Ping-Yang city, nearly demolished and deserted in the Chino-Japanese War, has now a population of 100,000, who are diligent and thrifty and profit by the great mining enterprises recently opened near them, and in the working of the coal that crops up almost everywhere around the city. Kun-san is at the mouth of the Keum river. Its tide has a rise of 21 feet.

Politics and Events.-An anti-Christian uprising in February, led by the ultra-Confucianists, was nipped in the bud by the energetic action of the foreign representatives. The treaty between Korea and Belgium was ratified Feb. 23, in Seoul. The Korea branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, formed in October, 1899, have published two volumes of their Proceedings. On April 20 Baron P. G. von Mollendorff died at Ningpo. From 1882 to 1885 he was in the service of the Korean Government, and introduced many reforms, until the Koreans suspected him to be under the influence of Russia, and he was relieved Sept. 4, 1885. Rose island, dominating the harbor of Chemulpo, which had been bought by Japanese, was recovered by the Korean Government. A great outbreak in May in Quelpaert island, arising chiefly from the levying of excessive tolls, in which the adherents

LIBRARIES, PUBLIC. The following statements include additions to the general summary published last year, as well as a review of some of the principal events of 1901.

Increase of Libraries.-Statistics collected by the United States Bureau of Education in 1900 show that there has been a remarkable increase of libraries in the past five years. The number of libraries of 1,000 volumes or more was found to be 5,383, containing 44,591,851 volumes. Comparison of these figures with those of the bureau's report in 1896 discloses an increase of 1,357 libraries and 11,539,979 volumes (almost 35 per cent.). While the North Atlantic division has 2,473 of these libraries (New York alone having 718, Massachusetts 571, and Pennsylvania 401) and more than half of the number of volumes, the largest gains have again been in the North Central (40 per cent.) and Western (38 per cent.) divisions, Oklahoma showing 379 per cent. increase, and Arkansas, Indian Territory, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia more than 100 per cent. each. The North Central division has 1,728 libraries and 11,211,710 volumes, the South Atlantic division 421 libraries and 5,303,237 volumes, the South Central division 374 libraries and 1,886,731 volumes, and the Western division 387 libraries and 2,779,596 volumes. There is an average of one library to every 14,118 persons, and 59 volumes to every 100 population (in 1896 the number was 47). In New York there are 103 volumes to every 100 of population; in Massachusetts, 236; in California, 120. Of these libraries 4 have over 500,000 volumes each, 3 between 300,000 and 500.000, and 47 between 100,000 and 300,000; 3,654 have fewer than 5,000 each. Financial statistics were given by some libraries. Of these, 1,016 received $2,349,294 through State, county, or city appropriations; 988 received $2,213,715 from taxation; 714 received $1,198,955 from endowment funds; 962 received $488,130 from membership fees and dues; 294 received $50,742 from book-rents; 819 received $551,522 from donations; and 1,474 received $1,000,048 from sources not stated. The total income of 3,115 libraries was $7,812,406. The ag

of the French missionaries suffered, called for the despatch of a large military force and a French gunboat, which arrived after the troubles had been quelled. The eightieth birthday of the Emperor's mother was celebrated June 19 with great festivities. In carrying out the renovation of Seoul, much work has been done in the park near the great white marble pagoda, famed throughout Asia, which was erected in a monastery during the splendid Buddhist age, before Seoul was founded. The rice crop, owing to the omission of the usual rainy season, proved for the most part a failure. Export was for a time prohibited, and 300,000 bags of rice from Annam were imported. The Koreans on Kang-wa island have erected tablets to the memory of the slain at the hands of the Americans in 1871, when the marines and sailors from Rear-Admiral John Rodgers's fleet were led by Commander (now Rear-Admiral) Winfield S. Schley. A memorial service in honor of the late President McKinley was held in Seoul, Sept. 19, at which the diplomatic body was present in full force.

The year has been one of steady national progress and great activity and success among all the missionary bodies.

gregate of the endowment funds reported by 645 libraries is $25,267,643, and the value of buildings owned by 710 libraries is $47,083,805. The amount expended for books in the year by 2,972 libraries was $2,056,675.

The libraries having fewer than 1,000 and mo than 300 volumes now number 3,878, and contain 2,018,658 volumes. This makes the number of all libraries having more than 300 volumes 9,261, with a total of 46,610,509 volumes, a total gain of 2,077 libraries and 12,014,251 volumes. There are, besides, several thousand libraries having fewer than 300 volumes each.

Gifts. According to the report presented to the American Library Association, more than $16,000,000 were given to American libraries in the year ending July 1, 1901. Some of the details will be found in the present volume under GIFTS AND BEQUESTS, but reference must be made here specially to Andrew Carnegie, whose gifts during the period in question reached the aggregate of $11,219,500.

New York City's Library System.-The figures above include Carnegie's gift of $5,200,000 to the city of New York for a system of 65 branch libraries, of which 42 go to the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Richmond, to be controlled by the New York Public Library, the rest to Brooklyn. In New York city (borough of Manhattan) the New York Free Circulating Libraries (January, 1900), the St. Agnes Free Library (1901), and the Washington Heights Library (1901), have become circulating branches of the Public Library, and a State law makes it possible for any other circulating libraries to consolidate with the New York Public Library without further formality; similarly in Brooklyn, most of the smaller libraries have been brought within the fold of the Brooklyn Public Library. The establishment of 8 libraries in the public schools of Manhattan, controlled by the Public Library, is a move the results of which will be watched with interest. It brings the library into intimate relations with the schools.

