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reported to the local post-office. So little satisfaction is the outcome of the trouble involved that it is unlikely to be so reported. Our point is that the failure of only one letter, properly stamped and addressed, to roach its addressee, is regrettable; that two, within a short period, belonging to one citizen, going astray is a very bad sign; and that the presumption is that such cases are more numerous than is suspected. Is it possible to discover to what extent these disturbing fears are well founded? In case the post office is not in a position, or refuses, to divulge the number of com- plaints received in a given period, may we rely upon the public to offer what evidence
it can in its own obvious interests ?
CORRECTED IMPRESSIONS.
the
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
the event, and that Russia was certainly not alone in this mistake. In speaking of the character of the Japanese, care must be taken not to fall into the common error of
MATTER FOR REFLECTION
(Daily Press 28th April)
•
that
A very pretty study is offered to socio- logists, biologists, moralists, and politicians, Imperialist or otherwise), by a collation of the birth and death rates of the world. A yet, all the necessary figures are not obtains able, the average birthrate for China, for example, continuing to be represented by "I." Victims of the Yellow Peril nervous fever would be particularly interested in a discovery of this unknown quantity, for a reason that will presently appear. Every body knows in a general way that elephants are not so prolific as mice; and pietists who know that the round world was made for man's enjoyment, congratulate themselves upon the excellent arrangements appear to have been made for their comfort When HERBERT SPENCER and safety. established as a principle of biology the "antagonism of individuation and genesis"- The latter principle now admitted into the category of scientific truisms-be drew to a startling fact. Not attention only did this rule of infecundous aristo- the animal kingdom cracy apply to generally it applied also to the species. The more highly developed becomes the individual type, the less easily does it recreate itself. DARWIN's line of develop- ment by selection of affinities seems to have its terminus in a cul-de-sac of Nature's ordering. The ascent of man, like the rise of the Tower of Babel, is subject to a mysterious limitation. The relevance of all this becomes apparent when it is announced that, according to population statistics, the Caucasian seems to be reaching the myster- ious limit. The study becomes pretty when we realise that the fact and its figures can be regarded in various ways. President ROOSEVELT with
estimating a whole nation from particular classes. At the present time the popular estimate of the Japanese is in many ways defective from this cause. There is a marked difference in tone between the different classes, which ought not to be overlooked. For example, in merely com- mercial dealings the Japanese, speaking generally, are not found to be so reliable as the Chinese. On the other hand, in official and international matters they are far more reliable-being in these two respects precisely the opposite of the Chinese. Those who judge of them merely from their knowledge of the official classes, and of their Daily Press, 27th April.
public acts, may be apt to overestimate the It would probably be difficult to find a probity of the nation as a whole, while others, better illustration of the manner in which coming to their conclusions merely from national character is apt to be misunderstood their commercial intercourse, are likely to than that which is afforded by a comparison fall into the opposite error. of the estimate which was made in former defect will probably be corrected by time, days of the relative merits of the Japanese So shrewd a people will discover that and the Chinese, with what has been since reliability is a valuable asset in busi- proved by the test of facts. It was longness, and that in the main it is good believed that the Japanese, while possessed policy to adhere rigidly to obligations, a of much quickness of intellect, were inferior fact which has certainly been fully recog- to the Chinese in solid judgment and nised by the Japanese in official quarters, staying power, which are of so much more In other directions, there are many people who arc inclined to attribute to the value in the practical affairs of life. The best authorities were in the habit of speaking Japanese as a whole people both virtues of the Japanese as a bright and friendly and faults upon a very slender knowledge Some have people, but one by no means to be compared of the true state of the case. with the Chinese as to perseverance and gone to lengths of admiration which appear soundness of judgment. Such was
absurd to those who know the actual facts, view, which was given by a well known and who must smile while half informed official, who had been many years Chargé enthusiasts expatiate upon Japan and d'Affaires in Japan, and had also had Japanese civilisation as if they were actually lengthened experience, in various positions, in advance of anything the world had ever of the Chinese. It would, however, be seen before. Looked at, however, collec- interesting to know what those who held tively, and in their national life, the these views would say of the Japanese in Japanese undoubtedly have shown quali- the light of more recent events, in which, ties which command our admiration and beyond any question, the Japanese have respect, and among these not the least
