correction of experienced captains and commanders. Will he now want docility? will he fail in being able to encounter the privations of a sea life, or will he feel no vocation for the profession whose period of tutelage is past, for which he has been intelligently trained, and which opens for him a career full of interest, and not without adventure? I am convinced that it will not be so; and I believe that such a training will prepare him, not only to master the difficulties and dangers of a sea life, but also to appreciate the beauties of nature, to comprehend the laws which rule the phenomena which he daily witnesses, and which are now too often a sealed book to our young officers, to profit by the visits to foreign countries, and opportunities for the acquisition of foreign languages, and turn to account the incidents of daily life which now pass unnoticed and are little understood by him.

Sir James Graham once expressed his admiration for the naval character. He described it as the noblest this country could produce, and said that he could scarcely speak of it in terms too strong. The charge of maintaining such a character is

committed, no less to the naval service, than to the country of which it forms a part; and, whether in peace or war, we are bound to hand down to our successors an unimpaired reputation for skill in the conduct of our fleets, as well as for the maintenance of intelligent discipline in their personnel.

The Navy of England is her first and second line of defence, the guardian of her commerce, and her only means of carrying war into an enemy's country. I therefore conclude with questions which concern every British householder, and which the country would do well to examine. Has the training of our naval officers progressed, in proportion to the advance which has been made in the art of war, or to the increased spread of general knowledge, or even to the great stride which is perceptible in the intelligence of our seamen? And is the present training of our officers calculated to produce commanders of fleets and vessels, who shall carry future naval operations to a triumphant issue? The answer must be in the negative.

JAMES G. GOODENOUGH,
Captain Royal Navy.

IN

-or

N our last article we were led by the papers analysed to a consideration of some of the leading facts connected with the labours of missionaries in China. Of the bad impression made upon the minds of the Chinese-the educated and the ignorant alike-we had abundant evidence. How has this come to pass? and what is the true explanation of a result so opposed to all our ideas of what should be the natural influence of the creed and the doctrines of Christianity? Is it in the people worked upontheir rulers more especially-the form in which the creed is presented or the mode in which the teachers prosecute their labours under foreign protection for the conversion of the heathen-that we are to seek for an explanation of effects so contrary to our best hopes and their desires? We think it is scarcely possible to have read the various utterances of statesmen, high functionaries, literati, and gentry, plainly reflected in the placards of the populace and the deeds of violence lately enacted at Tientsin and elsewhere, without such questions arising. They are for so far without a satisfactory answer, nothing proceeding either from missionary or politician having hitherto thrown much light upon this 'religious difficulty'-quite as disturbing in its effects in the far East as in the West.

It has lately been suggested by a portion of the newspaper press on this side of the globe that the missionary question is less important than it seems.' We believe the exact reverse of this is nearer the truth, and that neither writers nor the public in England have fully understood its significance. The ever widening and deepening influence it exercises on all our rela

tions with China, is certainly not appreciated. It has proved a stumbling block to all who have sought to advance the work of progress in other directions, and a rock of offence to all the Chinese Mandarins who have struck their foot against it. Tseng-Kwo-fan, one of the most influential of the Viceroys of China, if he has not wrecked his fortunes in the affair of Tientsin, came out of it with grievous damage;-and the latest event in this series, the assassination of Ma, his successor in the government at Nanking, which was popularly attributed to his action in the matter of missionary troubles there, has introduced a new element of evil augury into Chinese history. The Chinese mob have from old time been accustomed to rise in insurrection upon their rulers, and slay or rend them in pieces; but the dagger or sword in the hand of an individual assassin was hitherto unheard of. A fan, a pencil, and a tobacco-pipe are as a rule the most dangerous weapons ever carried by Chinese when not actually in the field. Ma, the victim in this case, in the plenitude of his authority as Governor-General of the two provinces, may have anticipated insurrection or disgrace as among the contingencies attaching to his high position; but we will venture to affirm that, among all the possible chances and dangers of his career as a Chinese functionary on the highest rung of the official ladder, it never entered into his imagination that he might be stabbed in open day by a single assailant. Yet so it was. While passing in state. through the gateway leading to his yamên after presiding over the military exercises, and in the midst of his attendants, he was struck down by an assassin. Whatever may have been the motive of his assailant, it

is certain that the popular mind attributed his immolation to a righteous anger on the part of the literati and people for his repressive action when they threatened another missionary outbreak, in sequence to the massacre at Tientsin and of like kind.

The State papers we have to deal with in this concluding series refer chiefly to other matters more directly connected with political relations, and giving the views of the leading provincial authorities on the projected revision of the Treaty of Tientsin, and the changes it was incumbent on the Chinese Government to demand on their own side or to resist if proposed on ours. In these the missionary question forms only one of several subjects held to deserve serious consideration, in relation to the interests of China and the exigencies of Foreign Powers. These papers are the more interesting as the writers travel over the whole ground of their foreign relations, and we thus get the opinion of some of the higher functionaries as to the policy it behoves China to adopt under existing circumstances, and some insight into that which they would adopt, if left to themselves.

