Chapter XV: Appendix: BY (2)

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14.--At the same time the intercourse of China with the outer world has undergone frequent change, and especially during the present generation. The leading incentor to French activity in the Far East, says--"Yesterday Chinese trade did not exist for Europe, but to-day it puts thousands of arms in motion in England, and amounts to millions."

This is literally true. The Dutch and the Portuguese were before us. Even as early as A.D. 971, a superintendent was appointed at Ningpo to overlook foreign trade, and before that, there was such a functionary stationed at Canton. Until the latter part of the last century the British flag had hardly appeared. But now we have outstripped the competition of the whole of the world.

Fifty years ago England sent to China barely half a million worth of goods. The first war Her Majesty was obliged to wage in the interests of British trade, brought about the opening of new ports, and in 1844 the English exports to the China Sea exceeded £2,300,000. Then were forced upon us the operations of 1857-58, and the war of 1860, resulting in the Treaty of Peking. Within the next decade British commerce rose to £9,000,000 a year. Now it is half as much again. Apart, then, from the indemnity, and the anterior cession of Hong Kong, become one of the greatest, as well as most beautiful, ports in the world, the cost of the operations has been defrayed many times over in increased wages to British artisans.

BENEFIT TO CHINA.

15.--Nor has the advantage been one-sided. The gain to China has been even greater. The value of the Chinese foreign trade for 1890 is given by Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of the imperial Maritime Customs (an Englishman whose eminent services to China receive universal recognition), at 214 million Haikwan taels (the average value of which, for last year, was 5_s._ 2-1/4_d._), say, in round numbers, £53,000,000, or double the total of a few years age, while in the last decennial period the imports have increased by 48 million taels, and the exports by 9 millions.

TREATY PORTS.

16.--Under various treaties, mainly negotiated by England, twenty-one ports and places have been opened for foreign trade and residence, of which five are on the River Yangtze, penetrating over a thousand miles into the heart of the interior. Two other places were added in 1889, under agreement with France.

At most treaty ports a portion of the urban area has been assigned to the foreign community, who are left free to provide for its regulations--a duty which is usually discharged by the help of tolls on shipping and house rates, as to roads, lighting, public conveyances, and buildings, in a manner which sets the most successful example of municipal work to the neighbouring native administration.

DUTY UPON FOREIGN GOODS.

17.--An import and an export duty, each averaging 5 per cent. _ad valorem_, is levied upon goods conveyed in foreign vessels, which are, upon the other hand, exempted from the "Likin" or war tax, and freely granted transit passes, clearing them from the prefectural tolls, which do not a little to embarrass the native trader in the interior.

The duty upon foreign goods is collected by the Imperial Maritime Customs--a splendid service, employing 700 Europeans and 4000 Chinese. It yielded, in 1890, a revenue of 22 million taels (say £5,500,000) to the Chinese Government, or a third more than ten years ago, and further supervises the lighting and buoying of the coast.

DUTY UPON NATIVE GOODS.

18.--The import and the export duty upon goods conveyed in Chinese junks is levied by the Chinese Customs Service; and it is said that many shipments are so made to escape the vigilance and the higher taxation of the European Administration, and are subsequently transferred to foreign bottoms at Hong Kong or elsewhere.

BRITISH SHARE OF FOREIGN TRADE.

19.--Three-fourths of the entire foreign trade of China fell, last year, to the share of the British Empire, or more, by three million taels, than that done by the entire Continent of Europe and the United States of America. The trade with the United Kingdom, including that passing through Hong Kong, exceeded £15,000,000.

The Commissioners of Customs at Tientsin, Newchwang, Ningpo, and other treaty ports, all speak of "the increased demand for British goods," in spite of much distress last year, owing to floods in many places; and while Shanghai reports that "German figures fall off decidedly," the Commissioner at Kinkiang states that "the British and Chinese had all the trade to themselves."

BRITISH SHIPPING IN CHINESE WATERS.

20.--This fortunate state of affairs is strikingly illustrated by the British shipping in Chinese waters. The red ensign of England, which appeared on the first steamer in the Yellow Sea, in 1830, floated in 1890 upon 16,897 of the 20,530 foreign vessels which entered and cleared at Chinese ports, while the British tonnage amounted to 8/9ths of the whole.

Our next competitors were the Germans, with whom we have so much in common, and who are sparing no effort to develop their China trade. They entered and cleared 2140 vessels last year, or 622 fewer than in 1888, with a diminution of 227,000 tons burthen.

A good proportion of the coast-carrying trade was also done by British-built steamers, carrying the dragon flag, and wholly owned by Chinese merchants. But, with very few exceptions, insurance companies and underwriters insist upon such vessels being commanded and officered by British or Americans. Besides this, the majority of the pilots on the Peiho and other rivers are British, a state of affairs pointing to the necessity of nothing being omitted by the Board of Trade to afford every possible facility to the merchant marine to acquire the technical knowledge necessary to maintain this world-wide reputation of the English for superior nautical skill.

