In the next thirty years a sufficient naval force was raised to justify the appointment of an admiral; but in 1895 the whole fleet was destroyed by the Japanese, and Admiral Ting committed suicide.  At present there is a squadron under each viceroy; but all combined would hardly form the nucleus of a navy.  That the Government intend to create a navy may be inferred from the establishment of a Naval Board.  In view of the naval exploits of Japan, and under the guidance of Japanese, they are certain to develop this feeble plant and to make it formidable to somebody—­perhaps to themselves.

Their merchant marine is more respectable.  With a fleet of fifty or more good ships the China Merchants’ Steam Navigation Company are able by the aid of subsidies and special privileges to compete for a share in the coasting trade; but as yet they have no line trading to foreign ports.

In 1860 a wild horde with matchlocks, bows, and spears, the land army is now supplied in large part with repeating rifles, trained in Western drill, and dressed in uniform of the Western type.  The manoeuvres that took place near Peking in 1905 made [Page 201] a gala day for the Imperial Court, which expressed itself as more than satisfied with the splendour of the spectacle.  The contingent belonging to this province is 40,000, and the total thus drilled and armed is not less than five times that number.  In 1907 the troops of five provinces met in Honan.  Thanks to railways, something like concentration is coming within the range of possibility.  Not deficient in courage, what these raw battalions require to make them effective is confidence in themselves and in their commanders.  Lacking in the lively patriotism that makes heroes of the Japanese, these fine big fellows are not machines, but animals.  To the mistaken efforts recently made to instil that sentiment at the expense of the foreigner, I shall refer in another chapter.  A less objectionable phase of the sentiment is provincialism, which makes it easy for an invader to employ the troops of one province to conquer another.  In history these provinces appear as kingdoms, and their mutual wars form the staple subject.  What feeling of unity can exist so long as the people are divided by a babel of dialects?  More than once have Tartars employed Chinese to conquer China; and in 1900 a fine regiment from Wei-hai-wei helped the British to storm Peking.  It may be added they repaid themselves by treating the inhabitants as conquered foes.  Everywhere they were conspicuous for acts of lawless violence.

Three great arsenals, not to speak of minor establishments, are kept busy turning out artillery and small arms for the national army, and the Board of Army Reform has the supervision of those forces, with [Page 202] the duty of making them not provincial, but national.  Efforts of this kind, however, are no proof of a reform spirit.  Are not the same to be seen all the way from Afghanistan to Dahomey?  “To be weak is to be miserable”; and the Chinese are right in making military reorganisation the starting-point of a new policy.  Yet the mere proposal of a parliament is a better indication of the spirit of reform than all these armaments.