an instinct for shown themselves possessed, in a marked is
justice unusual among Asiatic peoples. If convinced degree, of the particular qualities in which
a line of action is right they are they were supposed to be lacking, and which that were attributed to the Chinese. So far as not disposed to allow side considerations to influence them; and on the other hand they are not disposed to alter their policy until they have thoroughly considered the whole of the facts, pro and con, with reference to adopted a thin veneer of civilisation was it. The idea that such a people had only cherished by Russia long after other nations had perceived that there was something much more solid in the changes which had been adopted; and the events which have occurred since the outbreak of the war must have convinced all who are capable of con- viction, that the notion that Japan is likely to recede from the position which she has taken up in respect to modern progress and civilisation must be finally abandoned. In this respect many people have judged of Japan by analogy with China. The latter has so repeatedly made a show of advance, and after a time returned to her old-world ways, that those who judged upon this basis might easily be mistaken, and might conclude that the progress in Japan was as much upon the surface only as much that has been mistaken for progress in China has often proved to be. This view, how ever, has been now shown to be very wide of the fact; and no one can doubt that the Japanese have well thought out what they were doing in the changes and reforms which brought them into line with European nations, aud, having deliberately adopted that policy, they will adhere to it, and continue to advance in the direction in which they have made so wonderful a beginning,
the Japanese were known in former times, there seemed some sort of ground for im. agining that they might be merely an imitative people, and were inclined to adopt changes rather too rapidly to be relied upon as likely to be adhered to. In this respect, however, probably the common error was fallen into of imagining that those who come to conclusions with au appearance of rapidity uecessarily do 80 superficially. This, however, by no means follows. There are many people who have the power of deciding both rapidly and accurately; while it may happen that conclusions apparently arrived at without much reflection, are really the result of long and careful study of the subjects to which they apply, though not in connection with the parti- cular circumstances which call forth a special judgment with regard to them. It has now been shown that the Japanese have all along been much more masters of political facts than was before supposed. The Chinese, on the other hand, ha e always assumed an air of grave deliberation which has caused them to be credited with more wisdom than they really possessed, The idea, however, that the Japanese were superficial has been entirely dissipated of late; and it is indeed strange that such au opinion should have been so long entertained even by people of large knowledge and obser- vation. Russia has, of course, been among the most conspicuous of those who have misunderstood the Japanese. It is only fair to admit that it is easy to be wise after
*
his race suicide" alarum, takes the evidence as proving that BEET HARTE had reason for asking if the Caucasian were "played out." Sociologista see in the same figures a bright and cheer- ful evidence of the high point of develop- ment that civilisation has attained. They say that life must now be worth living, and the nation happier, even if it be a
so numerically strong as before. not Curiously enough, Russia and Japan are the only "civilized" peoples whose birth- In France, we rate is not diminishing. have been told often enough, the birthrate
is
lower than in any other civilized country, and the Government of the Republic, far from rejoicing at this hall-mark of typical advance, is alarmed and resorting to various of combatting the political measures decrease. In Germany the same feature The average birthrate of is observable. Berlin has steadily fallen since 1875, having declined from forty-five per thoa- twenty-eight per thousand in sand to the last twenty-five years.
appears also in Great Britain. suicide” The average birthrate for 1903, published last month as 27-9 per thousand, ie lowest yet reached. In the last the quarter of a century the natural increase of population by births out-numbering deaths has been reduced from 15-09 per Imperialists call cent. to 12:39 per cent.
The "race
it degeneration; the Spencerians are pleased with it for the reasons already outlined But it is the Australian figures which alarm the Yellow Peril folk. An Austra lian Commission has discovered that the population of the island continent is million less than it ought to be under natural progress. The Australian woman waits much longer to marry than formerly. Japan's birth rate has in ten years risen from 26-8 to 32-7 per thousand. They are,
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