PREPONDERANCE OF BRITISH INTERESTS.

21.--These facts show the enormous preponderance of British interests in China,--a condition of things existing also in Japan,--not only over those of the whole world, but especially as regards those of France, Germany, Russia, or any other European power.

They are corroborated by the establishment in China of 327 British firms, or double the number of the mercantile houses of every other nation, and by the residence at the treaty ports of over 3300 British subjects, out of a total foreign population of about 8000.

Germany comes next with 80 firms and 640 residents; following her, America, with 32 firms; and then France, with 19 firms and 590 persons.

REPRESENTATION OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE.

22.--Under such circumstances the British public cannot be otherwise than glad that Her Majesty the Queen is fitly represented at Peking by what is not unfrequently described in the vernacular as "The Great English Legation."

The consular service of Britain in China is also manned by some three-score officers, each one of whom is an accomplished Chinese scholar, a large majority having passed through the arduous Student Interpreter Course, which is ready to fill junior vacancies, as they occur, with young men evidently as well selected as they are carefully trained.

DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR ASSISTANCE TO BRITISH TRADES.

23.--At the same time it would be idle to deny that, in spite of recent improvements, British traders generally complain in China, as elsewhere, of the lack of diplomatic and consular assistance in the advancement of English trade, and the apparently little official interest shown therein.

The French have a like grievance, and the work of German representatives for their nationals is often cited with envy. It is said, though probably with exaggerated truth, that German Ministers and Consuls are unflagging in their efforts to advance German commercial interests, to show that German traders have government recognition and approval, and that the employment of Germans, instead of English or French, is much appreciated by the Emperor William.

It is possible that the out-of-date view that diplomatic and consular officers are purely political agents may be excessively retained in some instances, and that the assistance rendered by Her Majesty's Consuls to British trade might advantageously receive more encouragement and departmental recognition.

There can be no doubt, however, of the difficulty which would ensue by consular espousal of the interests of a particular firm to the inevitable prejudice of a rival house.

Nor is the prestige small or unimportant which Her Majesty's service derives from the fact that any expressions of opinion, or any advice tendered, are known to be wholly free from any interested motives.

IRON AND STEEL TRADE IN CHINA.

24.--In examining the position in China of particular industries, attention must first be directed to the iron, steel, and hardware trade.

The standard work (Williams' "Middle Kingdom") says:--"Handicraftsmen of every name are content with coarse-looking tools compared with those turned out at Sheffield; but the work produced by some of them is far from contemptible. The bench of the carpenter is a low, narrow, inclined frame, on which he sits to plane, groove, and work his boards, using his feet and toes to steady them. His augers, bits, and gimlets are worked with a bow; but most of the edge-tools employed by him and the blacksmith are similar in shape, but less convenient than our own. They are sharpened with bows, on grindstones, and also with a cold steel like a spokeshave, with which the edge is scraped thin.

"Steel is everywhere manufactured in a rude way, but the foreign importation is gradually supplying a better article."

IMPORTATION OF METALS.

25.--This is illustrated by the importation, in 1890, of 242,000 taels (60,500_l._) worth of steel, besides 800,000 taels worth of iron sheets, plates, bars, hoops, nail rod, pig and old iron, and 500,000 taels worth of copper bars, nails, wire, &c.,--a purchase exceeding 400,000_l._,--the greater part of which was from the United Kingdom.

The Statistical Secretary of the Imperial Maritime Customs states that "iron of all kinds maintained, in 1890, a steady consumption of 1,100,000 piculs (each picul equals 133-1/2 lbs.), and steel rose from 39,000 to 56,000 piculs,--an increase of 43 per cent.,--although it is noticeable that the import is very variable from year to year."

The Commissioner at Newchwang states that "importations of metals advanced to the enormous extent of 113 per cent. over 1889--the most conspicuous being nail rod;" while his colleague at Tientsin speaks of "the increasing demand for manufactured iron nails, which are cheaper and better than those made by native blacksmiths;" and Chin-kiang states, from the Central Provinces--"For iron of all kinds, 1890 totals have not been equalled."

SHEFFIELD ENTERPRISE.

26.--The enterprise of Sheffield has not been behindhand. In 1843, after the Northern ports had been opened, a _Times_ correspondent reported "that an eminent Sheffield firm sent out a large consignment of knives and forks, and declared themselves prepared to supply all China with cutlery. The Chinamen, who knew not the use of knives and forks (or, as they say, abandoned the use of them when they became civilized), but toss the rice into their mouths with chopsticks, would not look at these best balanced knives. They were sold at prices which scarcely realized their freight, and shops were for years afterwards adorned with them, formed into devices, like guns in an armoury."

A somewhat similar fate has attended the efforts of another prominent, but younger firm, whose dust-covered sample cards were shown me in Shanghai.

