"It is not for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown For the Christian riles and the Aryan smiles, and he weareth the Christian down And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of the late deceased, "And the epitaph drear: 'A fool lies here, who tried to hustle the on It is highly entertaining and instructive to pick up old copies of Blackwood's or Fraser's and read articles that were written thirty or fifty years ago by men and women who were then considered eminent for wisdom and ability. Writers of today who sometimes gingerly venture to predict certain events, and who mostly miss, may take new courage at the sad failure of our fathers to foretell what would come to pass in our days, and, continue their prophecies in the full assurance that their foresight is better than that of the people of fifty years ago. We select a few passages from old books which were penned by able hands, long ago dust, and which relate to history, literature, and science. This is from Blackwood: "Of course we do not blame Mr. Lincoln for being President. But we venture to pity him. No man is more unfortunate than he who is in a conspicuous position for which he is manifestly unfit. What had this ill-starred man done to merit such a visitation as to be set at the head of an unruly nation that is going to pice in convulsions? His antecedents are respectable though not illustrious. He is said to have exhibited considerable dexterity and muscular power in the splitting of rails, In his public compositions he is distinguished chiefly for a disregard of grammar and an infatuated fondness for metaphor. - A man may be unskilled in composition or even an indifferent lawyer without meriting such a fate as that which we deplore in Mr. Lincoln." The gentleman here alluded to as "having an infatuated fondness for metaphor, ete.," is Abraham Lincoln, and the "unruly nation that is going to pieces in convulsions" recovered in a remarkable way after the fall of Richmond. In the war with America, which was sure to follow according to certain Evglish prophets, a writer prepares & long elaborate article on the "Defence of Canada," and shows Generul Braddock's plan of campaign; how he failed and England can really carry out his method. "There are two modes of carrying on war with America," he says, "one aggressive, the other defensive." How funny it all seems! Just forty years ago a " Remoustrance with Dickens" was published, and some suggestions offered. The writer closes with these words: "But if you do not take our advice, and mean to go on building streets of Bleak Houses, and creating crowds of Little Dorrits, then we recommend you to inscribe on your next serial, 'A Banter on the British Public. By Charles Dickens. In twenty Parts?"
"The predictions anent the railway and George Stephenson are almost a8 ludierous es'certain statements made by the Chinese in reference to the navigation of the Upper Yangtze. "It was declared that the formation of the railway would prevent cows grazing and heus laying. the poisoned air from the locomotives would kill birds us they flew over them and render the preservation of pheasants and foxes no longer possible... There would no longer be any use for horses and if railways extended, the species would become extinguished and oats and hay unsaleable commodities." Mr. William Brougham, who conducted the case of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway" before the Parliamentary Committee, told Stephenson frankly that, "if he did not moderate his views and bring his engine within a reasonable speed (less than 12 miles an hour) he would inevitably damu® the whole thing, and be himself regarded as a maniac fit for Bedlam.'
The sanguine prophecies in regard to China two score years back are startlingly like some present-day predictions. In 1868 a sanguine writer says in re the Inspector-General Lay and his flotilla As the funds arrived from China the vessels and stores were purchased. The Admiralty afforded the same facilities from our arsenals as would have been conceded to any other friendly Power. From the superabundant ships in our navy the Emperor of China was allowed to purchase the Mohavwk, Africa, and Jasper, and they were re-named respectively the Peking, China, and Amoy.... A code of laws for the good order and comfort of all, based upon the customs of a European navy, has been compiled, so that Prince Kung's seal may render it the future naval law of Chiva. The scale of pay, rations, prize money, and pensions for wounds has been carefully considered to meet the requirements of the special service. A signal book has been adopted for intercommunication; and strange as it may sound, even an ensign—green ground intersected by tyro yellow diagonal bands and bearing the Imperial crest—-had to be improvised," etc. And it makes us smile at the aptness of Rudyard Kipling's lines at the head of this Brewing to read as we ponder over the history of the Lay-Osborn Fleet, of Captain Philo McSomebody, and of Admiral Ting, and wooden cannon: "England for years has spent wealth, energy, and precious lives in opening China to Western influence and civilisation. To-day (1863) her success is certain. The Government and people of China both ask us to aid them in their hour of trouble, and in return they will assuredly grant us that access and commercial freedom for which we have *So, again, consider what effect has been produced on the English vulgar mind by the Ese of the sonorous Latia form '*damuo," in translating the Greek Xapaypirw when people charitably wish to make 1t forcible; Ena the substitution of the temperate *'con-emo for it, when they choate to keep it gentle—Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies. long laboured aad so often fought. 'The portals of ignorance and heathenism are opening. Shall we who are in the vanguard of nations, hesitate? No—assuredly not! Our motto must ever be, 'Forward,' and will not all enlightened. Christendom join us in wishing 'God speed' to those about to put forth in this fresh enterprise to the land of Cathay?" The chimera has vanished, and the knives and forks, with the pianos which were to be furnished the Chinese soon-to be civilised, have found a market in more beefy and tuneful shores, while China still clings fondly to the chopsticks and gong. Foreign countries have extracted from China exactly so much as was squeezed out under military pressure, and no more. China has been kicked along the path of progress, and the small advance she has made has been of necessity not choice, like that of an unwilling and obstinate pig on the highway. Some pessimist would even say that the best way to get her along would be to apply the native method of dealing with re-tractory animals of this sort, that is to dump ber on a wheelbarrow and cart her off.
Tt has been said that a person on coming to China should not be "too beastly sympathetic and sanguine." Practical as this suggestion may seem, the average European is so constituted that he cannot adopt it unless an unmerciful and remorseless experience has lashed its truth into him, For ours is a sanguine temperament, and glorious visions of Grand Trunk Lines, railway networks, extensive milling operations at the various cities, and vast industries everywhere, periodically dawn upon our minds only to be dashed out by the broad wings of fact. Numerous ad astra effusions as to the possibilities and probabilities of the Empire have been penned for foreign periodicals, all to be belied by inflexible truth befure the copy wag put into cold type.
pplying these observations to the present time, we fail to generate much enthusiasm in the so-called Renaissance which some enthusiasts imagine has come in China. We believe that this really great people can no more be converted by the multiplication table ov hic, haec, hoc, than they can by Confuciauism. Every respectable country on the earth is composed of malleable material and has been hammered into shape from without or within. All decent nations represent in so far the sum total of sensible, healthy thought. Chinaware is brittle and the application or impact of our practical sledge hammer ideas will smash it to atoms. Or to change the figure. The old China wine skin is dry and the fermenting, highly active spirits of the West commot be poured in without catastrophe. It is useless to attempt to make us believe that this old Confucian body politic can be patched up and made to do service in these times, Mr. Lay, of Inspector-General fame, probabi ly found out that the noted flotilla was constructed of foreign material above the water line: The bottom was Confucian. So with other naval and sundry attempts, until it has really' become painful to see how the Chinese persist in lugging that old fossil into every new
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.