between China and J interes-#¥ in the welf of the Chinese cob to the pos-ibility that it might break up into separate fragments which should severally come within the sphere of influence' of some Western Power, in other words that China would at_no distant day be divided among the nations of the earth. Innemerable_wewspaper have been indited with this as es and Reviews its sole ant rep en te po month t ear, all the' po of the world, ay well as in all the dabs and a sot cvilisal mani leads people eutert hin the range of eh: acknowledged on as there is often distinctly pere jon that ta this complexion must at last. Mall the trent w and easy chutter upon this fertile theme during more than five eventful yews, we do not remember to have come upon sv much as one sober discussion of the matter from ths poing of view of ins ae ili such an examination of tivid as civil engineers make when a railway is to be run i ntry of, let us ths Inese soil nf Shansi, where mail ways an expertment, and where obstacles never before met on 4 large scale will Trunt one at every ste OF the government of o: mice, of one nation by another nation, the world knows good deal, and has in fect Inge stock of funded experience. Of the special features of Occidental government of Chinese on Chinese soil Chinese environment the world knows nothing at all, and there is reason to few that che experiment once beno would be found to be fall of surprises. Let us name afew particulars of the many which occur upon thoughtful reflection on so fruitful a topic.
We must bosr in mind at the outset the enormous number of human beings with whom we shall have to deal. There has been a chronic dispute as to the population of China, and the disagreement has listed so long that the Chiness h porce for more than a sstera time to add to their previous aggregates more millions thin most countries in Europe can boast as a total. To remind ourselves that China as a whole is not unlike Europe as a whole, Russia omitted, is a commonplace, but a useful intellectual exercise, for it suggests forcibly the scale on which difficulties will maes themselves when ange they begin to appear at all. Fresh experience often puts a new face upon what apyenred indisputable, How often have we all heard the remark that it would be easy to march, say ten thousand British (or French, or German) soldiers through China from end to end, without encountering serious opposition, or movting serious loss, even if there were to be any opposition or any lose at all.
Since Pri the experience of last June, however, we are obliged to modify the proposition materinlly, and in its amended form it comes simply to this: If the Chinese would let foreign army go through the Empire from end to end, the army would go through it, but if uot—why, then, itis net certain what would happen. If there is any one art which the Chinese have cultivated to the point of practical perfection it is that of passive resistance. The variety of ways in Jax. 16, L901. which this would inevitably be exert ease of a foreign dominaiva would bs ever fresh revelation to the unlpp; ministrator who encountered the adverse inflaence, perhaps without recognising what it was or whence it We have shes wader the heals ce x a that ones the sand-hox was exhausted it was impossible to make a single revolution. Ir was trying to the poor locus's no doubt, but then there ate always just as many more no raatter how larg: the number destroyed. Regarded as a swam of locusts, the Chinese race has vague and undeveloped possibilities in the lire of stopping Western progress, as has already been illustrated upon a small veale, and nay be heveaiter csidined upon a much large Even a gentle long range, and in the ait of raising gentle breezes which blew from nowhere in particular, bur which spoil the of th ant Weste ws as born naw a delightful variations of thei previous ver net ae wapdishments, whens found the on. already in use begining to diminish in efficiency. Of all thus thos rearers who are experts in Chinese will require no illustration, for others the examples which we inigat cite would, owing to their lick of practi-cul experience, fail to carry eonvieiion, Without pausing upon this tempting heat of the subjeer, we proceed mention the well-known bub important fact of tie unr of the mass to be wrought upon in the. government of the Ciness. At first sight this das ty be a distinct one Fis yet a certain amount of Cainese material assimilated in a governmental and that will leven and assimilate the rest, It is a venerable catelt to ask children' why a Dox wags his Tail, and when they give it up, they are robi that it is because the Tail cannot wag the Dog. In China it is wu ancient maxim that: "One cmuot twist the many, a hundred will not follow the one." It is not the problem of mere numbers which iv to be encountered, it is numbers run in the same intellectual and loral mould, with the same historic bickyround, the sime presuppositions, and the same instinctive judgments, Ili China what ig called "Li" or Reason is a species of divinity "He that has this Li earn overthrow his adversary" (Vu Li Chians Tao Jon), and he that has Li can go all over creation, but ho who has it not cannot stir an inch." Bat when we come to the bottom foundation, the original bed-rock on which this Li rests, it frequently turns out t" be nothing more than imme rial custom. "Under the whole heavens there is no such Li as this," means when explicated, "Tgnovor hear of such n thing, and neither did anyone" with the sup: pressed (but definite) conclusion that we never wish to hear of it. Contrast all this, for example, with India, that museum of races anu peoples where there is no such predicate as uniformity, and the task of governing India and that of ruling Chins are at once perceived to lie in altogether different planes of experience. If a numerous and compact body of Chinese should be found imagnated with the idea that there is no "Li" ina certain form of taxation, it is not improbable that British officials would decide in the and that this was upon the whole an unprofitable tax to levy. And in this connection let us not forget that the ideals of the Chinese are fixed with a fixity to which we have almost no parallel, unless it be the firm persuasion that two and two make four. To make Chinese think otherwise than they always have thought is like the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.