Although in 1885 Germany sent a considerable quantity of cutlery to Tientsin, Chefoo, and elsewhere, Sheffield evidently meets the demand of foreign residents as regards table articles, for some of our leading names are present at every meal.

DEMAND FOR RAZORS.

27.--The demand for razors is, however, enormous. It is stated that, having regard to the artificially caused excess of the male population, some 180 or 200 millions of men have their heads and faces "painfully" shaved once a week by a razor of the rude specimen I am sending, with others, to the Cutlers' Hall, and which cost about 5 cents, or 2-1/2_d._ Three-quarters of a Chinaman's head is always kept closely shaved, and custom prohibits either whiskers or beards, and even moustaches, unless before then a grandfather!

At Canton, a well-known Hallamshire trade-mark is reported as selling freely on razors at 20 cents. But in other places, more removed from British example, I was assured that it is quite hopeless to induce Chinese barbers to adopt the Sheffield shapes, unless they wish to empty their crowded shops. For the Sheffield-made _Chinese pattern_, however, a vast demand might possibly be brought about by careful agents, if only it can be done at the low price the Chinese are willing to pay.

DEMAND FOR LARGE FORGINGS.

28.--There is already a considerable request for large forgings, and the arsenals under the control of Englishmen are steadfast believers in the undoubted superiority of English manufacture. But all agree that it is nothing compared to what will come when China really begins to go ahead, and to open up for her people the vast wealth of the Empire. The representatives of Messrs. Krupp and of M. Creuzot are very vigilant, active, and skilful.

ADOPTION OF METRICAL MEASUREMENT.

29.--In connection with this matter, it is important to mention that a recommendation is about to go forward from a high authority, to whom attention is paid, that China should adopt, as Japan has already done, the metrical system of measurement of France and Germany. Unless this is fully realized, there may be a loss of valuable business, for although there are measures which render feet and inches in mètres and millimètres with the utmost nicety, foreigners contend that there is sometimes an inevitable plus or minus, which upsets calculations.

WANT OF UNIFORM MONETARY STANDARD.

30.--In the same direction, too, it may not be amiss to give expression to the general mercantile complaint of the absence of a uniform and international decimal monetary system. Not only are many firms ruined by unexpected and often unaccountable fluctuations of exchange between the 29 principal currencies of the world, but the clerical labour involved, not to speak of constant misunderstandings, is stated to be most prejudicial.

This can be appreciated when it is considered that trade in the East is conducted in rupees, piastres, Mexican and American dollars, Japanese yen, silver shoes, shapes, and bars; Haikwan, Shanghai, and Tientsin taels--the latter unrepresented by coins or notes, and all varying in value from day to day. The Shanghai tael, for instance, which was worth 4_s._ 3-1/8_d._, on February 28th, 1890, rose to 5_s._ 3-1/8_d._, by September 5th,--a difference of 23 per cent.,--and fell back again 13 per cent. in the next two months. The rupee, too, worth 2_s._ at par, was at a discount of eightpence in 1889, but early in 1890 all but touched 1_s._ 9_d._, until, in November, it fell to 1_s._ 5-1/2_d._--each penny of fall occasioning not only great loss to individuals, but it is calculated many thousand lacs of rupees to the Indian Government.

It is difficult to say which decimal system has the most advocates,--probably dollars and cents,--but all agree that pounds, shillings and pence, and English coins on which the value is not stated, entail more trouble than any standard.

COTTON GOODS.

31.--The vast present and the enormous future interest Lancashire has in China, as also the British capitalist in India, is shown by the Imperial customs report for 1890. It runs thus:--"Cotton goods bounded upwards in value from 36 million taels in 1889, to 45 millions (say 11,000,000_l._) in 1890--an increase of 25 per cent. Cotton goods of nearly every texture were infected with the general contagion of increase, and expanding in quantity and value, while cotton yarn, and more particularly that from India, poured into China in a higher ratio of increase than ever heretofore, having risen from 108,000 piculs in 1878, to over a million piculs in 1890, representing 19-1/3 millions of taels (say nearly 5,000,000_l._), or 50 per cent. more than in the previous year."

It is not necessary to add anything to this authoritative statement, unless it be that the French efforts to force their "cotonnade" upon the Annamites, by prohibitory duties upon all foreign goods in Indo-China, are unavailing, and that the prospect before Manchester is unlimited so soon as the South-West of China is opened from Burmah. It is tempered only by the establishment of mills to turn Chinese-grown cotton into yarn.

WOLLENS.

32.--In woollen goods there was, in 1890, an importation of 3-1/2 million taels worth--a slight falling off compared with the previous year, mainly in English camlets and lastings.

EXPORT OF SILK.

