Tr has been obvious to everyone who thinks seriously on the matter that the United States, though they might not give us active assistance, must heartily sympathise with us in our efforts to prevent any material part of China's territory being seized by a European Power and closed by preferential' tariffs or otherwise to the trade of the world. The American press and some American politicians amuse themselves from time to time by twisting the Lion's tail, and the excitement is kept up by articles in magazines with such titles as " Why do Americans hate the- English?" Why do the English fail to appreciate the Americans?" etc. etc. Nevertheless, the feeling that prompted Commodore Tatnall's "Blood is thicker than water" at the Peiho in 1859 is still strong in the United States, and there is an underlying conviction that if the old country got into a really tight place and wanted help, she would not look in vain for it across the Atlantic, Americans who have read and travelled are always ready to ackuowledge the good work that England has done and is doing in the world, and the American traveller goes back home conscious that wherever he has been under the English flag he has been made to feel himself at home. It was instructive to note, at the time of the German Emperor's telegram to Kriiger, how there ran through the American Press, which was stirred up at the time about Venezuela, the sentiment:. "We may have to lick the old country ourselves, but we're not going to let anyone else do it." Those whose memories carry them back to thei: Crimean war will recollect that notwithstanding the sentimental leaning towards Russia which has always existed in the States, the American public was as excited over the fall of Sebastopol as the British public itself.
It is, therefore, very interesting to see the view taken by three representative' New York journals of British policy in China, and the sympathy that should be felt with it by Americans. Harper's Weekly of the 18th ult. says in reference to the German occupation of Kiaochou Bay "Whether or not Russia is hostile to the attempt is doubtful, but. it may be taken for granted that if neither Russia nor France objects to the final seizure by the Germans of Kiaochou Bay, the attempt is another move in the game of the Continent of Europe to make Great Britain feel her isolation—a game in which France, if her Foreign Minister were as wise as he is clever, would not enlist. If European Powers are to contend for Chinese territory, perhaps for the Chinese Empire, the sympathy of all who'love free government and justice will be with England, for she alone of all Europe is fit to rule over foreign people." The New York Nation writes la-almost precisely the same strain on the 16th of December:—"Germany has grown tired of watching and waiting upon the successful aggressions of others of the Powers in the unfortunate Middle Kingdom, and seeks to forestall whatever comprehensive grab of its territory Russia, England, France, and the uew Japan may possibly have in contemplation. Aside from any question of sentiment, the business' sympathy of Americans should be with the English in these gathering complications in the Far East, The English alone of the various nationalities concerned throw openanyacquired territory to the free commerce of the world, while the Germats, Russians, and French take with them everywhere the odious barrier of a purposely exclusive tariff." The New York Times'of the 27th ult. has a leading article headed. "The British Lion's Share," so much to the point that we make no apology for quoting it in fall "We do not like Lord Salisbury's timid and inactive policy in the East, It is not by such complacency that English history has been made, It is not as a looker-on in those times of change that remake the map of the world that she has come to be the powerful mother nation of grout colonies.
"Why does she now stand a passive spectator of German and Russian forays in China, she whose eager leadership in the conquests of civilisation has carried Evglish laws and English commerce to all parts of the earth? She has spread the gospel of industrial institutions in many savage lands, and showed that she had a wonderful fitness for the work, she lets the unfit nations supplant her the world will be the worse for it, "We in the United States shall be the worse. Our interest iv the cutting of China is that the British lion shall get his share. As a matter of strict national morality, we must hold, of course, that China ought to be allowed to pursue her dull, hopeless career and enjoy her mummy civilisation unmolested. But it she is to be divided up by nations more progressive, as. some time she doubtless will be, we shall be better off if England gets a good part of the imperial estate, "Our geographical position and jour national policy, shaped at the outset, by the wisdom of Washington, forbid us to take part in the ceremony of dismemberment.- The development of our own domain and our own resources still affords scope enough for our national energies. We need'no more territory. We do need more markets, Within the next quarter of a'century we must have more markets, or suffer a terrible check to our growth and prosperity. Bugland, the greatest trading nation, is our best customer, 'I'o her and.her colonies we. send more than one-half of our exports of merchandise. - She is a wise and open-minded trader. Her commercial policy invites the whole world to compete for her custom. - Our sales to her have hitherto been chiefly the products,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.