July 13, 1907.]
circulation.
"}
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
now.
19
Tuscan race is of particular interest, as In many respects the ethnology of the
through its descendant, Ancient Rome, its influence still survives, and has had aa important role to play in the development of our modern civilisation. To the interest resulting from this connection with our- selves has to be added that resulting from the fact of the peculiar isolation of Etruscan culture, and the failure of all efforts to ancient developments of bigh civilisation. trace its connection with any of the other
Etruscan art, it is allowed ou all sides, owes largely its inspiration to Greece, and much of its mythology and motive is directly remains abundantly prove, nor is tn re any copied from Greek originals. So far its effort made by the artists to conceal the debtedness to Greek inspiration, there is fact, Still, with all its acknowledged in- something & manifestly sui generis in Etruscan art, that in all ages its critics have had to acknowledge that, deep below the surface, and in spite of all its devotion
the style and character of the art and the to precadent, there is something innate in
referred to any known origiu amongst the inscriptions, which resolutly refuses to be
great nations of antiquity.
.
general acceptance, that the man in the Hongkong coins visible in circulation in | Few scholars of the day were more com- street is only too willing to "save face" by that province. Meanwhile, we the regressus ad infinitum, or the equally admit that a proposition is possible both
have to petent to express an opinion on the subject.
as few were unworthy subterfuge of dismissing the sub-ways-they might flow back, and they beginnings of civilisation, and the early more deeply versed in the ject with a frivolous verdict supposed to be might not. after the manner of
If they did, it is yet to be struggles of mankind to reduce his speech Mr. Dooley." Our proved that they would return in sufficent to the more permanent form of writing. correspondent, to whom we are obliged for numbers to be in excess of the ordinary calling public attention to what we regard requirements of the Colony, and if they as an inadequate Government movement, is did chiefly concerned with the long time it will still adopt the tactics it proposes
so return, the Government could take to have any useful effect. That is Another point is that the Government good point, for the disease is now in crisis, is afraid they may come back; "Chopped and the remedy, if any be possible, cannot Dollar" points out that it would be in the be waited for. There have been suggestions, nature of au "heroic measure" for the proposals, and speeches made, by practical Government to redeem any large proportion business men, and we are quite sure that of the forty million dollars' worth it has those men will not regard the latest oficial issued. Doubtless, owing to the short- announcement as in any sense a solution of sightedness which undertook to stock the the difficulty. And until they are agreed Chinese empire with subsidiary coinage, among themselves with regard to funds and omitted to provide any sinking fund mentals, we fear there will not be that for eventualities, some heroism would be clarity which tends to solution. What necessary. In this seems desirable as a first step in the discus- suggest that heroism also spells honesty. case, however, we sion is a stock of axioms, or at least postu- In issuing those coins the Government lates, the theories may follow later. Lawyer made a profit and incurred a debt, au fashion, the ground needs to be cleared with obligation, and it does not seem right that as many admissions as are possible. Here it should repudiate its responsibility by comes the difficulty of this amazing question, copying the Chinese disrespect for the dies on which "not even the youngest of us and stamps of the mint. The Chinaman can pose as an infallible authority.
