FOOTNOTES[1]"We are never for a moment unwatched; ... if my servant runs after a butterfly, a two-sworded official runs after him."—Laurence Oliphant, Letter from Yedo, July 1861.[2]"As a general rule, our guardians exercise their functions with civility; when they are impertinent, one has to submit as one would to one's jailor.... With entire humility, one is in no danger whatever."—Oliphant, 2nd July 1861.[3]The effect of the commercial isolation of Japan on the value of general commodities was no less striking. The first foreign traders might have bought with eyes shut nearly every article that was offered to them, so great was the disparity of prices between Japan and her nearest markets. Mr Hunter gives an interesting example. "I had in go-downs," he says, "8000 piculs of sapan-wood imported from Manila unsaleable at one dollar and a quarter per picul, which was about its cost. Immediately that the opening of the port of Simoda to foreign trade was announced officially, an English vessel was chartered to carry it there. Brief—it was sold for 35 dollars per picul, and the proceeds were invested in Japanese vegetable wax at a cost of 6½ dollars, and sold for $17 the picul (133⅓ lb. English)," so that in the short voyage from China to Japan and back the capital multiplied seventy times![4]A story is told of two Samurai meeting on a bridge which was too narrow to allow of their passing each other. Neither being willing to give way, they were about to settle the difficulty at the point of the sword, when a peasant, strolling along the dry bed of the stream, offered to extricate them without loss of dignity on either side. Amused at his impertinence, and curious to see how he would effect his purpose, they consented to humour him; and when each, following his instructions, was seated in one of the baskets at either end of the pole he was carrying, he swung it round on to the opposite shoulder, asked pardon, bowed, and went on his way, leaving them each facing in the direction in which he would proceed.[5]Ieyasu says the Samurai are the masters of the four classes. Agriculturists, artisans, and merchants may not behave in a rude manner towards Samurai. The term for a rude man is, "other than expected fellow"; and a Samurai is not to be interfered with in cutting down a fellow who has behaved to him in a manner other than is expected. The Samurai are grouped into direct retainers, secondary retainers and nobles, and retainers of high and low grade; but the same line of conduct is equally allowable to them all towards an "other than expected fellow."[6]"All my old friends have disappeared," writes Laurence Oliphant on his return to Yedo as secretary of Legation. "One who was an especial favourite of mine when I was here last, ripped himself up a short time ago; and two of the other commissioners are disgraced, and it is supposed have followed his example. This was all on account of their friendship for foreigners. Every one, down to the lowest interpreter, who has had anything to do with the introduction of foreigners, has disappeared or been disgraced."[7]This man, Murioka by name, became afterwards well known to foreigners, and was always ready to talk freely about the whole transaction. When asked why he struck at a lady he would reply, "How should I know, never having seen a foreign woman, least of all on horseback?"[8]It was a common thing for a Daimio to rid himself of the irksome obligations of his position by abdicating in favour of his son. On better acquaintance Shimadso Saburo proved a most genial old gentleman. Three years later he entertained Sir Harry and Lady Parkes at his capital most hospitably.[9]Count Inouyé, the foremost statesman of the new Japan, is said to have confessed that he set fire to the British Legation with his own hand with the express object of embarrassing the Tycoon's Government.[10]The following souvenir of Count Mutsu, Foreign Minister of Japan, who died in 1897, told by Mr J. F. Lowder and quoted in 'Things Japanese' by Mr Basil Hall Chamberlain, affords a graphic illustration of this point. "In the very early Sixties, when he was in his nineteenth or twentieth year, he was in Nagasaki desirous of acquiring a knowledge of English. A lady of my acquaintance taking an interest in him used to devote an hour or two every morning to teaching him to read and write, but it was not long before he came to me despairing of his slow progress, and asking whether I could not give him a berth on board ship where nothing but English was spoken. Believing him to be physically too weak to stand such an ordeal, I endeavoured to dissuade him, but without success; and so with some misgivings I shipped him as a cabin-boy, which was the only position I could obtain for him, on board a small British schooner that used in those days to voyage between Nagasaki and Shanghai. How long he remained on board I cannot say, but my recollection is that it was a very considerable time."[11]The foreign trade of Japan now (1900) approximates 40 millions sterling, exports and imports being very nearly balanced.