33.--Nothing, perhaps, more eloquently exhibits the importance of China as a commercial factor in the world, and the necessity of foreign trade to her people, than the silk industry, which employs many tens of thousands of persons. Fifty years ago not a bale was exported, at least to England; but last year over 30-1/4 million taels' worth were sent abroad. Even that large quantity showed a falling away, owing to transient circumstances, of 16 per cent. over the previous year.

THE TEA TRADE.

34.--The staple export of China, and the one with which the Celestial Empire is most closely identified in the popular mind, is, of course, her tea.

In 1670, eighty pounds of China tea were exported into England, and, despite export duties, varying in China and in the United Kingdom from 400 per cent. on the productive cost to 100 per cent. at the present time, the trade increased to 108 million pounds in 1880.

INDIA TEA.

35.--Since then there has, however, been a serious decline, increasing so much, from year to year, as to jeopardize the entire industry. This is declared to be mainly owing to the fortuitous development of tea-planting in India and Ceylon, and to the preference shown by the English consumer for tea of British growth.

Twelve months after the Queen's accession, 400 lbs. of Indian tea were sent to England as an experiment. In 1890 the consignment was over 100,000,000 lbs., and Ceylon sent nearly half as much. The effect has been that, while, in 1865, out of every 100 lbs. of tea sold in England 97 lbs. were Chinese and only 3 lbs. Indian, in 1890 the Chinese proportion had fallen by about 50 per cent., and the cost to the British tea drinker was also in like degree reduced.

One reason put forward by the experts, consulted by the Maritime Customs, is that "a good stout tea, that will stand several waterings, is what suits the mass of English consumers, and this India provides much better than China." The English merchants at Shanghai and Foochow affirm, however, that this greater strength is purchased by the retention of deleterious properties.

APATHY OF THE CHINESE.

36.--It is in vain that the attention of Chinese cultivators has been called to the condition of the tea industry by all concerned. Moreover, four years ago, the Inspector-General of Customs thus addressed the Imperial authorities:--

"To a government, its people's industries must be of higher importance than revenue. I would, therefore, advise that taxes be remitted, in order that industries may be preserved. Think for the people, and forego revenue. Export duties ought to be light, in order that the surplus production of a people may go for sale elsewhere. Import duties, on the contrary, are the duties which ought to be retained; but the use to be made of each commodity ought to be well weighed. If it is something people cannot do without, it ought to be exempt from duty; but if it is a luxury, it ought to be heavily taxed. On the right application of these principles depend the nation's wealth, and the people's too."

Nothing whatever has been done. From Foochow the export has declined by one-half in ten years, and deprived the revenue of a million taels a year, and the people of five million taels in wages. The opinion is indeed general "that the gradual extinction of the China tea trade is practically assured, unless something retards Indian and Ceylon production, or drastic measures are adopted."

The "Shanli," or hill tax; the "Likin," or war tax, and the export duty, are all maintained intact, and the unfortunate Chinese growers have to compete with the untaxed tea of India and Ceylon. What distress is likely soon to ensue may be gathered from the fact that the production of one-half only of the output of the Assam Company, with its few hundred employés, affords the main sustenance of 4500 Chinese families, or, say, about 20,000 persons. They are themselves, moreover, so apprehensive that the introduction of the machinery in vogue in India and Ceylon will diminish employment that the Government has not felt itself strong enough to protect its use.

FOREIGN OPIUM TRAFFIC.

37.--The opium question excites much interest in England. Some philanthropists have feared that the revenue of over 5,000,000_l._ a year, derived by the Indian Government from the licensed and carefully-restricted cultivation of the raw material of the valuable drug, is in major degree responsible for the reported influence upon the Chinese of opium smoking. They may be somewhat reassured by the result of a careful European inquiry, officially instituted throughout the Empire. It shows that imported opium is only smoked by the affluent, the luxurious, and well-to-do, or, at most, by one-third of one per cent. of the population; that is, by about three per thousand.

The annual importation used to amount to an average of 100,000 chests, yielding, for smoking, about 4000 tons of boiled opium. They cost the consumers upwards of 17,000,000_l._, of which 3,000,000_l._ went to the Chinese revenue. But it is a rapidly declining element in Chinese finances, and the deficit may, before long, have to be made up by increasing the duties upon other imports.

NATIVE OPIUM.

38.--Native opium was known, produced, and used in China long before any Europeans began the sale of the foreign drug. The records of the 10th century prove this; and opium figures as an item in the tariff of 1589, and again in a customs list of the 17th century. Hundreds of square miles are devoted to the cultivation of the poppy, which, according to the late Dr. Williams, "is now grown in every province, without any real restraint being anywhere put on it." Native opium sells for half the price of the foreign article, and its smokers are consequently more numerous among the people and younger practitioners (_i.e._, those from 25 to 35 years of age). It is, in short, say the latest reports, "forcing foreign opium out of consumption with triple energy."

NUMBER OF OPIUM SMOKERS.

