JAPANESE MISGOVERNMENT IN
FORMOSA.
The Japanese in Formosa appear to be emulating the atrocities committed by the Turks
on their subject races and which from time to time give rise to the intervention of the Powers. In Formosa also the Powers will have to intervene. if the Japanese do not speedily adopt a change of policy. The soldiery now in the country appear to be no better than murderers and a mers and no
Love
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
affection will spread to the south and that a unite general rising will follow the successes gained by the people farther north. The losses to foreigners in the camphor districts are already enormous, and it will be the duty of the foreign Powers to demand in demnification.
ROBERT BURNS.
(21st July) Scotchmen have played and still play so great a part in Hongkong history that we are confident our general readers will con- done any possible offence in our drawing attention to the fact that to-day is the centenniversary of the death of Scotland's great poet. On 21st July, 1796, the news knell to the literary hopes and aspirations that ROBERT BURNS was dead sounded as a of a whole people: a great man had fallen in the Israel of letters, a very prince among the people; and the passage of a hundred years has but deepened the impression. Every decade since the event has produced two new biographies and innumerable estimates of the poet, but his station in The fascination which his works, personality, literature and patriotism is still growing. and life exert on all who speak the English tongue seems but to intensify with time. It is interesting to note that the centennary is to be celebrated by a sumptuous edition of BURNS's works by Messrs. HENLEY and HENDERSON, in which we are promised much matter hitherto unpublished.
attempt is made to restrain them. When Formosa passed into the hands of Japan after the latter's brilliant victory over China it was expected that a firm and just uler would be established, that the resources of the beautiful island would be developed, and that trade would flourish. What has actually taken place is something very different. Innocent people have their villages. burnt, of the inhabitante many are executed in barbarous fashion without any form of trial, and women are ravished; the cruelties prac- tised have resulted in stirring up an insurrec tion, and trade is to a large extent brought. to a standstill. It is inconceivable that the Powers can look calmly on and tolerate the continuance of such a state of affairs in definitely. If Japan cannot rule the island in a civilised manner she will have to surrender the task altogether. So far the substitution of Japanese for Chinese rule in Formosa has been anything but a blessing
The life and character of BURNS have to the people, and the experience gained thus far is not promising for the future. been the source of more contention than This is disappointing to the friends of that of any modern man-of-letters. The purists, from WORDSWORTH downwards, Japan and is calculated to raise doubts ns to whether it would not have been well if have battened on to his sins and follies to she had been prevented from acquiring point their morals. The fleshly men, begin- ning with HAZLITT, have hailed him as a tFormosa in the same way as her retention o the Liaotung Peninsula was prevented. To "highly sublimed essence of animal exist fhink of over seventy villages being burn,tance" and the very high priest of social glee. and men, women, and children slaughtered.
Tam loʻed him as a very brither
They had been fou3 for weeks thegither.
testify of
its
July 22 1
wer in son
pathetic, hun rous chiefest exponent. His
"On the Aort "Mary Morrison, wert Thou in the Could Black derson my Jo," and "Duncan, imitable elsewhere can be equa and over again in his Friendship finds its climax of litera pression in Auld Lang Syne; a Scotch giment would charge red wat shod jaws of Hell at the trumpet call of
Scots wha hae"; many generations of men have. drunk themselves tipsy from fellow feeling with Ral and Allan anent "Willie's Maut "A Man's a Man for a' that " of a sound system of philosophy; is but an old story infinitely are but samples. But why go on
"His songs are part of the mother "not of Scotland only, but of Britain, "the millions that in all the en
"
EX
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speak a British language,
stent
hall, as the heart unfolds itself, in coloured joy and woe ofe "name, the voice of that joy and that "the name and voice which BURNS has given them. Strictly speaking, perhaps, no "British man has so deeply affected the thoughts and feelings of so many men 68 "this solitary individual with means "parently the humblest."These are gre words, but the passage of time only dee their meaning; they are an adequ planation of the wonderful fame w cohered around the "wild Bacchana
gauger of ale-firkins."