Print Departments.-In 1900 the New York Public Library decided to establish a department

of prints, and Samuel P. Avery presented his remarkable collection of more than 17,000 etchings and lithographs to that institution. Since then, exhibitions of the works of Turner, Whistler, Rembrandt (loaned by J. Pierpont Morgan), and others have been held. Print departments are a recognized factor in large European libraries, such as the British Museum, the Bibliothèque Nationale, and the Hofbibliothek in Vienna. Many years of opportunities for purchasing on the spot, state aid, and, above all, appreciation of art these have obviously been the advantages that made such large and fine collections possible. The taste for such things is of more recent date here. There is now a print department in the Congressional Library at Washington, and one in the Fogg Art Museum in Harvard University. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has an excellent collection, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts possesses about 60,000 prints. There are also private collectors of discriminating taste. Before the Public Library formed this new department, New York city had no public collection of prints. Mr. Avery's good example has already been emulated by Charles Stewart Smith, C. B. Curtis, and other donors. These accessions, together with the prints that were in the library before (coming from the Lenox, Duyckinck, Tilden, Ford, and other collections), form a noteworthy beginning. A certain amount of this material has a historical rather than an artistic interest. In fact, in an institution like this, the usefulness of prints is emphasized. Portraits, views of places and buildings, historical scenes, costumes, ships, vehicles, and the thousand and one other things that form documents for the social history of mankind, are to be found in a well-conducted print-room and form a store of material to be drawn upon by the artist, the historian, the author, the actor, students of various specialties, and the general reader as well. The fact that most prints can be put to such use does not detract from their artistic value.

LI-HUNG-CHANG, a Chinese statesman, born in Ho-Fei, Nganwhei, Feb. 16, 1823; died in Pekin, Nov. 7, 1901. He received the degrees of bachelor and master, and in 1847 that of doctor of the Han-Lin Academy. But his rapid rise to prominence and power was not due to scholarship and literary elegance, but to his association with Col. Gordon in the suppression of the Taeping rebellion. He was sent to his native province in 1853 to exercise the troops. He secured the services of Frederick T. Ward (an American) and Charles George Gordon; and when their trained troops with European arms turned the tide in favor of the Government he was made commander-in-chief of the imperial army, and he bore off the honors when the great danger to the dynasty was overcome by the final victory over the rebels in 1864. Although Gordon, to whose ability to organize and train the Chinese soldiers for real fighting the victory was largely due (Ward was killed in 1862), had promised the rebel leaders at Suchow their lives, he was overruled by Gen. Li, who gave orders that all should be killed. This perfidious act gained for him elevation in rank and political promotion. He was already Governor of Kiangsu, and in 1865 he was appointed viceroy of the two Kiang provinces. In December, 1866, he was nominated minister plenipotentiary, and in February, 1867, was made Viceroy of HongKwang. He became a member of the Grand Council in 1868, was sent as imperial commissioner to Szechuen in 1869, and in August, 1870, in consequence of the Tientsin massacre, his diplomatic, political, and military abilities and special ac

quaintance with Europeans and their methods won for him the appointment of Viceroy of Pechili, the metropolitan province. In this post he remained twenty-four years, during which he was practically Chancellor of the empire and guardian of the throne, retaining the confidence of the Empress Dowager, and having such a predominant voice in the counsels of the empire that, while his adherents and sycophants were innumerable, his foes were bitter and not few. In foreign affairs he had unchallenged control, and in the introduction of Western technical methods, in starting coal-mines, metallurgical industry, steamship navigation, telegraphs, and railroads, he took the foremost part. As governor and viceroy of the richest provinces he had amassed an enormous fortune through the Chinese custom of giving presents or bribes for promotion and other official favors; and when he was placed at the head of the capital province and became the strongest politician at court his revenue from gifts grew amain. In the capitalistic enterprises that he founded he embarked his own fortune freely, and saw to it that it did not diminish. With provincial and imperial funds he began a Chinese navy, and he engaged foreign officers to teach European tactics and the use of firearms to a corps of picked troops that he intended to be the nucleus of an imperial army able to meet European troops in the field. Arsenals and arms factories were established with foreign managers and technical instructors. He encouraged also schools of Western learning, and was himself a believer in the medical skill of foreign physicians. His intellect was as keen and critical, and as free from the trammels of heredity and environment, as that of any contemporary statesman. He was as confident as any Chinaman of the essential superiority of Chinese civilization, but was conscious of the military and political weakness of China, and was not alone in his desire and endeavor to make China strong enough to resist external foes. In the Korean crisis his diplomatic craft did not avail. He had to defy Japan in a matter that touched national pride and imperial prestige, and when the Japanese declared war and proceeded to invade Chinese territory the court looked confidently to him to crush the audacious manikins with his European-drilled troops. Although he was probably the only Chinese official who recognized from the beginning that the war was hopeless, he had to accept the post of commander-inchief. His trained troops he did not send against the Japanese, but kept for the defense of Pekin, together with the best of the Manchu regiments. He gathered the worthless provincial soldiery, whose officers had to fill out their ranks with vagabonds and criminals, to be food for Japanese powder in Manchuria while he could organize a more effective line of defense for the capital province. His fleet he made the best use of that he could, and his officers and gunners fought both well and ill according to their partial knowledge and imperfect training; but neither ships nor sailors could accomplish anything against the thoroughly modern Japanese navy. After defeat was acknowledged he had to bear the odium, but he escaped the usual fate of unsuccessful generals because there was no other diplomatist as capable as he of making terms with the victorious enemy. He was degraded, stripped of his yellow jacket and peacock plume, and sent into retirement for a brief season to save the face of the court, and then was recalled, though with lessened rank, and sent to Japan as minister plenipotentiary to treat for peace. He obtained better conditions than could have been got by any other Chinaman. At