I7th October.
CuassicaL students will remember with some pleasure the old stories of the giant of Libya, Anteus, son of Terra and Neptune, who wandered hither and thither inviting all and sundry to try a fall with him. Classical heroes sometimes lack interest, but from the first glimpse of Anteus, bent on head-hunting in order to provide skulls enough to build a temple to his father, to his collapse in the arms of Hercules, there is no dull line, The grim old wrestler met his match at last because in Hercules he had an opponent who knew the secret of his previous success. Contact with his mother Earth, it will be remembered, only gave the giant redoubled strength, and, to prevent him from getting this, Hercules lifted him into the air and there squeezed him to death. Sugh is the bare outline of the classical tale.
There are not wanting some amongst our contemporaries who are quick to grant Japan the quarrelsome qualities of the ancient wrestler, but with dhaticteristit inconsistence would deny the others. ' We' are told with unceasing iteration that Japan has only begun her predatory course, that having blooded Per ewerd against China ten ago she could not rest until she had tried a fall—Anteeus-like—with european Power, and that had not Russia been at hand some other would have been selected; that having successfully disposed of Russia (this, of course, being for argument's sake only), she will look about for other victims and may be expected in due course to drive the Americans out of Manila and the French from Annam. Where she will stop, if she stop at all, is not stated, but as the Australians are being pointedly advised to keep their weather eye open we may suppose that the South Pole only can: be the limit in that direction, after which schoolboys in repeating the boundaries of Japan will say as follows:—Bounded on the north by the Aurora Borealis, on the south by the Southern Cross, on the east by the Pacific slope, and on the west by the Bay of Biscay. This is the least that can be expected if present prophecy come true, To the isascnaols man, probably, the boundaries will sound a little far-fetched, but then reasonable men have already ranged themselves under the banner of common-sense and are merely amused at the vaticinations of the Russo-phils. little weight if they had but & per.
These might ponibly have some tice or two of consistency. But while with one breath we are being assured and doubly assured that it is the wrestling Anteus that the world has to fear in Japan and that—en necessitate rei—Russia will first succumb and then the rest, the next breath is devoted to the most cocksure crowing that Anteus has already met his Hercules! It is easy to see that there is some slight confusion of thought here; but as to that, we ne not feel too much surprise, Logical reasoning is nob the strong point of the Russophils, Either Jay isan Anteus or she is not. If yes, then what hope is there for Russia, seeing that Russo-phils themselves are planning for her conqueror further conquests? Farther, if the old classical analogy is to hold we shall see at the first Japanese reverse—yet to take place—such a re-invigoration as will astonish phils and: phobos alike. But this the charmingly child-like inconsistency of Russian apologists will not allow. Japan is Anteus-like in her desire to run amok amongst the nations, but she will not like him regain new strength from the downfall which they hope for her.
The fact of the matter is that those who desire the final triumph of the European over the Asiatic combatant, irrespective of all right or justice, ate reduced to so pitiful a plight-by the incessant excuses that have been ni to explain away the continued "ill-luck" of their friends, that it is useless to expect from them anything but the Saseecod. incoherence of a frightened 'The simple facts are so plain that none, not even the fool, need misunderstand them, Japan is fighting for her life, her future, her country, and her independence. She is not waging an aggressive war. Russia is the so' It-is she who has from under to plunder, from iniquity to iniquity, until the uttermost bounds of the Far East, including the realms of the most ancient of monarchies are threatened with absorption, the civilised by the uncivilized. Japan could do no less than she has done—stake -her existence upon the issue. Russia was fall of promises, but what are her promises worth? "We would glad make terms with Russia," remarket a Japanese statesman before the war began, "bat she will keep them only until such time as she can afford to disregard them, and that, of course, will be the moment whea we can no longer object efficaciously to her backslidings. We cannot trust Russia—her diplomatic bonds have fallen deeper than her paper money during the Crimean War."
All this is so true as to require no further proof. What then could Japan do but throw down the gauntlet to her inveterate foe? As to the rest, the world may feel assured that all that Japan wants is to be let alone to work out her own destiny. She deserves a voice, an equal voice with any, in the control of the future of ths Far East, That she should wish to safeguard the independence of China as against any aggression from the West is as natural as that France should resist German aggression on Belgium. Her own existence depends on it, If, then, such aggression should bring Japan into conflict with other Western Powers, that will be their fault not hers. They have no ground for farther aggression in China, for China, too, has entered upon the path of reform and requires time only to equal, perla] to surpass, her neighbour, If the European Powers would regret to see this they could not speak more plainly than some of their actions seem to do in connection with this present war. We for our own barb have more than once expressed the opinion that aggression against China except in self-defence is no lon; justifiable. We want to trade with China not to subjugate her, and we believe that so far from there being any desire on the part of Japan to resent this, she is heart and soul with those whose aim ib is, and would oppose those only whose desires are predatory rather than mercantile.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.