11th Nov. Penuaps it is because familiarity breeds contempt, but whatever the reason, it is certain that there is much less fear among foreigners of the Chinese in China' than anywhere else. Perhaps we do not appreciate their strength sufficiently, but at any rate we do not stand in the awe of them that writers in America and Australia and England seem to do. We discussed the other day Lord Wolseley's remarkable prognosfications, the result of which was to make us hope that this is the only direction in which our only general's brain is so badly warped, and that it is sound in more important directions. A writer in an Australian paper, claiming to be a half-Chinese, predicted the peaceful conquest of the world by the Chinese, because they had no prejudices about marriage with the women of other races. This, however, would not be a conquest by the Chinese at all, for the offspring of these mixed marriages soon lose the distinctively Chinese traits, and assimilate themselves effectually to the inhabitants of the country in which they live. The country that seems to be west afraid, and to us most unreasonably afraid, of the Chinese, is the United States. The population of the United States is rapidly approaching a hundred uuillions, and it shows no signs of exhaustion or want of energy, but the sprinkling of Chinese already on its shores fils it with an. apprehension entirely unworthy an " Anglo-Saxon stock, We are directed to an article that appeared recently in the Forum by the fact that it contains the evidence of a hard-headed Shanghai resident, Mr. C. P, Blethen, who must, however, have been playing with his hearer, or he is considerably misrepresented. The article is on "The Activity of the Chinese," and the writer begins by asserting that "but for the: civilised powers, China would at once seize the Sandwich and Philippine Islands by conquest." This seems a somewhat wild statement to us who have seen China losing territory on all sides in the last fifty years; in the north to Russia, in the east to Japan, and in the south to France. We at any rate are convinced that China will not acquire any territory beyond sens by military conquest, but Mr. Magee, the author of the article, asserts that she is capturing these islands in an industrial way. "'The Chinese are a poner as agriculturists, shopkeepers, and financiers before which the soft and easy-going natives of those islands must give way." The writer does not seem to see how his assertion of an industrial conquest by the Chinese conflicts with another complaint constantly made against the Chinese, that they never stay to enrich the countries where they labour, but pack up and go howe'with their earnings directly they have acquired what they consider suficient. This is the common complaint in Australia and California, those who make it ignoring the fact that the Chinese leave their labour behind them, and that the work they have done in opening up the country is far more valuable than the few dollars each man takes away with him.
Mr. Magee, however, soon leaves the topic of the industrial conquest by the Chinese of the islands round China, for the topic which is of so much more interest to American exclusionists, the unfair competition of the Chinese with the white labourer. "If picked white workmen labour twelve hours a day, the Chinese labourer and mechanic will, if necessary, learn from them, and overtake them by working twenty hours, and that on incomparably poorer food, housing, and clothing." The China man, it is said, can do with less fresh air and sunshine than any other human being, and can bear patiently being cramped up all day in the most uncomfortable i "T have seen a Chinaman, while waiting at a railway station, lift himself upon an empty, headless, sharp-edged barrel, sit down upon the edge, and with his feet as a brace across the barrel, fall asleep The Chinaman's ability—to bear hunger and exposure to temperature in thin clothing has been frequently noted and described by tra-yellers."—We who know how Chinamen dress in cold weather know very well that it is only compulsion which can make them face low temperature in thin clothing—"He can endure long fasting, the account being subsequently more than balanced by an overfeeding which one would think only an Eskimo or an anaconda could withstand."
We presume Mr. Magee has good evidence for this; and we hope it is more accurate than what follows, which we quote in full Captain Blethen, who died in San Francisco recently, lived in China for twenty-two years previous to 1880. He kept @ large ship-chandlery ature at Shanghai, and owned a dry dock there, but sold his business because he was being forced out by Chinese competition. Said he to The trouble with you here in California is that you do not appreciate the staying powers of the Chinese. When a Chinese labourer comes here, he may, with his best efforts, save only a few dollars the first year; but, let him Save little or much, he dues and will save, and he will work in and out of season. Here is a letter I received by the last steamer from China. It is from the Chinese house that bought me out. It contains an order fur some American goods in the ship-chandlery line. This letter is in the best of Eng te was written by young Chinaman, who manages the firm's business. I gave the man who filled a similar position for me $3,000 a year. This young Chinaman gets but 810 a month, his rice, and a place to sleep in. The hands in the store get no wages; only rice, and a bunk. How could I live against such competition I had either to remain in business there, and thereby lose all I had made, or to sell out at price and leave. This process is going on at all the ports in China. White men employed and taught the Chinese, and the Chinese drove them out. We could no more compete with them than we could overcome death and fate.'"
It will be news to. Mu, Mag to white men and is still Hourishing, _nor do Captain Blethen's successors complain that they find it impossible to ive against Chinese competition: In "fact this evidence attributed' t6- Mr. Blethen is somewhat on a par withthe statement made later on by" Mr: Magee {that "China is not yet a large thanufacturer, but the signs in that direction are so promising that Prince Kwig" Was lately reported to have said that' fifty years hence China would manufictire for the world." Prince Kung probably does not even know what a manufactory lis. If the Wolseleys and the Mayees and the other people who are' so ready to tell the West in the ma-gaziness what China is doing and will do, would come here and see for themselves, it would be a very good thi They would be very much disillusioned, and half their fine periods or more would have to be docked, but at the same time they would be much comforted, as they would find that it is not in fifty or even a hundred years that China is going to conquer the world, either militarily or industrially. As long as her system of government remains what it is, she will be fortunate if she retains what she has got; nor can we see at present where the material is to be found from which a new and better government could be constructed, if the empire were to show any general desire for a change.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.