[12]There is more truth than may appear in the bishop's paradox. Peking is singularly free from epidemics, except occasionally of smallpox. When Shanghai suffered so severely from cholera in 1862, there were two British regiments quartered there—one, the 67th, within the native city, amid filth and stagnant water; the other, the 31st, in the foreign settlement, in quarters carefully selected by the surgeon, Dr Rennie. The 31st lost a third of its strength; the 67th suffered very little. Writing in August 1860 from Peitang, a town 500 yards square in the midst of a great swamp, into which 17,000 men were huddled, Sir Hope Grant says: "Notwithstanding the pestilential nature of the place, our troops, wonderful to say, never enjoyed better health."[13]Seeinfra, "Revision of the Treaty,"pp. 210-222.[14]Vide'U.S. Diplomatic Corresp.,' vol. ii. for 1867, p. 424.[15]He now knows better.[16]Germany in her treaty made no profession, but simply stipulated for toleration.[17]M. Eugene Simon, one of the most distinguished of the French consuls in China, in his book,'La Cité Chinoise,'awards the credit of this performance to M. Delamarre,"un prêtre des Missions étrangères,"who acted as Baron Gros' interpreter."Je tiens,"says M. Simon,"le fait de plusieurs sources, et entre autres de M. Delamarre, qui se glorifait beaucoup de sa supercherie."[18]Compare "Jesuits' Estates Act" in Canada, 1890, for which Mr Mercier was decorated by the Pope.[19]It will be understood that a concise view of the general mission question is all that is here aimed at, no distinction being drawn between branches of the propaganda. Important as are their differences viewed from the foreign standpoint, they are practically ignored by the Chinese, as we see from the impartiality with which they visit resentment on all. Our concern is with the impression produced by the propaganda as a whole, gathered as far as possible from Chinese evidence and not from the hypothetical arguments of foreign disputants. In other words, it is the political bearing of the movement which alone we are endeavouring to illustrate.[20]This measure was intended by the Chinese Government to facilitate the local settlement of disputes where the facts were known, and so obviate incessant appeals to the Central Government. It has not fulfilled its purpose, partly because an important section of the propaganda declined to avail itself of the concession offered to them. Indeed the form of the concession implies a hierarchy which only Catholic missions possess.[21]For an unvarnished narrative of both the French and the Russian advances the reader cannot do better than consult Mr Gundry's 'China and her Neighbours,' Chapman & Hall, 1893.[22]"Experience shows us that in the eyes of the Chinese negotiation is a sign of weakness."—SirF. Bruce.[23]"Likinis in its nature an oppressive institution only continued in force owing to the necessity of providing resources to meet the army expenditure in the north-west."—'Peking Gazette,' January 18, 1875.[24]Seeinfra,p. 343.[25]Seeinfra,p. 330.[26]'Contemporary Review,' December 1884.[27]The effect of these imposing edifices, which dwarf into insignificance the most pretentious native buildings, is well exemplified in the approach to Canton, where the French cathedral church, erected on the site of the Viceroy Yeh'syamên, is the only object visible, and where the idea of a permanent memorial of defeat is well realised. It is not a conciliatory policy; irresistible force is required to maintain it.[28]Seesupra,p. 308.[29]Village Life in China. By Arthur Smith, D.D.[30]An ingenious friend, who was kind enough to read this passage in MS., sent me the following suggestive note: "King Solomon was a thorough Chinaman, crafty, gaining the throne although the fourth and youngest son of his mother; killing off the kingdom-maker, Joab, and murdering the lawful heir, Adonijah. His fondness for pomp and joss pidjin, witness the Queen of Sheba and the Temple; love of trade, his ventures with King Hiram to Ophir. His apathy in military affairs, leading to the breaking up of the empire. His love of sententious maxims, Proverbs. His truly Chinese and non-Hebrew syncretism, worshipping Ashtoreth, Moloch, and Chemosh, as well as Jehovah. Now David, judging by the weak characters of his children, was, like many famous men in history, the reverse of prepotent. Solomon was a son of erewhile widow Bathsheba. Uriah being a Hittite, she was presumably one also. So Solomon would be practically a Hittite—i.e., Mongolian or Tartar; a striking example of the newly-named but long-observed phenomenon called telegony or 'throwing back.' Solomon 'threw back' to the first sire, Uriah."[31]"The boasted influence that the Government of China possesses over its subjects is almost entirelymoral, and they really do not possess the power to cope with a popular tumult, which is the object of their greatest dread."—H. Parkes, at Foochow, May 1, 1846,æt.seventeen.[32]The same who is now governor of Shantung.[33]Seevol. i. p. 38.