39.--The best authorities concur that the whole of the smokers, of either foreign or native opium, do not exceed two-thirds of one per cent. of the population, or adding a margin, say, seven per thousand (Replies to Circular No. 64, Second Series, Inspectorate General of Customs)--a state of affairs which is corroborated from the great town of Tientsin, with its million of inhabitants. The Commissioner of Customs reports "that but little opium is consumed, owing to the growing influence of Abstention Societies, the 40,000 members of which neither smoke the drug or tobacco, nor drink liquors of any kind."

EFFECT OF OPIUM-SMOKING.

40.--The effect of opium-smoking, injurious and wasting of vital power though it may be, is certainly not apparent to the ordinary traveller; and the American clergyman, whose work on China, founded on the experience of a life-time, aided by keenest judgment, has been adopted by every foreign legation as the Text Book for aspiring Consuls, thus records his opinion:--

"A dose of opium does not produce the intoxication of ardent spirits, and, so far as the peace of the community and his family are concerned, the smoker is less troublesome than the drunkard. The former never throws the chairs and tables about the room, or drives his wife out of doors in his furious rage; he never goes reeling through the streets or takes lodgings in the gutter, but, contrariwise, he is quiet and pleasant, and fretful only when the effects of the pipe are gone."

MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA.

41.--The missionary work of endeavouring to reclaim China from the faith which was first introduced 65 years before Christ, and whereof the leading principles are stated as the worship of ancestors and of sky and earth, has become, during the last 30 years, of political as well as of religious importance, for it constantly gives rise, and has done so very lately, to serious international difficulties.

Although there are many who regard the missionaries as doing valuable secular service in accustoming the native population in remote districts to the sight of European faces, and in prompting inquiry as to the source of their evenly balanced and steady lives, constituting them thus as pioneers of trade, it is undoubted that the great majority of foreign residents are openly sceptical as to the fertility of the missionary field. They are especially apprehensive of the effect when the ground is tilled by fragile mothers and young ladies in the teeth of deep and apparently ineradicable prejudice against the public work of women, and particularly in conjunction with the opposite sex, for as an incendiary proclamation, calling on Wuhu "to chase out all the barbarian thieves," ran, "This breach of morality and custom is in itself a violation of the fixed laws of the State."

ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES.

42.--The first missionary labourers were the Italian Jesuits. They came to China three centuries ago, and by toleration some of the least objectionable tenets of Buddhism, and a malicious employment of their European learning, obtained such imperial favour as to be put at the head of the Astronomical Board, and to be employed to build the celebrated summer palace. There seemed, indeed, every possibility, at one time, of the wholesale conversion of the Chinese to the Roman Catholic Church, termed by the Emperor, K'anghi, "the Sect of the Lord of the Sky." But then came Christian dissension, and following it soon, as in Japan, their persecution, slaughter, and expulsion.

Now the Church of Rome is stated to have, in China, 60 Bishops or Vicars Apostolic, some 600 European Priests (of whom 65 per cent. are French), and about 400 Chinese clergy. It claims, also, close upon 700,000 adherents (in Japan the proportion is one in every 905 persons)--a calculation which should, however, be read probably in conjunction with the officially published fact, that of 13,684 baptisms in the metropolitan diocese between August 15th, 1891, and August 14th, 1891, 11,583 were "_baptismi puerorum infidelium in articulo mortis_."

At the same time recognition should be given to the general respect entertained by foreigners of opposing Christian creeds for the life-long devotion to their task, on the slenderest stipend, of the Roman priesthood. Their success as to numbers is also said to be much aided by their care of the mundane interests of the converted, who, loath to continue subscribing to family memorial halls for communication with ancestors, and to extravagant funeral rites, if not also to that support of aged parents which is obligatory on Chinese Buddhists, are shunned by their kindred, and often find private employment, even in foreign families, as impossible to obtain as a public office.

PROTESTANT MISSIONS.

43.--Nor have the Protestant Churches, although later in the field, been backward in sending out representatives. A considerable proportion of the _thirteen hundred thousand_ pounds, which is on an average annually subscribed in the United Kingdom for the support of Foreign Missions, goes from "Darkest England" to China. The United States are even more liberal, and school buildings have been erected by Americans, on an extensive scale, in many places.

Forty-one Protestant Societies were represented in 1890, by 589 men, 391 wives, and 316 single ladies,--a total of 1296 persons, of whom 724 were British, 513 American, and 59 Continental,--assisted by 1660 natives. These numbers may now be slightly larger.

As regards persuasions, 7 per cent. of the Protestant Missions belong to the Church of England, 20 per cent. are Presbyterian, 14 per cent. Methodist, 12 per cent. Congregational, 9 per cent. Baptist, and the larger number, or 38 per cent., unclassified.

There are upwards of 550 Protestant Churches, distributing, in 1889, 700,000 Bibles and 1,200,000 tracts, and over 60 hospitals and 50 dispensaries.

