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A JOHNSONIAN DISCOURSE.
(Daily Liers, Kebonary 1700
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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romance,
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[February 2, 1908.
1 immortals, where his own stilted stuff could i take things as they may be as long as they surely never have placed him. Dr. Wilder are bearable and to try their luck elsewhere. mentioned_with_apparent awo that his if exclusive measures should Incom› Loo Rasselas," was written as a pot-, severe. But they have, if one is to boiler in half a dozen evenings. It is quite believable. The extraordinary thing, in- explicable unless the comparative dearth of writers in those days be remembered, is that
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believe the protest to be genuine, su Idenly become aware that they are grossly injurol and call upot, the Chines Am'assador în London to see that the r rights as it should so quickly have found a publisher, and independent Chine o be duly respectek. He was a mere political pamphleteer of They complain that the registration act of average merit, if we take his output as
the Colony a 'places Chinese sulje Us on the a whole, whil as a conversationalist, he same level as British subjects coming from would not be tolerated in modern society. India" which, to an unprejudice 1 person Narrow, doganatic, intolerant, his first
[mus certainly seem to be a somewhat audience would be his last. Look how postrange ground of complaint, as most people sitively he settled an argum at as to what would consider the fiet to be a complete came of swallows in winter. "Certainly," answer to any objections which they had to he averrel, they " sleep all the winter," make. But i led by their Indian confø·lor- “conglobulated" un ler the ice or water of ates, the Chinese Association give their a river. Then his dictum on SHAKESPEARE, reason for a contrary view in terms which who, according to Dr. JoussoN,
are interesting, if not from their e melu ive- wrote six consecutive good lines." Gray. ness, at least from their mal impudence, Swift, Volt tire, Gillan, and other such They say: While it may be proper for giants (compared with him) wrote poor, the British Government to treat its Indian stuff" His politics might have suited a subjects as it pleases, they respectfully Crown Colony. Governments," he said, 'sulmit that subjects of the Chinese Empire should turn out of the Civil Service all, should not be treated in a manner deròga- who were on the other si le." H« lumped fory to the dignity of the Empire to which together as intolerable creatures all Whigs, they have the honour to long, especi dly Nonconformists. Scotsmen, Americans, and in view of the fact that China is in a stato many others. These things (for ignoring of alliance with Ge at Britain and that the which Dr. WILDER and the Union Church subjects of Great Britain reveiv - the most mea.hers must be secounted very chari'alde) – favoured nation treatment in China.“ What and many others like them, were usually this exactly means, it is some what pizzling uttered in a roaring voice, to shout down and intimilate all who might hold different As to the strength underlying popinions.
his convictions, turn up his famous diction ary, at the word "
pension," and compare what he says there with les acceptance of
way affct the question, though the bounts of the Third GEORGE. To most the writer of the memorial seems to have remarks by his peers, the usual response some puzzle-headed notion that if dex su in was a thunder us No, Sir," and after a some way. What it may be supposel is dogmatic and semi-find pronouncement of meant is that China is in friendly relations his own, he would cry Let us have no with Great Brit in and is rec guised as more on't." To his own way he was a kind, being upon a footing of diplomatie • quality, mau. Nigod or, to those who could | This has been always accepted as the only meekly endure his tantrums; but he has basis upon which it is possible to deal no claims to such immortality as BoswELL with China, but it is only a theory, and has given him, or if he has, he is entitled, cannot be pushed to the extent fubling only to (say) the share that FALSTAFF gets that China is on the suns footing eis à vis of the fame attaching to the name of, Great Britain as other foreign uwvions. In
Our own particular journalistic CAMALIEL used to tell us that the majority of people are very ignorant, very stupid, and amongst the educated classes, very affected. That was a good many years ago, and has lost its force, except, perhaps, as regards affecta- tions. It never did apply with any justi. to Far Eastern communities. In a plae like Hongkong, it is distinctly encouraging to know that there is more genuine culture to the square yard than mob-lan I can boas of in the square mile. For evidence in support of the claim, please note the fact that in a busy commercial enmunity, fur. ther occupied by the distractions of race week, a busy Consul can lecture, and a con- siderable number listen to or road, observa- tions about such an apparently unattractive; hack-number as Dr. SAMUEL Jouxsoy, But conventions and affectations linger in the most high-toned" communities, and we were not surprised to find that Dr. WILDER, in his lecture on Dr. Jonsson, accepted the traditional view of that literary canonic. We had not space to