literatur
Genius is over the parent miracles. That of BURNS transfigy uncouth speech into soft music andr dying dialect into permanent lit Scorr carried on the movement in his novels and in our time we see it in the hands of GEORGE MACDONALD, W. OLIPHANT, Messrs. BLACK, BARRIE, CROCKETT, and
in cold blood, gives some Idea of the cruel | The pietists have claimed him as a slightly | WATSON threatening permane
soiled saint, and quote the "Cottar's Satur- day Night" as stealing over the soul like a requiem on a sweet organ; while the wise and generous have devoutly and thankfully taken up the splendid literary heritage which BURNS has left them, have suuk their censure in gratitude, and have refused to judge a Courser of the Sun by the canons which apply to the ambles of a mule. Con- temporary life is usually cruel to genius, but posterity is increasingly kind. We now recognize that BURNS's life was largely marred by the very qualities which made him as a poet-by sensibility, a passionate nature, an exquisite sympathy, and a stiff pride. In art, his genius and fine critical judgment enabled him to master this team successfully; in life, the want of will-power and the absence of a high ideal completely robbed him of all control over them. Our generation, how ever, is not overzealous in recalling demerit; in the splendour of BURNS's gift to us we do not dwell too long on his self- condemnation, "that thoughtless folly laid
an
acute
condition of affairs at present prevailing. These inhuman measures are taken to punish a few robber bands, but no attempt is made to discriminate between the innocent, and the guilty, and the circumstances raise & presumption. that the Japanese are utterly incapable of colonising, a presumption that it will now require a great deal to overthrow. Everyone knows what quiet people the Chinese are under foreign rule, as exempli fied by colonies like Hongkong and the Straits, and the Formosa people are said by all foreigners who have had dealings with them to be particularly amenable to reason. Had the Japanese adopted a rational form of government they would have found the Chinese ready and even anxious to submit. Trade would have increased and flourished and in a very short time the island would have been one of the most important centres in the Far East. Instead of that the count try has been thrown into rebellion and it will take years to rectify the terrible errors committed by the petty officers who have inadvisably been endowed with such large powers. Many of the rich people are flying to the mainland of China, BURNS's niche in the temple of fanie is fearing another military occupation, and the now clearly defined. Three generations industries, notably sugar, will suffer materi- have worked steadily on his productions and ally. The rebellion, if it can be called one, literary character. The net result has been is universally popular in the country and a general endorsement of the views which the Japanese will require an immense force CARLYLE set forth in his masterly essay to restore order, in doing which it will (one of the finest in our language) as far behove them to avoid any repetition of the back as 1828. Fine poet as he undoubtedly atrocities lately committed by their soldiers. is, he is destined to live for ever
ever as a lyrist, Foreigners in the settlements are simply or song-writer and as the regenerator horrified at the terrible acc
accounts brought in the Scottish national sentiment. GOETHE, daily from the devastated plains, and com- SCOTT, BERANGER, MENDELSSOHN to say petent judges are of opinion that the dis-nothing of the entire English-speaking race,
k
"him low and stained his name.'
pair the Queen's English in
next miracle was cognate, the rekindling of the Scottish spirit. In these days we laugh sardonically at BOSWELL meekly imploring the Englishman to give the Scot a fair chance. A fair chance indeed! when all over the world the obtrusive Caledonian comes as inevitably a-top as oil does in water. BURNS did not of course communicate the qualities which ensure success, but he is chiefly responsible for that splendid mutual cohesion and patriotic fire which marks the Scot in the social struggle for surv
PER
BURNS, too, shares with the gentle the honour of being the first great man to give passionate express altruism or deep sympathy marked a feature of our mode He is the poet and specia animal creation its sufferings deep pangs and he infects other beneficence toward it. As our know, an eminent living social philosopher ascribes transcendent results to these feel ings in social evolution.
need not touch on Bur or capitulate his rka The observing anni Tes like
that we stir
science we feel on our old spir aged to rem acqu intance. this pious task, CARLYLE shown, all mankind. A his works possi
of English
Englishmen