt'lItly been called the " Bismarck" of Chinathan whieh, we think, no more just and nuble compliment eould be paid to him. Li Hung Chang, moreover, comes among us as the authur and chiefwe had almost said solitaryrepresentative in high places of the party of reforlll and progress. For nigh upun twoscore years he has striven, amid discouragements which would have urought disIllay to a less courageous heart, to introduce the best features of western civilization into China. He has been met at every turn either with open or secret opposition, or what was even worseindifference all apathy. Tu him is due the credit for sueh progress as China has IlIade in the modern industrial arts; it was his hand that was mainly instrumental in unlucking the gates of China for the inflow of international COlllmerce, and incidentally of western ideas and sentiment. The recent disastrous war with Japan, a conflict which he had foreseen and warded off for many years, came at length, and indorsed the policy of the great statesman in tones of thunder. In the extremity of its humiliation his ungrateful country turned to him as its last hope, and sent hilll to the victorious enemy, with full power to treat for peace according to his own judgment. 'fhe war with Japan was the best thing that could have happellPd for the party of progress ill China. The logic of hard faets has orought home tu the government, if not to the people, the urgent necessity for following the example of Japan, and adopting tho best features uf westprn eivilizatioll ; and unduubtedly the extraordinary tuur of Li Hung Chang among the west ern nations has been undertaken largely for the pur pose of comparing their methods of IIIanufaeture and commerce, before entering upun the industrial develop ment of China upun a large scale. This deYelopment is certain tu come ; and Li HUllg Chang has positively stated in Englalld that he will devote the remainder of his life to the espeeial work of extending the transpor tation facilities of China both by sea and land. If the Viceroy is successful, this means that an extensive sys tem of railroads will be builtfor China is practically without any railroads to-dayand a fleet of ocean and river steamships will he constrncted, not to mention the considerable additions whieh llIust be made to the navy to bring it up eyen to the strength that it possessed be fore the war. The question naturally arisesand it is being asked by every lIlanufaeturing country through which the Vieeroy has passedwhu is to lay out these railroads, erect these hri(lges across the great rivers of China, ami provide the millions of tons of steel rail, and the as equipment uf lucomotives and cars which will be re quired ? III what yards are the keels of the new mer chant and naval ships to be laid down ? There are llIany and cogent reasons why this work, and particularly the forlller part of it, should fall to the lot of Ameriean engineers and manufacturers. Geographically ours is the natural market to which the Chinese should cUllle. 'Ve are separated from them by only one half the distance which intervenes between China and the European manufacturers, and by ou policy of non-intervention in their national affairs w have won their confidence to a marked degree; as wa recently shown in their hour of defeat by the Japanese, when they voluntarily sought the services of an Ameri can in preference to any other minister, in negotiating the terms of peace. But most weighty reason of all for the adoption c the American in preference to the European style c railroads is found in the fact that our methods of rai road building are well adapted to the rapid construc tion of a large system. In locating and constructing system of railroads we ean defy competitiun, both in cost and speed ; and in every open competition for th erection of railroad bridges our firms have been able t underbid the English, German and French builders, with a large margin to spare. The question is just now a most important one to this natiun. A period of stagnation has followed upon the relllarkable activity of the past decade. The capacity of our industrial establishments is larger, in many cases much larger, than the eountry's demands, and it is necessary for us to look abroad for lIew lllarkets. The ltIost iltlllletliate alld promising field eertainly lies in Chilla. It will be greatly to our interest to euith'ate her good will, awl the uutspuken words uf Li Hung Chang to the representatives of the New York press on the question of the Geary law awl the restriction of Chinese illlllligratiOlI prove that there is at least o!w direction in which we llIight show Olil' friendly disl)()sition to immediate and good effect. \re thillk that this country, and for that lIlatter the European nations abo. 1m\'e failed to realize how mighty a. fadO!' in the iJl(lnstrinl and COIlIlIll'reial world Chilla will become, so soon as Li HUllg Chang. 