[34]Mr Freeman-Mitford, in 'The Attaché at Peking,' recently published, tells the following good story illustrative of this (p. 168). M. de Mas, the Spanish Minister, happening to be at the house of Hêng-Chi, and knowing that he had a little son of whom he was inordinately proud, thought it would be a very pretty compliment if he asked to see the little boy, who was accordingly produced, sucking his thumb after the manner of his years. Him his father ordered to pay his respects to M. de Mas—that is to say, shake his united fists at him in token of salutation; instead of which the child, after long silence and much urging, taking his thumb deliberately out of his mouth roared out "Kwei-tzŭ" (devils) at the top of his voice and fled.[35]Referring to the massacre of Armenian Christians, with regard to which Germany took up a very different attitude from that now assumed towards China—a circumstance, by the way, which serves to reduce the "Christian" factor in the present intervention to its proper value.[36]Or, as M. Paul Boell expresses it,"Traitant la Chine tantôt comme un pouvoir tout à fait formidable, tantôt comme une puissance nègre de septième ordre."[37]Kwanghsu, being first cousin to the deceased Emperor Tungchih, could not, according to Chinese usage, be his heir. In adopting him, therefore, as posthumous heir to the previous Emperor Hsienfêng, his uncle, the Regent left her own son, the Emperor Tungchih, without an heir, promising to supply the want from the future offspring of Kwanghsu, or by some other adoption; but against this procedure strong protests were made. The arrangement, however, conferred upon the Dowager-Empress, as the widow of Hsienfêng, the authority of a mother over his heir, a circumstance which to a large extent accounts for the filial deference the reigning emperor has always paid to his adoptive mother.[38]Thirty years ago the great Nanking viceroy, Tsêng Kwo-fan, assured the Government in a memorial to the throne that if the question of treaty revision could not be satisfactorily arranged with foreigners, he had forces enough under his orders to drive them all into the sea.[39]The question of removing the capital to a more convenient site has been discussed academically—by foreigners—for many years, their view being that Nanking would be the most suitable. No doubt a central point open to the sea would be more convenient for the maritime Powers, but that is evidently not an advantage which commends itself to the Chinese themselves. During the Japanese war their strategists urged the removal of the Court from Peking to Signan fu in Shensi, simply on the ground of the inaccessibility of the latter site. The transport was prepared and the Emperor was ready, but the Empress-Dowager vetoed the project.[40]In 1863 the University of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L.
[1]"We are never for a moment unwatched; ... if my servant runs after a butterfly, a two-sworded official runs after him."—Laurence Oliphant, Letter from Yedo, July 1861.
[2]"As a general rule, our guardians exercise their functions with civility; when they are impertinent, one has to submit as one would to one's jailor.... With entire humility, one is in no danger whatever."—Oliphant, 2nd July 1861.
[3]The effect of the commercial isolation of Japan on the value of general commodities was no less striking. The first foreign traders might have bought with eyes shut nearly every article that was offered to them, so great was the disparity of prices between Japan and her nearest markets. Mr Hunter gives an interesting example. "I had in go-downs," he says, "8000 piculs of sapan-wood imported from Manila unsaleable at one dollar and a quarter per picul, which was about its cost. Immediately that the opening of the port of Simoda to foreign trade was announced officially, an English vessel was chartered to carry it there. Brief—it was sold for 35 dollars per picul, and the proceeds were invested in Japanese vegetable wax at a cost of 6½ dollars, and sold for $17 the picul (133⅓ lb. English)," so that in the short voyage from China to Japan and back the capital multiplied seventy times!
[4]A story is told of two Samurai meeting on a bridge which was too narrow to allow of their passing each other. Neither being willing to give way, they were about to settle the difficulty at the point of the sword, when a peasant, strolling along the dry bed of the stream, offered to extricate them without loss of dignity on either side. Amused at his impertinence, and curious to see how he would effect his purpose, they consented to humour him; and when each, following his instructions, was seated in one of the baskets at either end of the pole he was carrying, he swung it round on to the opposite shoulder, asked pardon, bowed, and went on his way, leaving them each facing in the direction in which he would proceed.
[5]Ieyasu says the Samurai are the masters of the four classes. Agriculturists, artisans, and merchants may not behave in a rude manner towards Samurai. The term for a rude man is, "other than expected fellow"; and a Samurai is not to be interfered with in cutting down a fellow who has behaved to him in a manner other than is expected. The Samurai are grouped into direct retainers, secondary retainers and nobles, and retainers of high and low grade; but the same line of conduct is equally allowable to them all towards an "other than expected fellow."
