It is charged by thoughtful -Chinese, as well as by their political radicals, that the advantages given te foreigners by the "unequal treaties" "are already oppressively used 40 the economic and political detriment of the Chinese people; and there is an uncomfortable measure of truth in the charge. Friends of China assert that the unjust treatment would be accor tuated with the enlarged opportunity for selfishness which would be afforded by complete control, and they are quite sure that there would be no self-imposed restriction of control which would limit it, as it should be limited, to the least degree which would a: complisk its purpose and would prompt the greatest pos-utilization of native personnel and other Chinese agencies of a ministration There is also an clement of the treaty-power population which admits no such duty to the peoples of the uttermost parts of the earth as would call upon them to make the effort and the sacrifice which would be required to free these people from the oppression and the exploitation of their own rulers and to shorten their course towards the consent of the governed. They are impressed by the expense of the undertaking—not believing that better trade conditions would more than return itp—and they recoil from the risks and the bloodshed which might be involved. Altruism is all very well, but charity begins at home, and there is such a thing as quixotism. The first duty of the government is to its own people, and the first duty of the people is fathers of families already burdened with expenses enough, their mothers and their soldier sons.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.