To the Editor of the Sm,—I wish to reply to the letter of X. ¥."Z.—not to the abuse of "One of them "—and Lask the former writer to give a fair and unbiassed consideration to the following points, which my foreign friend advises me to state as briefly as possible.
1.—In any alteration of the Treaty-stipulations in question, the Catholic and the Protestant Missions will, presumably, have to be considered together as Christian Missions and the same provisions made for both;—we cannot separate them in the present discussion.
2.—The writer has paid no attention to the proposal of a separate arrangement for the open ports and that of a trial of one or two years, as a means of proving the feasibility' of the scheme, and, more especially, of testing the disposition of our Government.
3.—That such a trial will prove the willingness of our Government to give honest toleration to the Missions is asserted on the ground that the withdrawal of the special foreign protection will relieve Chinese statesmen of all apprehensions coneining them:—they are convinced that western religion, unaided by foreign power, will never gain a hold over our nation, and they, our statesmen, have through the experience of the last' thirty years, abandoned most of those groundless auspicious (e, g. the practising of magical arts) that my opponent refers to, J remind him, in proof of this, of the well-known utterance of Tsengkuofan, viz., it matters not to have this one religion more in the empire.
'4.—I had said that the hostility to the Missions would disappear if the suspicion of their having political objects were cleared away, if the pressure brought to bear on our Government in their favour were discontinued, and if the preachers themselves protested against the empl ment of any wordly means—the protection of the. powers being such—and were content to fight solely with spiritual weapons. I should have wished the writer to notice the tivo last points as he has done the first.
5.—The Merchants want protection for themselves and their trade, mostly only in the open ports, and this but occasionally causes irritation; the foreign preachers often get protection for their converts, Chi-hose subjects, in the interior, the Treaties providing for this, They are naturally partial to their adherents, who are often not well-behaved and deserving men, bui deceive their teachers, and bring discredit on.the name of these latter. The protection of such men by foreigners, uccompanied frequently by great pretensions, for instance of catholic bishops in their dealings with the authorities, causes great bitterness and hatred in our officials and our people, This is the essential difference Vetween the protection of merchants and that of missionaries.
6.—You say, you want the Chinese Government to' protect. you, not foreign countries, Is not what you ask, that foreign countries see that China protect you—aud does not that amount to foreign protection?
7.—Groundless suspicions against you Missionaries I am willing to combat, but remember that many real grounds of suspicion and dislike remain. You come from afar to preach us your religion—you evidently think ours insufficient and inferior; you work to make us abandon what we most love and revere! We can listen to your exhortations to be good—may I ask why the Treaties only speak of this but we cannot to your admonitions to for-our belief and our rites for the, to strange and incomprehensible doctrines you teach. To realize our feelings in thi think of our going to your country to di seminate our teachings 8.—You say that, for any alterations of the existing arrangements, the first overtures must be made from the Chinese side. Why %—Dia not you, by coming tom country, create the present difficulties? Is it not,' then, your duty to arrange for avoiding them in future? Will this not be a very good and virtuous action? And is it not your interest to make our educated classes better disposed towards you?
In conclusion: I write for the sake of my country and, more especially, the preservation of its friendly relations with foreign countries, looking at these as a means of maintaining China's greatness. Tam anxious to avert the dangers which threaten these friendly relations, from the Missions, do not wish to offend the foreign preachers, I am told there are many educated, good and sincere men amongst them. T pray them to consider dispassionately and honestly if they cannot contribute to remove the suspicions and the dislike of the mass of my countrymen, in the way indicated.
Lask other Foreigners to come forward and help me in effecting my good object. T thank the foreign newspaper for allowing me to address its readers and advocate these views.
18th May, 1874.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.