April 30, 1906.]
ment. But our impulse toward gentle badinage must yield to stronger feeling when we read such mischievous nousense as the following:-
"Next year (1907) is the Bi-centenary of the
Legislative Union of England and Scotland, and there should be great rejoicings in North Britain. It is desirable that this union should bé comented and strengthened; is it wire, then, on the eve of that suspicious event to create racial antagonism by wounding the national sentiment of the greater country? We cannot preserve our purely English characteristics, traditions, and customs when strangers are thrust upon as who share our sentiments imperfecdy and have different local institutions A Bootch Premiership would seem ever to be associated with some National calamity. It is Interesting here to refer to Lord Macaulay's remarks with reference to Lord Bute, the Minister and favourite of George III. :- The only effect of Bate's domestic administration was to make faction wilder and corruption fouler than ever
the Public Offices, the Army, and the Navy were filled with high. checked Brummonds and Erskines, Macdonalds, ad Macgillivrays, who could not talk s Christian tongue, and some of whom had but lately begun to wear Christian breeches. It was remarked that Adam, a Scotchman, was the Court Architect, and that Ramsey, a Scotch- min, was the Court Painter, and was preferred to Reynolds. Mallet, a Scotchman, of no high literary fame, and of infamous character, partook largely of the liberality of the Govern- ment. John Home, a Scotchman, was rewarded for the tragedy of Douglas both with a pension and with a sinecure place. But, when the author of "The Bard" and of "The Elegy in Country Churchyard" ventured to ask for a Professorship
he was refused. And this year (1905) is the centenary of the death of the patriot Pitt, the famous son of that great Englishman, the Earl of Chatham, whom that Hitled sycophant displaced! What a contrast! It was under the Administration of Lord Aberdeen that we engaged in the disastrous Orimean War. Under Mr. Gladstone's Premier- ship (who always called himself a Scotchman) occurred the lamentable death of General Gordon, Home Rule, and the surrender at Majabe, entailing the recent war, with its enormous sacrifice of blood and treasure, under the Premiership of Mr. Balfour, who never wearies, on every conceivable occasion, iu and out of season, in declaring himself & Scotchman and in proclaiming the virtues of his country
men. In contradistinction it is worth record. ing the opinion of a notable French writer :- "The English are the very quintessence of the Imperial brain; they are a superfine people, and it is characteristic of the, superfine element, Le, the English, that it never mistakes'."
a
makes
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE RÉFORT.
THE ANGLO-SAXON BRAIN.
(Daily Press, 28th April.) A statement by Dr. CLOUSTON, at the annual meeting of the Royal Asylum, that four and a half millions sterling are spent annually in the United Kingdom on the treatment of the insane, has led “an eminent authority", unfortunately unnamed, to make some sensational statements for publication in the press. This is " an age
of brains and lunacy it was stated. In England and Wales one person in every 285 is certified to be a lunatic. The whole Anglo-Saxon race is threatened with decay, and the American brauch of it is in the more parlous state. Statistics show that in Chicago there is one lunatic in every 150 persons. There is nothing very new in the explanation given.
+
"For years past we have been opposing the laws of nature, and the increase of lunacy, which is becoming a burden to the British tax-payer and a menace to our efficiency se a race, is one of the signs that nature is demanding the penalty. In a sentence, it may be said that thousands of persons in this country have so transformed their lives that their existence is more artificial than natural. We live in a time of enforced brain activity and in an environ ment full of social evils that spell ruin to the mind and body of men and women. women departing from their natural sphere of We see domesticity. Some call it their 'emancipation. It is one of the causes of decay. One half of the people now living in London were never destined by heredity to reside in the place, or to bear the tax which their nervous system is suffering. No brain specialist anderestimates the influence of alcohol as a cause of insanity, but I believe that in the present competitive age the con- sumption of what I may describe as "quackeries is far more deleterious to the people than alcohol. And when you consider the drinking habits of the poorer classes, it is an evil which is largely associated with environment."
What pestiferous. patriotism all that; what egregious effrontery to retail that concluding Gallic compliment! We have no doubt whatever (and it seems advisable to state that these comments are made by a member of the superfine race that never makes mistakes) that the writer of the lines quoted has utterly failed to gather the dim- mest conception of real patriotisr.. He elsewhere cites the case of the Japanese: we can only say that the patriotism that has put Japan where it is had nothing to do with emphasising the distinction between northerners and southerners. He must be a very Junas of his cult; and we can but hope that the local society will refuse to associate itself with such idle propaganda, The very genuine glory of England was not got, nor has it ever been maintained, by
Buch claptrap.
