We shall not greatly err if we say that the views of the foreign residents in Shanghai with regard to the Settlement have undergone three marked changes. Since the port was first opened, whic Wingrove Cooke declared John Ball and his children would find of very much more importance than they thought for, three classes of men have dwelt in the place and three distinct ideals have presented themselves in succession to their minds.
I—There is no doubt that the early wellers in Shanghai saw before them a vision of a city akin to that which rises on the banks of the Hooghly. They fancied, and they were not to be blamed for fancying, that they should seo a Settlement of substantial splendour gradually extending itself over the grave dotted swamp, and that in the fulness of time Shanghai would be the Calcutta of China, The men who appeared on the scene of action first were many of them old servants of the East {ndia Company, and they had the traditions of that Company colouring their views and moulding their action. Is is easy now to speak of these men as ambitions, high-banded, and extravagent. Bat they had very good "stuff" in them. They had inherited a profound respect for the policy which had given India to Great Britain, and they were perhaps somewhat inclined to act as if Shanghai actually stood on British soil. Yet their energy and liberality undoubtedly raised the character of a China merchant very high, and impressed the natives with respect for those important elements of success—strength and will. The "defiance of expense" which seems " blot on the character of the early settlers, to @ timid generation steering @ difficult course in very shallow commercial water, was part and parcel of the Nabob tradition, yet it really did good, as it left a plain, well-defined mark of British energy stamped on the coast of China. The solid houses and large buildings of the generally ample scale on which the foundations of permanent residence were laid, have been usefal in many ways, for it is always a mistake to sob about a great work meanly. The first settlers did wisely in our judgment when they.chose as their ideal—Calcutta.
TL—The second generation comprised men of a different stamp, and with ambitions moving in a very dif ferent world. When Shanghai entered upon the next era of its existence, its foreign population comprised men of a great variety of nations, and each member of the cosmopolitan band brought some peculiar social custom or theory to the common stock, just as each guest brings his peculiar contribution to a pic-nic. The result was healthy in some ways and unhealthy in others, There was o frank interchange of ideas and a'broadening of men's views perceptible, but there was a growing Ticonse and a coarser tone. Unlackily, the prominent men at this transition period in our social history were characterless or lax. The ideal city of many residents at the time now referred to, was not Calcutta, but San Francisco; and there was very great danger of our copying some of the least commendable features of Californian life.
THL.—Tho danger. of this seems almost over, though we must not speak too confidently on the subject, as it is proverbially unwise to congratulate oneself too early on being "out of the wood," and the Settlement has reached its new phase. The natural result of the abandonment of the junior mess system and the growth of the suburbs, has been that the great hongs of an older day are utilizing all the paco available for building, and the Chinese are crowding the foreigner out. The aspect of the Settlement will, in a few years, be changed, and we shall have not an Anglo-Indian, or an American "Jocation," but a city-community largely occupied by the Chinese. Asia will once more assert herself, and in this microcosm, as in the great outside world, will have an emphatic say in the matter. Of course it is impossible to avoid ace quiescing in the inevitable. But we have reached a time when the greatest
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.