Usri we have further particulars of the murder of Mr. Margary, it would be premature to saddle the Chinese Government with the immediate res. ponsibility of that act,—an act which, executed in cold blood and without the excuse of political complications, really excels in brutality the murder of Schlagenweit by Wallee Khan, at Kashgar. But even if the Government can clear itself of par. ticipation in the outrage, it is not in a position to deny that its own misconduct is really at the bottom of the motives that have led toa crime with which even the rudest and most barbarous of nations would blush to have their name connected. If it had not been for Chinese conceit, backed up by. Chinese exclusiveness, no such condition of affairs as we seo to-day would be in existence on its Western frontier. The Chinese Government has affected to hold itself out to its neigh. hours, as the one civilised Power to be respected and obeyed. Instead of using the opportunity thus granted it, to some useful purpose, it has, to gain its own ends, turned it into a means of spread. ing a policy of isolation. It did not seek to civilised the natives of Central }Asia with whom it came in contact; it did not endeavour to restrain their internal. disputes and to encourage the arts of peace and industry. This, ils position gave it the means todo. It did, however, assiduously cultivate one art—that of dissimulation and exclusive. ness. Jealous, itself, of every nation which exhibited the living power of a civilisation gradually dying out in its own body politic, it used its influence to still further incite the naturally rude and jealous tribes of its Western frontiers, to an ignorant and almost inhuman exclusiveness, There was a time when, to the tribes of Asia, overrun with Turkish hordes, China, with reason, appeared the one bright spot on the political horizon, Europe itself was trembling in the balance of fate, and could hold out no helping hand; and the peoples of Central Asia naturally turned to China. In some measure, China did answer to the call; but, even at the time of the Mobammedan inroads into Central Asia, the innate selfishness of her rulers was too strong to induce her to take really active steps to turn aside that conquest, under which the greater part of the continent has since almost relapsed to bar-bacism. At intervals, Chinese influence was again revived in Central Asia, but only to result in the inculcation of the very worst features of Chinese polity nations whose own dark and suspicious natures rendered them peculiarly
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.