}
December 22, 1900.]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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ronge les poings de rage, parce qu'il est impuissant et que les Boers lui dament le pion dans l'Afrique du Sud, mais, "bave du crapaud n'atteint pas la blanche "colombe, si tant est que la colombe est " blanche."
"
in China exists between precept and practice | the monuments learn the secrets of written more clearly, exhibited than the contempt history, we can at least judge of the condi with which, in the face of the most exalted tion of the arts at successive periods. professions to the contrary, the Chinaman When we come to China, alone of all the treats the few remains of antiquity he has nations pretending to antiquity, an utter permitted to survive. All Europe when the absence of any feeling of the sort meets us. news came to it of the sacking and destruction Chinese art from the beginning has been
The reference to South Africa was, of of the Summer Palace at Peking was shocked mere shoddy, and the spirit of the jerry-course, inevitable; no remarks about les at the vandalism of the deed. Not so the builder has presided in the erection of the Anglais would be complete without it. If Chinaman, who, until prompted by his stateliest edifices. The consequence is tha- the impotence due to the fact that "the Western instructors, saw nothing in it he we seek in vain for any edifice more than at Boers have outplayed us " is manifested in would not himself have done, without a most a century or two old. The city of our refraining from disturbing districts. momentary thought that the damage he was Tientsin has existed on its present site for where there is no trouble existing, then doing was irretrievable, and that the crime probably the last three thousand years, yet the result is excellent. But we have not was against human nature itself. No one is we search in vain for a stone or an inscribed been so tied up in South Africa as not to readier than the average Chinaman to unite brick extending even to the time of the be able to land troops where they are the pretence of the most lofty sentiments Mings. According to MARCO POLO, Chin-wanted. It is not the lack of resources with the practise of the meanest vice. kiang in his days was the seat of an impor- which British residents in China have had Alone perhaps of human beings, he is able tant Christian community, yet not one trace to complain of, but the ignorance and to profess belief in three incompatible re- is left. The only remaining monument of inaction of the home authorities and their ligions, while practising none. It was an the former prevalence of this faith is the unwillingness to use the resources at hand. apt illustration of this peculiar phase of stele at Hsianfu, yet within the few years that As for French intervention in Chinese Chinese character that, while the handful of it has been disclosed it has been permitted affairs, it has been welcomed in common foreigners shut up in the British Legation from sheer carelessness to drop into decay. with that of the other Powers, as long as grounds in Peking, expecting daily to be A yamen or a temple once built, and built, French action does not run counter to the barbarously murdered did their assailants be it observed, of the shoddiest of materials, policy of the Allies. But independent once get an entrance, were hesitating in is never repaired till it falls of sheer French action near Swatow is no more wel- their respect for the records of the past decay, and in its decay, instead of come than independent Russian action at to inflict any dainage on the buildings noble and picturesque ruin such as we find Newchwang or independent Japanese action containing the library of the Hanlin in nearly every village in the West, presents at Amoy. For the same reason the British College, the Chinese in their indif nothing more graceful than a heap of rub-policy of landing troops at Shanghai was ference to anything else than their bish of bricks and plaster mixed with a few objected to; but in this case there was no momentary passions deliberately set the rough and rotten poles no better than we harrying of natives or stirring up trouble torch to a library which in China occupied might expect to find from the decay of an where all was quiet. Shanghai had been in the place of the great historical collections ordinary farm building. A few rifled an excited state for months and there was a at the British Museum or the Louvre. As mounds, given over to the agriculturist to do strong call from no small part of the a fact, the destruction of the building really his worst to, are all that remain of the tombs foreign residents for more protection. added to the strength of the foreigners' of the ancient monarcts of Ts'i, who, if they France, Germany, and Japan have admitted position, but that is neither here nor there had no other recommendation, are of inter- this since by landing troops "for the pro- What was in the argument, as the destruction proceed-est in connection with the Chinese sage, tection of the Settlements." ed from no such benevolent cause. If, turn. CONFUCIUS, and a few nearly levelled tumuli legimately censured in the proceedings of ing away from this latest instance of the are all the external evidence remaining in the Comète was that the "white dove" by its