The Saghalien Administrative Office has -dboided to establish a Japanese colony this year in the newly-soquired territory, and to settle about 100 farmers and their families from the North-east Provinces and the Hokkaido. Any Japanese families already resident in Saghalien of wettling in the southern district will be allowed to do so. The cultivation of wheat, Barley, rye, and hay is anticipated in the new territory.
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man.
He got up urid laid down, ate and drank, dressed, amused himiell, passed his days and years as he had been alwayh Wonit to do. In our times, on the contrary, steam life of every member of the civilized nations and electricity have turned the customs of upside down." And though we fare better than in the old days, we have not evolved digestive apparatus to work well enough to cope with the enormous increase in organie expenditure, particularly the expentiture affecting the brain and nervous systemi All this is directly traceable to commercial much upon it. We have gone too far toge " hustle ", and it is of no use dwelling toó back; and the bitters of civilisation must be taken with the sweets.
HONGKONG JOTTINGS.
23ad April.
certain Governmental department might soono, When I hazarded the guess last week that mise by using envelopes over and over again if request that each be returned, I was much the necessary forethought were exercised to nearer the truth than I imagined. I have
learned that communications in other depart- ments must not be enclosed in envelopes uäleik the communication is confidential, and then the cover should bear the notios asking that it be returned to the office from which it was lined. whole sheet of notepaper must not be used Moreover, it has come to my knowledge that s where a half would be sufficient, and should in envelope be received which would not be avail able for future service, it should be out into four and used for writing necessary ohits. Carrying the same principle still further, necessary permits which have to be issued by officials are printed on paper, the reverse side of which has done duty in some other form.
delight the hearts of our careful, canny Scotch Here is economy if you like. It ought to bodies, who would not use a match If paper wars and alarm when they "bang a saxpence." No available, and who are led to express surprise
careful and taking pains to prevent waste even one will find fault with the authorities for being in such small matters, but their action is open, to the criticism that more thought is devoted to the spending of a few cents than to the expendi- ture of thousands of dollars. Still, it is ple ant to note that extravagance does not charão- terise all official proceedings, and we may not hope in valu to see that the community benefits by this exercise of economy.
These things have been remarked by others during the last five decades; and there are authorities who declare, in all seriousness, that though the proportion certified insane is large, there is a still larger proportion halting between reason and unren- son, people referred to in France as dégénérés supérieurs, and in Italy as "mattoids". There can be little doubt that the Anglo-Saxon race is more given to emotionalism than it was; that the perfectly sane person con- temptuously styled "Philistine" has become That the Chinaman does not lavish a great comparatively rare. The uouamed "eminent amount of affection on his daughters is prover authority whom the papers quote is by bial, but it is not often that this lack of senti- no means original with his etiology. Brainment is so apparent as in the case of the Canton. specialists who do not underestimate these guide about whom the following, story is effects of alcohol have not underestimated what he calls “quackeries" either. Dr. B. A. MOREL, whose "Traité des Dégénérescences established him as perhaps the greatest authority, dwells insistently upon poisoning, which term includes nearly all stimulants and narcotics, impure foods, and organic The connection between the infections. growing migration to large towns and the increase of hysteria, neurasthenia, and arrested physical development, has also been noted. The march of civilisation seems to be a pace too killing for ambitious humanity. It also has been taken into account, hence the numerous advocates of nearly a dozen years ago that we (civilisation) the " Simple Life". NORDAU remarked
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Are you
told. He had escorted a party of Easter fiai- tors to one of the pagodas, where the party sat down to enjoy a rest and a sandwich. married ?” A Yes." “ Any shildren ? "1" One daughter. But she no likee my food." "What do you mean ?" "She die." At this he smiled, a pro- oeeding which seemed so unnatural that one of the gentlemen remarked, "Very funny, im't it?" The guide, who knew English well, failed to appreciate the sarcasm, for he grinned still more and added "Maskee daughter.:-- more better son."
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In the countries which comprise the United Kingdom a common topographical feature is the frequency with which some fabulous or bistorical leap is commemorated. For instance, but of course there are many more which there come to mind such names as the Devil's Leap, the Soldier's Leap, the Smuggler's Lomp, were moving too fast.
"All its [bumanity's] | readers will doubtless recall. Hongkong in not conditions of life have, in this period of rich in this kind of nomenclatare, though it time [the last fifty years], experienced a may be that a certain spot in Queen's Royd revolution unexampled in the history of the East will achieve some degree of notoriety by world. Humanity can point to no century what may be described as the gambler's leap. in which the inventions which penetrate so During a police raid on a house where gambling deeply, so tyrannically, into the life of every jumped from the third floor kitchen into, sise was going on one of the panic-stricken natives individual are crowded so thick as in ours. Previous important changes there were, bat they did not change the material life of
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-air shaft or back yard, a distance of:50 feet; or 49 feet to be precise. Of course, the result was fatal in his case, but another coolie, apparently
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