morsel to bestow upon him, I felt that I had done all that could be expected of me. So far as I am capable of judging, my interview with his Excellency Hsi Liang passed off without any very grave breach of decorum upon my part, and upon my expressing a desire to inspect the arsenal he gave me a cordial invitation to lunch with him at that institution.
I found the arsenal in a state of change. Enlarged premises were in course of preparation outside the city, and supplies of German machinery were on the way, a German foreman having already reached the capital to supervise the setting up of the new plant. These are the things that at present fire the enthusiasm of young China. The heterogeneous collection of machinery bearing the names of firms from Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, London, and the United States which I saw, is symbolic of the confusion and lack of method of the past. Five Mauser rifles were being turned out per diem; but the capacity of the new works is to be fifty. The