The result of the work since 1842, reported to the Protestant Conference, held in 1890, was, in round numbers, 37,300 communicants (of whom over two-thirds are stated to be Nonconformists), or about one in ten thousand of the population; 19,800 pupils; while 348,000 persons were returned as having received medical aid, or at least to have visited a missionary dispensary--a work which is acknowledged by all to be of the utmost value, to be of real national benefit, and to be appreciated by the people. It is much encouraged by the Rev. Hudson Taylor, himself a surgeon and native of Barnsley, who from Shanghai directs, with great tact, the undenominational China Inland Mission, the members of which adopt, like the Roman Catholics, the Chinese costume, and, like them, are smally remunerated, the expenses of the Mission, exceeding £38,000 a year, being met by unsolicited contributions.

THE RECENT DISTURBANCES.

44.--The disturbances on the Yangtze in 1891, like those at Tientsin in 1870, had for ostensible cause the fixed popular suspicion that the succour of foundlings by the Roman Catholic sisterhoods is for nefarious medicinal purposes. Many of the female children, purposely exposed to die, are necessarily, as indeed in Europe, in a moribund condition when brought in, and the mortality is very high. This is confirmed by the baptismal figures above quoted. The freedom of access, anywhere and to anybody, which is inseparable from Chinese life, and is tolerated, however disagreeable, by the most experienced missionaries, has also sometimes been attended, it is alleged, with difficulty, especially from native converts, and irritation has resulted.

The facts disclosed in the British Parliamentary Paper (C. 6431) appear to be that, on May 9th, 1891, two Chinese nuns were visiting a sick family at Wuhsueh, on the river Yangtze. As the disease of the parents was infectious, they removed the children. On the way to the Mission they met a relation, who demanded their restoration. This being refused, the nuns were taken before a magistrate, who, however, on the requisition of the fathers, immediately released them.

This excited much popular agitation, and three days afterwards, a woman came to the Mission to claim a child alleged to have died therein. As she was accompanied by a small crowd, which assembles in the narrow teeming streets of China on the slightest pretext, admission was _apparently_ refused. Then commenced the work of destruction, costing two Englishmen, who gallantly went from some distance to render help, their lives, and imperilling many others, not only in the locality itself, but, later on, elsewhere on the river. Much foreign property was destroyed, and a very serious state of affairs seemed likely to supervene, for, as _The Times_ recently wrote, and experience has often shown, "Native feelings of hostility, once roused against the white man and whetted by the intoxication of success, cannot be expected to take account of an imaginary dividing line between two spheres."

ANTI-FOREIGN FEELING.

45.--In attributing the outbreak to Chinese hatred of the foreigner, two observations appear in this instance to claim consideration. The first is by Mr. Consul Gardner, in his despatch of June 9:--

"The mob was composed of many hostile from mere ignorance, many from the force of contagion, some from fear of others, a few really friendly, who, like the soldiers, led a lady to a place of safety under pretence of robbing her of a ring, and others who sheltered them from blows, while very few deliberately meant mischief."

The other is by the Rev. David Hill, a Wesleyan missionary of much experience, who was officially employed to inquire into the facts. Under date June 12th. 1891, he writes:--

"One thing which the sight of the house impressed on me was the evidence which it gave of the hold on the people's mind which the rumours as to the destruction of infant life have gained. On the upper story, the ceiling had been inspected by means of a ladder, which evidently had been brought up for the purpose. On the ground floor the boards of one of the rooms had been fired, and a large aperture made. Below the ground floor the ventilators outside had been torn open, as though search had been made for missing infants, and, of course, the lath and plaster walls in all the rooms where they might be found were pierced."

This latter view is confirmed by the Rev. Father de Quellec, who, writing in the _Missions Catholiques_, describes how, at another place, on the night of May 23rd, a dead child, from whom the eyes had been removed, was placed on vacant land near the Mission. A crowd assembling next morning, cried out, "It is the European devil who has torn out the eyes and heart of this child!" The house was stormed, but fortunately a magistrate arrived with troops more under command than is usual in China, and the mob was dispersed. "But," adds the Father, "eight out of ten believe that we take out the eyes and store them in the cellars of the Mission."

It is contended that, under such antagonistic circumstances, rescue work should be guided by the greatest care, for otherwise its use, to the prejudice of both missionary efforts and European trade, by reactionaries, is _inevitable_. Their sinister influence, once asserted, may at any moment call into fatally destructive play, as indeed recently, the anti-foreign feeling entertained by a large proportion of the Chinese.

That this anti-foreign feeling exists all agree. It is urged that it must never be forgotten--for what renders it especially serious in China, is the frequent evidence of its being fanned from above--and that the authorities have no efficient machinery of civil order on which reliance can be placed. Nor is the Central Government always able to enforce its will on distant provincial authorities, or even to prevent their varying the orders of the Throne.