national disregard for its antiquities, we lower Kiangsu of the once important king- look abroad through the empire, the total dom of Wu, to which Japan owed its absence of any visible record of the past is earliest lessons in civilisation. as complete as in the islands of the Pacific, where want of space has been the enforced cause of the occupation of every available inch of ground. Want of space is, however, not the cause in China, where nothing is so remarkable as the encumbrance of the soil with the remains of the past generation, only, after the lapse of the next two or at most three generations, to be destroyed, and with as little compunction as may be ousted to make way for those who followed, and whose influence for mischief in the family position may still be potent. Even the savages who lived in past ages along the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean have left their remains in long mounds which subsequent ages have for the most part respected, and in which the explorer of the present can find interred a rough history of the past. In the ruins of Egypt and Mesopotamia the modern historian has been able to carry authentic history back for a space certainly approaching six thousand years, and much knowledge as to the progress of civilisation in the past has been thereby accumulated which otherwise would have been lost. In the buildings of these and many other nations the makers had ideas beyond the mere moment, and the hope of "handing down their history to succeeding generations, long after their own had passed from view, was ever the predominant feel ing. They in fact devoted of their best to futurity, and nothing in the way of art nor expense was too good to be employed in these monuments, which now, after a lapse of thousands of years, are beginning to yield up to modern exploration_their treasures. Even when we come to India, late though the period of writing came into vogue, we find the same care taken on their monumental works, and if we cannot from
THE FRENCH IN SWATOW NEIGHBOURHOOD.
vigorous" behaviour was threatening the peace of the whole Swatow] neighbourhood, scaring inoffensive natives, and arousing fears that the predicted rebellion might actually become a fact. The question of compensation for damage to mission pro. perty generally is included among "the points under the consideration of the peace negotiators. There is, therefore, an obvious impropriety in any one nation exacting No compensation on its own account. denial has been published of the Comète's conduct. In such cases conscious inno- cence is not apt to remain silent. It is therefore not unfair to assume that our correspondent's charges are founded on fact.
THE PROGRESS OF THE CONCERT.
(Daily Press, 19th December.} Our readers will remember that our Swa- tow correspondent wrote last month of the mischievous action of the French gunboat Comète, which arrived at Swatow from Can- ton on the 13th November and proceeded northward along the coast to Tehia Na, a great trading centre. Our correspondent gave instances of the high-handed way in which the French had acted, and deplored the evil effect which this conduct was hav. ing on the local officials and people, who were reduced to a state of panic. The exaction of indemnities for destruction of
(Daily Press, 21st December.) mission property from villagers who had not Reuter's telegram of the 18th instant states themselves been guilty of the outrages was that Mr. HAY's cabled instructions to the described as unjust, and fear was expressed U.S. Minister at Peking remove certain that the much talked-of rebellion might obstacles, making it probable that all the actually break out, if the Comète persisted Ministers will sign the joint Note to China. in her course of action. Now, presuming It is unfortunately impossible to gather that our correspondent did not write with from this in what way the Note is thereby out due examination into the reports, which likely to be modified. The United States we have every reason to believe he did not, have all through the preliminary discussions it cannot be said that his language was on the subject of the terms to be demanded intemperate or his remarks unjustifiable. of China thrown their influence into the Our contemporary, L'Avenir du Tonkin, scale in favour of leniency, and it may however, evidently thinks so, for in its issue therefore be surmised that obstacles which be removed by American action of the 10th-11th instant there is a transla- | can tion of part of our correspondent's letter, are obstacles in the way of present- with a comment appended which we refraining a firm attitude toward the Chinese from translating for fear of spoiling the Government in the matter of repara- force of the original. It runs as follow: tion for its misdeeds, and the outrages "Nota. Nos bons amis les Anglais sont inflicted by its agents on the persons and furieux de nous voir nous immiscer dans property of foreigners. More than this it les affaires de Chine et agir vigoureuse is not possible as yet to say. But the intelli- "ment aux environs de Canton. C'est tout gence that the Allies are even one step au plus s'ils ne nous traiteraient pas de nearer the accomplishment of their task is sauvages et de barbares. John Bull so welcome. Recent events and reports have
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