spare for the lecture, but may alone by giving it a little notice here, especially as, at the moment, there is no livelier topic to the fore. It ought at least to add int rest to the not very exciting subject when it is seen that we do not share the conventional (and may we say, hollow) admiration for a character who, were he living to-day, would scarcely be counting on Westminster Abbey as his ast resting place. To a lopt such a cou- tradictious stand is quite JOHNSONIAN, though in a newspaper, it may be less admired. Sometimes to fail to say what oht to be said, or what is expected to be said, is to court the reproofs recently bestowed upon Dr. MORRISON, and upon others. However, in endeavouring to shock Dr. JOHNSON's admirers, as we said before, we shall be quite JOHNSONIAN. Apparently he used seriously to believe that the pubic needed shocking, as in his remark, quoted by Dr. WILDER, that he had no passion for clean linen." Imagine how the com pany would look at each other at a modern dinner table, if such bad tast were to be repeated. Even in fun it would be disgusting, but in the case of Dr. JOHNSON, it is on record that his habits matched his speech. BOSWELL's biography lives because of i's writer, not because of its subject. With no BoswELL, there would possibly have been no JOHNSON. It is au object lesson of one result of writing too well. I In his cry that we should clear one's mind of cant," we are particularly! at one with BOSWELL's hero, but we are indisposed to trust bis complete sincerity, so far as our small reading goes. Our knowledge of him, like that of Dr. WILDER, is of course derivative and if we diverge from the Americîn Cousul's admiring view of George Third's pensioner, it is because we have loved the idol-maker more than the idol itself. We could have revered BOSWELL; but for the arrogant, had tempered, narrow m'nd d Dr. Jonsson we have no sympaty beyond that due to his common humanity. BOSWELL was South, and it is passing strange that he should have wasted so much beautiful hero-worship ou a cantankerous and insularly prejudiced man who could speak so bitterly and dis- respectfully of wholesome oat meal. It was his youth, of course. The elderly celebrity was viewed through the rosy spectacles of BOSWELL'S uoanalysing years, and because of bis (BoswELL'S) flexible nud graceful writing, always apt and pointed, discreet and, convincing, we have Dr. Jonsson among the
SHAKESPEARE.
*
CHINESE IN SOUTH AFRICA.
(Daily Press, 18th February } A curious document has been addressed; to the Chinese Minister in London by a body calling itself "the South African British Indian Committee" in the Transvaal This Committee seems to have mado com- mon cause with another self constitute organisation going under the name of "the Chiuese Association" who are supposed to represent the so called
frew" Chines population and who usist of celestial storekeepers and the like mostly in a small way, and number about 1000 or 1100 all told. The Association is not therefore, very numerous, but its support was nevertheless sought by the agitators who have induced the Ind an t› protest against cerasi à res gulations
นิย to regis ration which are designed to prevent an overflow of Astat es into the Colony. With whom the idea of dragging in the Chiness in this movement originated is not clear; but it has ev dently been conceived by some happ? hemer who knows just enough about Chinese matters to make himself and his folla vers supremely ridiculous. Left to themselves, the Chinese in the Transvaal as elsewter · are very little disposed to make e a orate protests. They fully expect to be opp sel to a certain ex ́ent and are quite e intent to
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to surmise, Certainly the gentleman who wrote it does not know himself. It is not a fact that China is in Callans with Great Britain; and the most figured nation cluse in the Treaties does ut in any
the main she is entitled to be so reated but matters like the one under disussian, are precisely those on which sh· is not on a full equality, for the simple and very off etive reason that she does not recoguise Europeans as on an equality with her own subjects in anything affecting her ut rual affairs.
Foreigners are not to the p esent day allowed to settle down for trade or other purposes in all parts of China, and, until this is the case, it is simply unreasonable for China to demand such a right for Fler subjects a lower the British Empi e.
1 siguent put forward is, therefore, just
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te acakes that could have beon the ght of; and it may bị taken as certai i that the Chinese Ambassador vili-far too wary to unter upon very troubled waters in entering to support 1100 of his country- men in the Transvaal, in a very ridiculous dead, even if the Associat: in had any right to address itself t› the Chinese Ambassador on such a question, which it won't take that astute official bu to disewer they have not. The curious part of this wonderful protest is that it en is very mdlly by admitting that "the Chinese Association rec guises that immigration Lest the Transvaal shall be regulated
and in order t■ nasist the Deal Wernment 111 ** doing it has offered ti submit to ♥ 'un ary per getruumi as a Erst
..t the long pile of the Can-A Community, and not by way of admission that any such re-registration A 14 RECOINDTV,
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