01'. if not he, the party of progress whidl he has f01'lIled, shall have broug'ht its 400.000,OO() of people illto close toul'h with thl' outside worlll, and taught thelll to value and eall for the conveniences of western civilization thp mill'Oad. the steamship, the eleetrie light, :tnd the thousand and one mechanical conveniences in the design an( manufacture of whi('h we an' pre-eminent. - m - '.'he His Boats on the Lakes. AnotllPr stppl steamship 400 feet 10llg has passed a sllt'eessful trial off the Chieago lake front, adding, says the Chit-ago Re('ol'd, to the very considerable number uf these Illo(lern vessels, which have marked sneh progress in the conduct of lake traffic. Twenty-five years ago a lake vessel's eaptain, eould he have sighted one of the"e 11i0llstl'rs off the starboard bow of his little sailing eraft. \vould hayp believed that a mirage a1feded his vision : to-day these great ve"Pis slip ill alld out of ports of tlle great lnkps. sean'l'ly exeitillg comment. To th" a\,PI'agp lalldsllJall the comparative size of tlJ(',e vessels when ranged by the sidp uf a big Atlnntie liner is not (OlllPl'plwllde(l. For example, the Mari-popa, \\'hieh cruised the Chicago lake front recently, is 421; fpet long. 48 feet llpam, and 28 feet llIo11l(led depth : the Allleri('an liner St. Louis, one uf the large .\tialltie liners. b 554,! feet long, 02% feet beam. with an extreme depth of 42% feet. In these measurements the great eOlllpal'ath'p depth of the ocean vessel is most proUlillent. Ahuost within the present decade these great lake vessels have been designed and built. They are the result of a demand fur additional safety tu shippillg, for cheaper lake freight, and fur a more extended volume of lake business. Along with this shipImil(lillg' the work of deppening alld illlpruvillg tIl strnits connecting these bodies of watel' has gone on. This work, more than any other agency, will tend to place the maximum limit of carryillg capacity UPOll the lake stealller. In general, with an increased capaeity for freight, there has been a decrease in the cost of transporting commodities. 'Vith iIllproved loading and unloading methods there are still greater possihilitit'S of chpapPJlillg transpul'tatioll, and with every move ill this direction of eheaplless the necessity ,vill be lIlore and more forced UpUIl the government to proYide greater depth in the straits. In this way it seoms that traffic un the great lakes is yet in its infancy. - !- On the ()astillg of Steel. At the ObouchofT Stpel Works, St. Petersburg, great inconvenience was felt fur a long time in casting large round ingots uf five tOllS ami upward for forging guns. The stream of steel faJling from a cunsiderable height into the lIIould from the no ton ladles of the Siemens-Martin furnaces gives rise to a considerable quantity uf splashes, which in return produce cracks 011 the surfaee of the ingots. The same annoyance was also observed in casting rectangular ingots of 25 to ;)0 tons for armor. M. Posmkoff, the manager of the steel departIlwnt of the above nallled works, has devised a very simple method. preventing the steel. from splashing. It lIlay perhaps be' already in use elsewhere, but anyhow it deserves melltion. A tube b prepared of thin sheet iroll, such as is used fur roofing. The tube is 24 inehes ill inside diameter, and is suspended from an iron ring, to whieh there are riveted three unrs on the surface of the Illould just before casting. The steel is puured froIll the hottom of the ladle into the middle of the iron tube. All the splashes are thrown on the walls uf the tuhe, whieh gradually melts away durillg the rise of the surfaee of the liquid steel in the mould. We had the pleasure, says Helios, of seeing this device in perfectly successful action at the Obouchoff 'Vorks, where it is now in constant use. - . . - A Cabat Celebration. A St. John's, Newfoundland, dispatch says that the idea of a Cabot celebration in the colony next year is takillg definite shape. The British man-of-war Buz- , zard goes north to make a survey of Bonavista Harbor, . with a view of reportillg on the best site for a piP], and ! 1 monument to Cabot. The celebration proper, it is expeeted, will take place hi July 01' Augm;t next. A , public meeting fnr the purpose of starting the affair will be held about the middle of Septellloer.