has never learned to trust to the government First of all then, comes the official theory, seal or the Emperor's head, but we hire. enunciated in the recent notice, that the He estimates the intrinsic value of a coin, stock of Hongkong subsidiary coins is and relies on his own estimate. in excess of requirements-the available monarch's effigy, and take the word of the We see the stock, that is-and that the Government government that the coin is worth what it proposes gradually to withdraw from says it is. The present discount on Hong- That the supply of Hongkong coins-and here we are too impatient kong subsidiary coins
more than to weigh axioms and postulates-the present "required by the necessities of busi- discount on Hongkong subsidiary coins, we ness in the Colony "is that an axiom. assume and assert, has really nothing to do the truth of which is so apparent as to be with supply and demand, but is the result instantly admitted, or is it only an assump- of a dishonest copying of the Chinese tion? It is not capable of axiomatic state- pernicious method. The banks at Home ment, perhaps, but its untruth seems almost levy no such tax on business takings. To self-evident to those whose business touches the man in the street at any rate, it seems the lesser values in our local currency. a quite illegitimate and incredibly stupid When a large heap of subsidiary coins is arrangement that when the Post Office, a taken at random and sorted, in one place of Government department, sends a lot of business, and the proportion of British Government money to the Bank, the coins in the heap found to be not more than Government's financial organ, that Bank two per cent of the whole, that is evidence should be permitted to levy discount, to toward the contrary statement that there is tell the Government that its own money is not enough in circulation, in the Colony, so much metal, its own promise to pay for the ordinary requirements of business worthless. Until the Government faces the When the experiment is repeated at several consequences of its own past, and determines other establishments, with very similar to do honestly in the present, by admitting results, we do not need the generally con- that a King's ten-ceut piece is worth one- firmatory impression of the man in the tenth of a King's dollar, and authorizing or us in demanding that ordering the Bank to act accordingly, we it be postulated that the stock available is do not see that any end to our present not sufficient. That brings us to the point commercial worries is in sight. But let the that if we are all to boycott the Chinese legislators and others interested in the subsidiary coins, as we would like to do, we que tion first gather together all the possible should find our business hampered unless postulates, and afterwards it will seem less the Government at once issued a great deal heroic to be honest. If a loan be necessary, more, instead of withdrawing from the let there be a loan; the essential thing is to present supply, or unless it were augmented make the King's money honest mouey, and in some other way. Our correspondent not, as it is now, a mass of metal whose has asserted that such boycott would bring real value is determined, by the operators Hongkong subsidiary coins back from on the market. Kwangtung in shiploads. Is that а postulate upon which we are all agreed, or a mere assertion? It is self-evident that if those shiploads of Hongkong coins do not
(Daily Press, 11th July). exist, if they are no longer in circulation in Writing last month of the ancestry of the China, they cannot come back. Then we Mongolian horse, we remarked that we must see if they do exist. Many well. might learn from the distribution of the informed and understanding people believe Horse, past and present, something which that the bulk of them were long ago melted would prove useful in the ethnography of down. Being of beter metal than the the ancient peoples. It is occ sionally Chinese coins, it is s id te Chiu se fre- useful as well as interesting to reperuse quently found them worth more as bulo, the ethno ogi al etf rts o: a past generation, Perhaps those of our readers aud corres- in the light of future accessions to po dents who travel much in Kwangtung knowledge. Amongst the boks on
our will keep their eyes open, and by experiet inography of au a cient pas le few ments such as those mentioned above, attracted more att ni n than the 1t ascertain approximately the percentage of | Canon Isaac TAYLOR's Etruscan Researches.wing to tue general "elevation of the
+
street to warrant
ETHNOLOGICAL.
the
Canon TAYLOR was amongst those who claimed what in those days was called a Turanian origin for the Etruscaus; and was one of the first to support his claim with philological argument: worthy of notice. His work was published in 1874, and, considering how limited at the time was our knowledge of the ancient races of the world,. displayed a wonderful amount of learning
swayed in his opinions by the German and sound judgment. He was largely school of ethnologists, and partly from this reason, and partly from the difficul ties iuherent in the task, his been accepted as anything core than an essay has never
ingenious guess. The fact of the mitter is, of course, that none of his authorities are above suspicion, so that the very foundation of the edifice is unsound. instance, is classed as a Turanian or Ugric Chinese, for
speech; and no knowledge is displayed of the necessary modifications undergone by a language, especially an unwritten one, in the course of centuries and milleniums, so that it is idle to look for analogies unless the languages to be compared be in the be justified in accepting the CANON's argu- same stage. Still, although we should not
extent, he is usually credited with having meat in full, or even to any particular
made out a fair case for the general relationship of the people and language, and their affinities are by most modern ethnogra phers assumed to be Turanian in the sense in which that word was used in the last century-that is cognate with those more northern peoples of Asia, who have been called variously Ugro-Altaic, Ugric, Mongolian, or Turkic. To all or any of these names there are serious objections; and even to the term Ugric which Canon TAYLOR more especially affects, and which is perhaps the least objectionable of the lot. And this naturally brings us to the con. sideration in what concerned with the M gol puy.
wav any or all are
In our previous article we spɔke of the original hom: of t le Mɔng » horses tɩving emergence of Cural Asia, in the grai ben prior to the European Le Age and tas plain of Central Europe. From, that,
i
:
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.