As Chinese mandarins along with their Emperor are directly responsible for Chinese affairs, so there are accredited agents of Foreign Powers, who are responsible for foreign affairs, and so indirectly for Chinese affairs in 20 far as bearing -on foreign interests, security and reputation. If the question of the anti-foreign disturbances is to be impartially analysed, then foreign diplomats and consuls ex officio have a re, and that, too, as we shall see, an ibortant one. "As peace and benefits have more largely prevailed than riots and injury, so the assistance, kindness and worth of these honourable agents are to be viewed as greater than any kind of blame and implication. With this as a premise we proceed to express our ideas, not from our "internal consciousness," but' from the induction of obvious facts and the testimony of competent witnesses.
(1). The first point we wish to note is the failure of these foreign official representatives to' exert themselves to the nimest in many cases in preventing disturbances or in rendering such assistance as rconld tend to promote a friendly fecting. As we have cited the opinion by a Foreign Minister on the Tsungli Yamen, we now quote an opinion by the Tsungli Yamen, in their Missionary Circular of 1874 after the Tientsin Massacre. The words are as follows: "If on the one side these conese and Western ing the want of harmony between copie and Christianity, show no good-will in seeking for the means of remedying the evil." Then further on it presents this warning already fulfilled: "If the high functionaries of China and the West remain unmoved spectators of the situation which threatens the greatest danger to the Chinese people as welles to strangers, traders and individuals, and make no effort to find a solution which may effectually remedy the: evil, it will follow that it will be out of their power to deal in a satisfactory manner' with the matters which interest the public."
athing wax done on this representation, unusually. important and sensible, but all the troubles of foreign missionaries were eft to drift as in the years before, For each riot from which missionaries have suffered, the Foreign Ministers have taken te notion or illustrated a masterly inactivity, without any regard to the general need of reaching a better understanding or effecting " plan which would take in its scope the whole Empire.
Too often these delegated functionaries ed the position that missionaries lit in the interior, entirely ign ing what the Tsungli Yamen has again and again openly stated, that missionaries could purchase property in the name of the local church. When Admiral Richards, speaking of course only for Englishmen, lays down the dictum that missionaries "should be made to understand that they establish themselves in these place at their own risks, and that her Majesty's ships cannot be detained from their proper duties to remain at _non-treaty ports for their protection"; then we, who form a part-of the missionary body, and delegated thereto by respectable men in, the West have a right to reply, that we have never asked for gunboats to scale mountains, cross sand-storms, or go anywhere else outside their proper sphere, but merely that in some way, whether by the force of diplomacy, sentiment, or even bows, arrows and guns, our lives shall be legally protected, and that if Christian evangelization and benevolent institutions, when carried on with a prudent and magnanimous spirit are commendable undertakings, then we shall be.generously selected and supported,—but pray you, not pitied—as a credit to all our countries and the religion which they and we alike profess. Whenever missionaries
exert themselves to promote a friendly not only in actu reside in the interior, but feeling and have a promise of success, then {the help of one's own government and thereby the appreciation of the Chinese authorities are accordant with good sense and the social weal. It is not the forcing of things unpleasant and difficult, but a mere help to ways of friendliness and peace.
But the question of riots against foreigners is not limited to the interior or to missionaries. The treaty-ports have had their share, and the expense has been by no means a slight one. Tf peace and frien 8 lines could be assured there, the interior would have little to fear. The Consuls are at hand, and no excuse can well be made. And yet during different years we find riots taking place at Tientsin, Canton, Chinkiang, Hankow and finally at Wuhu and Ichang, all of which might possibly have been pre-missionaries should never ask for) had been vented, if gunboats (those things which
at hand to preserve order and check the Jawless. If the flame in 1891 had not been lit at Wuhu, or any other of the treaty-ports, there isa ropability that the serious experiences of 1891 could never have taken place. With remissness at the outset and new dangers appearing, there is reason for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.