[6]"All my old friends have disappeared," writes Laurence Oliphant on his return to Yedo as secretary of Legation. "One who was an especial favourite of mine when I was here last, ripped himself up a short time ago; and two of the other commissioners are disgraced, and it is supposed have followed his example. This was all on account of their friendship for foreigners. Every one, down to the lowest interpreter, who has had anything to do with the introduction of foreigners, has disappeared or been disgraced."
[7]This man, Murioka by name, became afterwards well known to foreigners, and was always ready to talk freely about the whole transaction. When asked why he struck at a lady he would reply, "How should I know, never having seen a foreign woman, least of all on horseback?"
[8]It was a common thing for a Daimio to rid himself of the irksome obligations of his position by abdicating in favour of his son. On better acquaintance Shimadso Saburo proved a most genial old gentleman. Three years later he entertained Sir Harry and Lady Parkes at his capital most hospitably.
[9]Count Inouyé, the foremost statesman of the new Japan, is said to have confessed that he set fire to the British Legation with his own hand with the express object of embarrassing the Tycoon's Government.
[10]The following souvenir of Count Mutsu, Foreign Minister of Japan, who died in 1897, told by Mr J. F. Lowder and quoted in 'Things Japanese' by Mr Basil Hall Chamberlain, affords a graphic illustration of this point. "In the very early Sixties, when he was in his nineteenth or twentieth year, he was in Nagasaki desirous of acquiring a knowledge of English. A lady of my acquaintance taking an interest in him used to devote an hour or two every morning to teaching him to read and write, but it was not long before he came to me despairing of his slow progress, and asking whether I could not give him a berth on board ship where nothing but English was spoken. Believing him to be physically too weak to stand such an ordeal, I endeavoured to dissuade him, but without success; and so with some misgivings I shipped him as a cabin-boy, which was the only position I could obtain for him, on board a small British schooner that used in those days to voyage between Nagasaki and Shanghai. How long he remained on board I cannot say, but my recollection is that it was a very considerable time."
[11]The foreign trade of Japan now (1900) approximates 40 millions sterling, exports and imports being very nearly balanced.
[12]There is more truth than may appear in the bishop's paradox. Peking is singularly free from epidemics, except occasionally of smallpox. When Shanghai suffered so severely from cholera in 1862, there were two British regiments quartered there—one, the 67th, within the native city, amid filth and stagnant water; the other, the 31st, in the foreign settlement, in quarters carefully selected by the surgeon, Dr Rennie. The 31st lost a third of its strength; the 67th suffered very little. Writing in August 1860 from Peitang, a town 500 yards square in the midst of a great swamp, into which 17,000 men were huddled, Sir Hope Grant says: "Notwithstanding the pestilential nature of the place, our troops, wonderful to say, never enjoyed better health."
[13]Seeinfra, "Revision of the Treaty,"pp. 210-222.
[14]Vide'U.S. Diplomatic Corresp.,' vol. ii. for 1867, p. 424.
[15]He now knows better.
[16]Germany in her treaty made no profession, but simply stipulated for toleration.
[17]M. Eugene Simon, one of the most distinguished of the French consuls in China, in his book,'La Cité Chinoise,'awards the credit of this performance to M. Delamarre,"un prêtre des Missions étrangères,"who acted as Baron Gros' interpreter."Je tiens,"says M. Simon,"le fait de plusieurs sources, et entre autres de M. Delamarre, qui se glorifait beaucoup de sa supercherie."
[18]Compare "Jesuits' Estates Act" in Canada, 1890, for which Mr Mercier was decorated by the Pope.
[19]It will be understood that a concise view of the general mission question is all that is here aimed at, no distinction being drawn between branches of the propaganda. Important as are their differences viewed from the foreign standpoint, they are practically ignored by the Chinese, as we see from the impartiality with which they visit resentment on all. Our concern is with the impression produced by the propaganda as a whole, gathered as far as possible from Chinese evidence and not from the hypothetical arguments of foreign disputants. In other words, it is the political bearing of the movement which alone we are endeavouring to illustrate.
[20]This measure was intended by the Chinese Government to facilitate the local settlement of disputes where the facts were known, and so obviate incessant appeals to the Central Government. It has not fulfilled its purpose, partly because an important section of the propaganda declined to avail itself of the concession offered to them. Indeed the form of the concession implies a hierarchy which only Catholic missions possess.
[21]For an unvarnished narrative of both the French and the Russian advances the reader cannot do better than consult Mr Gundry's 'China and her Neighbours,' Chapman & Hall, 1893.
[22]"Experience shows us that in the eyes of the Chinese negotiation is a sign of weakness."—SirF. Bruce.