At the same time, say others, the hostility may be exaggerated. The employment of over 100,000 Chinese by foreign residents, many in highly confidential capacities, both in the office and the household, and as many more on board foreign ships, tends to confirm the general verdict that the people, in an individual sense, are civil, obliging, and even hospitable towards the foreigner, and well-disposed especially towards the English trader, who treats them fairly good-humouredly, and without offending their national prejudices. This is supported, even from Wuhu itself, for the last Trade Report says: "The trade in goods classed under Foreign Sundries has increased rapidly during the past two years, and shows a gain of 70 per cent."

SUMMARY OF BRITISH POSITION IN CHINA.

46.--It remains but to summarize the position of affairs as regards British interests in China, so far as I have been able to grasp it.

(_a_) That three-fourths of the foreign trade is in British hands,
and a still larger proportion of the shipping in Chinese waters.

(_b_) That British commercial firms and residents are in a large
majority among the foreign population.

(_c_) That the contiguity to China of British India, Burmah, and
Hong Kong, and the large numbers of Chinese residents in British
territories, give England an especial interest in the welfare of
the Empire, and in the gradual opening of the vast markets in the
West, South-West, and Centre.

(_d_) That while British interests outweigh, in their magnitude,
variety, and extent, not only those of every other Great Power,
but those also of the whole world, Russia upon the North and
North-West, and from her adjacent port of Vladivostock; France, her
ally, upon the South from Tonquin; and Germany upon the coast, are
anxious and watchful competitors.

POLICY OF BRITAIN.

47.--The course of policy best calculated, under such a condition of things, to maintain and extend British commerce is a matter for the Electorate to decide. Those who share the feeling of the majority in Sheffield, that the undeviating conduct of the foreign affairs of the Empire is essential to the expansion of foreign trade and its wealth of home employment, will probably consider--

(_a_) That the British Industrial interests at stake in China,
and also in Japan, are too great to be necessarily linked to the
comparatively trivial concerns of any other nation.

(_b_) That as they are mainly dependent upon the safety of the
resident standard bearers of British trade, Her Majesty's ships
in Eastern waters[6] should always be sufficiently numerous and
ready at any moment to protect them, unaided, in their persons and
property.

(_c_) That the trade route from Europe to Asia, and its line of
defence--Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore,
and Hong Kong--should always be kept in British hands, and secure
against any possible attack.

(_d_) That at the same time, no accession of friendly territory
being desired, and only mutuality of commerce on equitable terms,
the Emperor of China and the Imperial Government should be enabled,
by the Queen's representatives, to feel that the support of England
will always be forthcoming in any step for the advancement of the
Chinese nation, the development of amicable relations, and the
security of the Empire against any unwarranted maritime aggression.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: A Chinese literate, who had been to Paris for study, expressed his opinions of Europe in the following terms. He freely acknowledged the superiority of our intellectual enterprise, without being at all persuaded that it was a thing for which we were to be envied:--"The eyes of your intelligence," he used to say, "are more piercing than ours, but you look so far that you do not see about you. You have a bold spirit which must make you successful in many things; but you have not enough respect for what deserves to be respected. This perpetual agitation in which you live, this constant want of diversion, clearly indicates that you are not happy. With you, a man is always as if he were on a journey, whereas we like to be at rest. As to your governments, I am willing to believe they have some good in them; but if they suited you as well as ours suits us, you would not change them so often as you do. I am quite sure to find, when I go back to my country, the same institutions as when I left it; and I see that not one of you would guarantee me, for even a couple of years, the solidarity of your government as it is to-day."]

[Footnote 4: Owing to the multitudes of men who find employment in China by tracking or towing junks and boats up and down the rivers, canals, and other waterways, once in a splendid condition, but now much neglected, as also in carrying tea, salt, and other produce on their backs, over paths inaccessible to horse or cart, there is as much, or more, popular prejudice against railways as prevailed in England 60 years ago. One writer says:--"Whenever the effects of our scientific machinery in abridging labour are explained to a Chinaman, the first idea that strikes him is the disastrous effect that such a system would work upon his over-peopled country, if suddenly introduced into it, and he never fails to deprecate such an innovation as the most calamitous of visitations."]

[Footnote 5: It is very common to find that Chinese, meeting on board ship, or elsewhere, with distant countrymen, are obliged to resort to "Pidgeon" or English business jargon as their only means of linguistic communication.]

[Footnote 6: Her Majesty's fleet round China and Japan consists, exclusive of torpedo boats, of 22 ships, aggregating 45,100 tons, with 137 large guns. The next naval power is Russia, with 8 ships and 18,100 tons, and 61 guns. The Japanese have 29 vessels; the Chinese 20, but all with native officers.]

MEMORANDUM UPON THE BRITISH TRADE ROAD TO THE FAR EAST.

