Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 600

1841.

Morrison Education Society.

583

their own country, and so renew their connection with this people, with all the advantages derived from a residence, and, it may be, an education in more enlightened parts of the world. Could this be ex- pected, it would very much enhance the value of schools among them, as means of indirect benefit to China. But according to the best information I have been able to obtain on the subject, not more than three or four in a hundred of those who emigrate from. this country ever return again, and some say even less. Is it not evident. then that the major part of what is done for the education of the Chinese in foreign lands must be confined in its effects to the places where they sojourn, when so few of those whom these efforts can reach, find their way back again to the central land?'

But allowing that more were to return, and with the best inten- tions to do good among their own people, they are marked at once as the men who have been among barbarians' to learn wisdom, and who now, most arrogantly and presumptuously in the estimation of the Chinese, would teach them the ethics and philosophy of 'outside' dwellers in darkness. Such, you are well aware, sir, is the regard of this people for those of other lands, and such would be the reception that any innovations from such a source would meet with.

It may perhaps be thought, that the same difficulty lies in the way of our exertions here. In kind, it is true, but not in degree. In the first place those whom this Society educates, come directly from the country and from the people of China, under our influence, and are not expatriated by doing so. They come with the consent and ap- probation of their nearest friends, who are themselves a part of the nation, and in some measure pledged by this assent, to receive their children kindly when they return. There is therefore much more reason and hope that boys who have been trained in the Society's schools, will be less affected by the prejudices that have been allud- ed to, than those who have resided abroad, during the period of their education. The pupils taught here will also be less divested of their national character, feelings, and tastes, than others who have long intermingled with people of other nations. A careful observer of the Chinese in the Straits is not long in discovering the traces of this effect of mingling with foreigners, which must of course become more distinct in course of time, and may operate as a tie to detain them where they are, or to diminish their influence with their countrymen, should they return home. We, however, are sure that all those whom we educate, will return to their own people, and be associated with them in after life, and while they will be improved (we hope) in many respects, they will still be Chinese.

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