CO129-180 - Public Offices & Others - 1877 — Page 445

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apart from the Government, the various Churches in Britain have an extensive and deep religious interest in China; and the constitution of a Chinese Chair ought to be warmly hailed by all who have the direction of our missionary societies.

No con-

viction was more deeply impressed on my mind by a long service in the mission field of China than this--that missionaries, being those who come most into contact with the literary class and the masses of the people, and from whom these receive their impression of the culture and character of the west, should be men that have been disciplined and trained by the fullest and most generous education. them commence here or in London their study of Chinese, and at the same time have the opportunity of attending other classes to the extent at least which is deemed desirable for the young men in- tended for the civil service in India.

Let

I have still to illustrate the point in hand by a reference to the commercial interests of Great Britain in China. This may best be described by the adjec- tive enormous. Our commerce with China is greater than that of all the other nations of Europe together; greater than that of all the rest of the world. For instance, taking the trade returns for last year, 1875, the value of the imports and exports into and out of China was very nearly forty millions of pounds ster- ling, of which those to and from Great Britain and its foreign possessions amounted to upwards of thirty-one millions and a half, leaving about eight millions and a quarter to be distributed between eleven other treaty and sundry non-treaty Powers. Again, in the tables compiled by order of the Inspector-General of Chinese maritime customs for the Universal Exhibition at

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Vienna in 1873, I find that, on the average of the three years 1870, 71, 72, the value of the gross total of commodities, both foreign and native, that arrived at or left all treaty ports, re-exports being included, is put down at between 115 and 116 mil- lions of pounds, of which the proportion conveyed by British shipping was over sixty millions of pounds, or more than one-half of the whole,

Hitherto commercial intercourse with the Chinese has been conducted chiefly by means of compradores and linguists, who have picked up a considerable vocabulary of English words, which they put together as if they were Chinese, according to their own Chinese idiom. The result is what is called 'pidgin," that is, business,-English. It is amusing to hear a conversation between an old English resident and one of these men, and the capabilities of the strange dialect have often moved my astonishment.

But

so vast a commerce ought not to be dependent on such a class of linguists and such a medium of com- munication. That commerce, moreover, is, I believe, only in its infaney. A righteous and generous policy on the part of Great Britain, and a wise procedure on the part of her merchants, may increase it many times. The 'pidgin' English will pass away when our mercantile houses hold at a premium the services of men who can speak Chinese, and translate Chinese documents. I hope to see this the case in a short time; it must arrive sooner or later. As Chinese Chairs are multiplied in this country, many a young man, before he leaves home, may be prepared on his arrival in China to obtain, in a comparatively short time, a practical acquaintance with one or more of the spoken dialects of the language.

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