'A coREsPONDENT writes in serio-comic vain, regretting the comparison drawn in our leading article on Thursday, between the reigning family in England and the Tartar dynasty; and which will, he declares, "if translated into Chinese, knock on the head all the best reasons for the study of political economy and international law, which are supposed to have kept our country in peace and our dynasty on the throne, during such a lengthened period:" For, however much it may suit historians to distinguish between Plantagenets and Stuarts, "yet, according to Chinese ideas, secing that all our sovereigns were lineally descended from the Conqueror, our present dynasty commenced, atony rate, upwards of eight centuries ago, even if the connexion may ied back amongst the Saxon sovereigns." We are not carefal to answer our correspondent's criticism, ae we do not imagine the Chinese perception of English history is so refined, or their studies of political economy are go delicately inspired, that they are likely to be knocked off their balance by the publication of an article which is very little likely to attract their notice. We were writing for the benefit of Sir Charles Dilke and foreign reiders; and fow will deny that, whatever amount of Royal English blood George I. may have derived through his mother, he was as little really of an Englishman as the first Manchu conqueror of China was Chinese.
Still, there is one grain of wheat under all this chaff. It is well known that all political articles published in the Shanghai papers are now translated into Chinese for the benefit of the officials and the Government, and the fact is an embarrassing one in some respects, Occasionally much good may be done by an outspoken statement or criticism. At another time, comments which would be perfectly apprehended by @ foreign reader might be harmfally Hero and & C. & C. Gasette.
601 misunderstood by a Chinese ignorant of the train of thought which they would suggest in a foreign mind, and of a host of collateral circumstances which materially affect their value. During the. course of the recent negotiations, for instance, a correspondent wrote us from a riverine port:—"I am afraid that your publication of the China debate will not much aid Sir Thomas in coming to settlement with the Chinese. It is sure to embolden the Chinese who know not who Mr.
Richard is, and what influence he wields over English policy. A man. darin, soon after the debate appeared in your paper, told me that there was to be no war, because the English Wang disapproved of the action of her officers in China, and had said she would not permit it; and I have no doubt but this notion originated in a misconception of the aforesaid opium debate." The idea may or may not be correct, but it at least serves to illustrate the position; and it derives probability from the well known admiration of the Chinese for the general tone of the Pall Mall Gazette, which is prone to descant on Chinese topies in the vein rather of Sir Charles Dilke's effusion in Macmillan, than in the sensible view it takes of politics when the question arises nearer home. There can be no doubt that the occasional references made in the Shanghai papers to the progress of the Woosung Railway had much to do in quickening the permission to land the material duty free, was probably the immediate cause of the first official remonstrance, However Feng, as an man, might feel towards there is reason to believe that be personally hostile torailways—as Taotai, be could not overlook a matter thus brought officially before him; and the very innocence of the application would probably be the best answer to Sir Charles Dilke's accusations of surreptitious dealing. The confidence which dictated it mast have been marvellously great, in the good dispositions of the man to whom it was addressed.
To return, however, to the matter of newspapers, we might name many cases in which material good or harm has been dono by opportune or mop portane publicity, if it were worth while extending the catalogue. It has been eaid, even, that the early accounts published of the Yunnan outrage led touch subsequent trouble, by suggesting to the Chinese a convenient tale to which they committed themselves. But we have said enough to illustrate the grain of corn which we said at the outset was contained in our present correspondent's chaff. It is obviously im. possible to be perpetually keeping silence, or to expand every sentence in order that it may not be misunderstood by the officials; but there is no doubt that, owing to the ignorance of the Chinese and to other causes, misconception does arise through what is published in foreign newspapers, and it will not be till they are far more intimately acquainted than they are at present with foreign politics and modes of thought, that the inconvenience will cease.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.