May 17.
Mr. Rodney Gilbert's book, "What's wrong with China," which was reviewed in our] Saturday issue, is sure to arouse a storm of criticism, That there are many things wrong with China everyone will readily admit; the Chinese themselves, perhaps, readiest of all. But there is much that is wrong with other countries also. There may be a happy land somewhere where all the inhabitants are satisfied and the institutions thereof beyond criticism, but, if 0, it certainly' for," far away. We may all hope to get there some day but' in the meantime we have to live in this workaday world and put up with such inconsistencies as we find in Some 50 years ago there were two famous preachers London, The Rev. Charles!
Hadden Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle and the Rev. Joseph Parker in the City Temple. These were the outstanding: men in the London of those days and "Punch" caricatured them as Brimstone and Treacle, which sufficiently indicates the characteristics of their preaching. Mr. Spurgeon re-Produced the caricatures in his "Lectures to my Students" and says slyly that he was, always glad "that he appeared Brimstone. There are writers and speakers on China who belong to one or other of these classes. There is the idealist of the treacle order.
We is met in the smoking room of ocean liners trading to the East and though he has never sold so much as a box of matches he poses, when he returns to his own country, authority on Chinese trade. He repeats the parrot ery, £0 well known to business men who have had experience of defaulting debtors who have gone to "Ningpo more far," that the Chinese merchant's word is as good as his bond; that he unhesitatingly swears to his own hurt and changes not, ete. This fellow isa pest who ought to be forbidden by international law to go more than a sabbath day's journey from his own village for the rest of his natural life. Not that the Chinese merchant has not his admirable qualities, of which we are all aware, but he is no philanthropist and there is no lack of scoundrels of his class any nere than there is a lack of such persons in other countries. Missionaries are not altogether guiltless _of the charge of misrepresentation which Rodney Gilbert brings against them. They are idealists by nature and, when on a public platform, are often carried away by their eloquence take a savage delight in disparaging their own count and exalting the land of their adoption. What floods of heroic nonsense used to be talked of "Britain _forei opium China!" The opium trade was immoral and we are all unfeignedly glad that _our country has washed its hands of it, but it was not "forced" on China. Unscrupulous Britons and other people made fortunes Chinese students who are so ignorant of the history of foreign intercourse with China that they truly believe that the [British sent warships which trained their guns on the' inoffending and defenceless. Chinese and said "eat this opium or we fire." These outbursts of missionary eloquence did not cause, but they contributed to, the present anti-British campaign which we have recently witnessed.
And now we have the same class of orators who appeal to the same audiences at home saying, "It is true China is torn by civil war. There is not even the semblance of a government which could carry out any engagement other Powers might enter into with her. Bandits roam through large tracts of territory and the laws are openly set at} defiance, but trust the Chinese. Abolish' extraterritorial rights instantly unconditionally "will se2 the millennial over the Eastern It is useless to point out to these people that it would be doing China a_ grave disservice to place upon her the burden of adjudicating lawsuits between, say, Britons and Americans, and of apprehending, and punishing foreigners guilty of a breach of law. It is idle to point out to them that much injustice and hardship would necessarily result because of China's unreadiness handle these cases. They admit that the results would unsatisfactory, but religion puts 'a premium on sacrifice and they are eager to be martyrs. "Why," they ask "should we not, suffer injustice even as the Chinese daily suffer unjust under their laws? Are we better than they?" The answer is that we do not claim to be better than the Chinese, but that the surest way—to perpetuate the present deplorable condition of Chinese jurisprudence is for us to bow our heads and submit to bear its yoke. If our governments are" stout-hearted enough to refuse to ask us to do so, reform will proceed apace until the reproach under which' Chinese administration—_of justice at present labours will be wiped away. When that happens foreign residents in China will benefit by the change but the Chinese will benefit a thousand times more. It is because Mr. Gilbert sees that so clearly that he elects to be Brimstone rather than Treacle and those who are incensed by his plain speaking, might ponder the Chinese proverb which says, "Bitter medicine is nasty to taste but. good for disease. True, words offend the ear but are healthful to the heart."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.