1.--The nearest trade road from Europe to the Far East lies through
the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea, past Perim, to Aden; thence to
Ceylon; from there to Singapore, and to Hong Kong in the China Sea.

2.--As three-quarters of the external trade of both China and Japan
is in British hands; as the British residents are nearly equal,
numerically, to those of all foreign nations combined; and as
British ocean steamers are more numerous than those of the whole
world, and eightfold those of Germany, the second on the list, it
is only fitting, independently of the possession of India, that
this trade route should always be retained, as at the present time,
in the hands of England, whose position is greatly strengthened by
the possession of Gibraltar, Malta, and Cyprus in the Mediterranean.

3.--So long as this sea road is held intact and properly defended,
Great Britain remains the dominant commercial and naval power in
the China Sea.

4.--To pass Perim or Aden in the Red Sea, and so gain access to the
Indian Ocean, would be almost impossible for any European power at
war with England.

5.--Singapore likewise commands, to a great extent, the entrance
to, and exit from, the China Sea.

6.--Apart, though, altogether from the active power of
fortifications and artillery, torpedoes and submarine mines, there
is the equally effective one of want of coal.

7.--Even supposing that Germany, Russia, Austria, or Italy
were able to coal at Port Said,--a state of affairs which,
while we occupy Egypt, would not be possible in a state of
belligerency,--their steamers could not traverse the 7000 miles to
the coast of China without fresh fuel; and, against the will of
England, this would not be attainable.

8.--France alone, by coaling at Brock, opposite Aden, and
Pondicherry, might take the outer channel of Singapore, and so
reach Saigon, a distance of 2300 miles; or even Haiphong, in
Tonquin, an additional 600 miles; but the vessels could only steam
very slowly.

9.--The defensive value to the Empire of the Colonies guarding this
great trade road is therefore clear.

10.--But these prosperous Colonies are also commercially valuable
to the Empire in themselves, and particularly Ceylon, the Straits
Settlements, and Hong Kong.

11.--Ceylon does a trade of 6,000,000_l._ a year with the Empire,
whereof half is with the United Kingdom, which she is now supplying
with 50,000,000 lbs. of tea annually.

12.--The Straits Settlements have a population of 507,000; and of
the external trade of 178 million dollars, 78 millions are with
the Empire. There is no public debt, and the Colony contributes
(as also Ceylon and Hong Kong) 100,000_l._ a year for its defence,
which is now, for the first time, upon a proper footing.

13.--Hong Kong, ceded to the British 50 years ago, has become a
port of first-class importance. Although, not barring the approach
to the Upper China Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the waters of Japan,
it does so to a large extent, in a practical sense owing to the
coaling difficulty.

14.--The shipping trade of Hong Kong has doubled in the past 20
years. Of 130 million tons of shipping, passing in and out of the
harbour in 1890, 7 million tons were British, 4 million Chinese,
and 2-1/2 million foreign. British ships numbered 5500 (an increase
of 136, and 400,000 tons in three years); foreign ships numbered
2600 (an increase of 307, and 225,000 tons), and Chinese junks
55,600--a total of 64,000 vessels.

15.--The population of Hong Kong is about 200,000, of which 10,000
are European, and the remainder Chinese. Emigrants from China, to
the number of 42,000, passed through the port, and of these, 36,000
were bound for places under the British flag, while 850,000 Chinese
visited the island in the course of the year.

16.--The general impression of Hong Kong, in a commercial, maritime,
defensive, and picturesque sense, has been fittingly summed up
by the late Governor: "It may be doubted whether the evidence of
material and moral achievement make, anywhere, a more forcible
appeal to eye and imagination, and whether any other spot on the
earth is thus more likely to excite, or more fully justifies, pride
in the name of Englishman."

17.--Provided, therefore, the British hold firmly by this trade
route, and, in friendly alliance with China, do all that is
possible to develop mutual trade between Burmah and the Yunnan
district, there is nothing to fear from the rivalry of any other
power, for so long as South Africa remains loyal to the Empire, the
long sea road by the Cape is absolutely impossible to any other
nation. If, however, the short route be cut off at its base, by
the British abandonment of the magnificent mercantile position
established in Egypt, not only will the labour of ten years be
thrown away, but the whole of the gigantic trade with the East be
imperilled.

18.--The only foreign powers capable of injuring us, in a naval
sense, in Chinese waters are Russia and the United States. The
former has a formidable fleet, based upon the splendid fortified
harbour of Vladivostock, and could move land forces upon Corea.
The reinforcement of the squadron from Europe should, however, be
impracticable. As regards the United States, hostility is happily
not a likely contingency; but, in any case, the 4500 miles across
the stormy Pacific Ocean, devoid of any coaling station, unless it
be Honolulu, is a formidable barrier.

C. E. HOWARD VINCENT.

21, 12, 1891.

40,000 MILES

OVER LAND

AND

WATER.

By Mrs. HOWARD VINCENT.

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