[23]"Likinis in its nature an oppressive institution only continued in force owing to the necessity of providing resources to meet the army expenditure in the north-west."—'Peking Gazette,' January 18, 1875.
[24]Seeinfra,p. 343.
[25]Seeinfra,p. 330.
[26]'Contemporary Review,' December 1884.
[27]The effect of these imposing edifices, which dwarf into insignificance the most pretentious native buildings, is well exemplified in the approach to Canton, where the French cathedral church, erected on the site of the Viceroy Yeh'syamên, is the only object visible, and where the idea of a permanent memorial of defeat is well realised. It is not a conciliatory policy; irresistible force is required to maintain it.
[28]Seesupra,p. 308.
[29]Village Life in China. By Arthur Smith, D.D.
[30]An ingenious friend, who was kind enough to read this passage in MS., sent me the following suggestive note: "King Solomon was a thorough Chinaman, crafty, gaining the throne although the fourth and youngest son of his mother; killing off the kingdom-maker, Joab, and murdering the lawful heir, Adonijah. His fondness for pomp and joss pidjin, witness the Queen of Sheba and the Temple; love of trade, his ventures with King Hiram to Ophir. His apathy in military affairs, leading to the breaking up of the empire. His love of sententious maxims, Proverbs. His truly Chinese and non-Hebrew syncretism, worshipping Ashtoreth, Moloch, and Chemosh, as well as Jehovah. Now David, judging by the weak characters of his children, was, like many famous men in history, the reverse of prepotent. Solomon was a son of erewhile widow Bathsheba. Uriah being a Hittite, she was presumably one also. So Solomon would be practically a Hittite—i.e., Mongolian or Tartar; a striking example of the newly-named but long-observed phenomenon called telegony or 'throwing back.' Solomon 'threw back' to the first sire, Uriah."
[31]"The boasted influence that the Government of China possesses over its subjects is almost entirelymoral, and they really do not possess the power to cope with a popular tumult, which is the object of their greatest dread."—H. Parkes, at Foochow, May 1, 1846,æt.seventeen.
[32]The same who is now governor of Shantung.
[33]Seevol. i. p. 38.
[34]Mr Freeman-Mitford, in 'The Attaché at Peking,' recently published, tells the following good story illustrative of this (p. 168). M. de Mas, the Spanish Minister, happening to be at the house of Hêng-Chi, and knowing that he had a little son of whom he was inordinately proud, thought it would be a very pretty compliment if he asked to see the little boy, who was accordingly produced, sucking his thumb after the manner of his years. Him his father ordered to pay his respects to M. de Mas—that is to say, shake his united fists at him in token of salutation; instead of which the child, after long silence and much urging, taking his thumb deliberately out of his mouth roared out "Kwei-tzŭ" (devils) at the top of his voice and fled.
[35]Referring to the massacre of Armenian Christians, with regard to which Germany took up a very different attitude from that now assumed towards China—a circumstance, by the way, which serves to reduce the "Christian" factor in the present intervention to its proper value.
[36]Or, as M. Paul Boell expresses it,"Traitant la Chine tantôt comme un pouvoir tout à fait formidable, tantôt comme une puissance nègre de septième ordre."
[37]Kwanghsu, being first cousin to the deceased Emperor Tungchih, could not, according to Chinese usage, be his heir. In adopting him, therefore, as posthumous heir to the previous Emperor Hsienfêng, his uncle, the Regent left her own son, the Emperor Tungchih, without an heir, promising to supply the want from the future offspring of Kwanghsu, or by some other adoption; but against this procedure strong protests were made. The arrangement, however, conferred upon the Dowager-Empress, as the widow of Hsienfêng, the authority of a mother over his heir, a circumstance which to a large extent accounts for the filial deference the reigning emperor has always paid to his adoptive mother.
[38]Thirty years ago the great Nanking viceroy, Tsêng Kwo-fan, assured the Government in a memorial to the throne that if the question of treaty revision could not be satisfactorily arranged with foreigners, he had forces enough under his orders to drive them all into the sea.
[39]The question of removing the capital to a more convenient site has been discussed academically—by foreigners—for many years, their view being that Nanking would be the most suitable. No doubt a central point open to the sea would be more convenient for the maritime Powers, but that is evidently not an advantage which commends itself to the Chinese themselves. During the Japanese war their strategists urged the removal of the Court from Peking to Signan fu in Shensi, simply on the ground of the inaccessibility of the latter site. The transport was prepared and the Emperor was ready, but the Empress-Dowager vetoed the project.
[40]In 1863 the University of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L.
THE END.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.