CHINA, Tr is with no little satisfaction that we learn of a movement. on foot to check the vandalism that has made its appearance in China of recent years, Daring the upheaval caused by the Boxer outbreak it was inevitable that pillage and destruction should run riot for a time, for normal distinctions between mem and trium to become numbed amid the lust of fighting; but the unfortunate episodes of those days can form no precedent for subsequent visitors to this country. No doubt the work of destraction begun in 1900 has encouraged the minor depredations of latter-day vandals, for the morals of a certain type of curio-hunter cannot he expected to he proof against the filching of a glow or an ear from a statue that has already lost a leg or a tail. The offence argues often thoughtlessness rather than viciousness, an} for this reason will, in most cases, be amenable to an appeal to the better sense of the perpetrator. Inasmuch as the evil hus to be laid exclusively to the door of the foreigner, is right that steps to check it should be initiated by foreign enterprise. The present movement, as we understand it, contemplates nothing more than the formation of Society that would attain sufficient influence to arrest the tendency of travellers towards thoughtless mutilation of China's monuments, and to promote a public sense of responsibility in the matter of their preservation. By placing an authoritative remonstrance—in public places and upon such monuments as are in -danger of mutilation or destruction the greater part of the vandalism that has to be lamented to-day might be stopped. Against more ized destruction on the alleged to have been contemplated at one time in connexion with the Nestorian tablet at Sianfa mor drastic measures will be required but certainly a path would be cleared for these by the success of the initial movement.
It is more particularly in North China thut the great increase in vandalism in recent is noted. Of the thirty-six monoliths at the Ming tombs six are effectually defaced; nearly all the ren der are mutilated, while the white marble tablet of Yung Loh has a foreign name chiselled upon it. Complaints have been made by the Chinese authorities of outrages of similar nature in the Temple of Heaven enclosure in Peking other depredations have led to th closing to visitors of the temple Ta Kao Tien in the Imperial When it is remembered that most of the vandalism at the Ming Tombs has occurred since the opening of the railway to Nankou less than two years ago, it will be realized that the extension of railways augurs ill for China's monnments, unless public interest can be aroused on their behalf.
One ct of the first duties of the proposed society will be to secure corresponding members throughout the Empire, who will help to compile list o£ all important antiquities in their neighbourhoods and will indicate the best method of preserving them. Art international; but the treasures of China can only become a heritage for the world at large when they are known and accurately described. Conditions of travel as well as the relations between Chinese and foreigners have prevented the antiquities of the country from filling adequately their place among the educative influences handed down from the past. It will be a poor service for the West to render to the East, if the advent of the newer civi tion should be synonymous with the destruction of the monuments that testify to the best of China's OE NE achievements. Unless, however, measures are taken on the lines indicated, we may expect to see the vandalism which has already been noticed with dismay by Chinese d foreigners alike increasing to a disastrous extent.
At first sight it may appear strange that the task of preserving Chini's monuments and works of urf should be allowed to devolve upon foreigners. But apart from fact that the latter are responsible for the depredations, we have to reckon with the able desire of the Chinese to international complications enforcing—legal Ities against the subjects of other State. It sin be doubted, indeed, whether Chinese philosophy makes provision for the novel ion: that a monument which has stood intact for centuries as an object of wonder or venera-.|tion to Chinese should excite in the minds of other men merely a desire to desecrate it. Where such destruction affects something which still serves a the Temple of ven, Where the ann are still made, or the Ta Kao.
exclusive side of the neter re volts and the building are visitors. But for the the Ming Tombs have been aw the count ud it must be the aim of 'y formed to preserve (monuments to arouse the Government to a sense of its responsibility la this Already the and its insensibi and to its own allowed the—balk of the memorials bequeathed by a more practical and more—energetic generation to full into a state of almost hopeless diorep it. When we think of the present state of the Grand Canal and. of the temples where unkempt concerned the and decay of ye. there is little cause for wonder tion exists to see to the preservation no organiza
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.