When the question of a revision of the Treaty of Tientsin first arose, some three years ago, the Foreign Board at Peking, it appears, sent a circular of a confidential character to all the GovernorGenerals of Provinces, directing them to communicate, for the information of the Emperor, their views on the modifications, if any, which they deemed necessary or expedient in the foreign relations of China, and more especially in the Treaty between China and Great Britain. This elicited from the high officers in the several provinces confidential reports in reply, which, so far as we know, have never been published by the Chinese Government, even in abstract, either in the

Peking Gazette or by any other channels. One of these reports— that from Tseng-Kwo-fan, at the time Governor-General of the two Kiang-was apparently obtained in some indirect way from Nanking, and a translation appeared in the columns of the local press at Shanghai. The very fact that such a document had got into foreign hands, was supposed to throw a doubt on its authenticity; but there appears sufficient internal evidence to justify reliance upon the genuine character of the document. Most of the high officials, it is true, succeeded better in keeping their reports secret—but much, neverthe less, leaked out through the ya mêns, and the contents were pretty well known in the course of a few months, though received in a more or less fragmentary form. Judging from what we now know on this subject (after it has been sifted and studied by those who are in the best position to form an opinion), it may be doubted whether the Chinese Government had anything to fear from the publication of the papers in extenso. It might, on the contrary, have been the best, as well as a bolder policy, to have allowed Merchants and Missionaries, no less than Foreign Governments, to see what the highest placed officials of the Empire really thought of the situa tion and the sweeping changes urged by foreign communities. A good deal of misapprehension on this head might, by such a course, have been removed, and many dangerous illusions effectually destroyed. We quite agree with a local print, that We really do want authentic details regarding the feelings and opinions of our oppo nents. . . There are weapons used against us secretly, and we want to know exactly what they are, before we prepare to meet them.' So also, we think, while we are criticising the action of the Chinese Govern

ment, it would be well to bear in mind the attitude taken by men like Shun-chun-Wang, commonly called the Seventh Prince (a younger brother of the Prince of Kung), Wo, and others of the same party. They are of the old anti-foreign school of politicians, who believe with Yeh, of Canton memory, that to admit foreigners into the ports was 'like keeping a tiger in one's verandah,' and that every patriot or true Chinese was bound to bring back, if possible, the past days of exclusiveness and isolation. Nor can it be denied, we fear, that if foreigners are not anxious to play the tiger themselves wherever they obtain a footing, the foreign communities in China are very reckless in opening the doors to other wild beasts, in the shape of rebels and revolutionists.

When people talk of 'doing good to China,' it is obvious that the phrase is open to very diverse interpretations. Foreign residents at Hong Kong and the Ports mostly mean doing good for themselves primarily. They may believe that the development of the country, which they seek to hasten, will also be good to the natives;-but between the measures desired and the end contemplated - a regenerated China with rail-roads, telegraphic lines, and reformed administration, with foreign agencies everywhere in full operation, developing the resources of the country, working their mines, introducing machinery wherever it can be profitably employed, and superseding generally all native means of transport and navigation in the interior, there lies a revolution. A yawning gulf, that is, of untried depth and width, to be bridged over by a transition stage, of the nature of which no one, Chinese or foreigner, can speak with either confidence or authority. There may be enterprising Americans, 'capable British merchants,' or Communistic French

men, who see no difficulties in the way of a complete transformation of both soil and people in a few years by means of foreign skill and capital. But Chinese statesmen can hardly be blamed if they have not the same robust faith-and, doubtful of the end, are profoundly averse to any joint-stock company proposals for revolutionising their country and enriching the projectors.

What missionaries mean by 'doing good to China,' bears, of course, a very different signification. With them no doubt it means 'the pure desire to benefit the Chinese, morally and physically, by giving them a new faith and better religious influences.' But it is quite clear that the two designs, however philanthropic both may be at bottom, do not work well together, and by no means go hand in hand. The material changes brought about more or less rapidly by Commerce must precede and lead the way. The missionary work, if pushed on in advance, will speedily block up the road and render progress impossible for either. All past experience demonstrates this plainly. The latter course has been taken, chiefly under Roman Catholic guidance. The Romish missions have ceded Commerce in the interior. They have been put in the van under the flag of France; and perpetual conflict with both authorities and people has been the result. Political complications have followed religious difficulties, and the whole question of progress hangs now upon the possibility of removing the latter out of the field of contention. On the coast and at the Treaty Ports, on the contrary, trade opened the way, and keeps it free from all serious obstruction. The Tientsin massacre, and other scarce less grievous incidents of like character at a few points in the vicinity of the Ports, are but the reflex action

pre

of disturbances originating with missionary work in the interior. It might have better served the interests of the Chinese Government and our own alike, if these and other State papers bearing more directly on the subject had been allowed freely to see the light, and been published in extenso. From as much as is now known of their contents and the results of the revision which followed, this conclusion seems fully borne out. As it was-in total ignorance of the prevailing feeling among the educated and official classes throughout China - British merchants were vehemently pressing their Government to insist upon sweeping changes in the laws, customs, and internal administration of the Chinese Empire-and Protestant missionaries claimed the right to follow their Roman Catholic predecessors into the field, domicile themselves throughout the interior, and, uncontrolled, form separate communities while every official and high functionary in China was demonstrating to the Cabinet in Peking, not only the impolicy of yielding to such demands, but the imperative necessity of claiming the abolition of various rights and privileges subversive of the established order, and which had only been extorted from the Government by force, and after a disastrous war, by Foreign Powers. It is little wonder that nothing like agreement should have been arrived at after protracted negotiations. Each party desiring what the other was resolutely bent on refusing as a matter of vital interest, there was little to be done. And this appears to be, in brief, the history of the Revision negotiations and the Convention, which, although both Governments were disposed to accede to it as a fair compromise for a time of conflicting and to a great degree irreconcilable demands, the merchants opposed with all their weight, and

in the end succeeded in nullifying. So the matter rests for the present, any more satisfactory solution being deferred to happier days-or until merchants, missionaries, and governments can all agree as to what may be wisely asked on the one side and safely granted on the other in the interest of both-to all appearance a very remote period.

All these State papers on the Revision are lengthy-much too long to be reproduced verbatim in these columns;-but a brief analysis of some of their more prominent sections, and a few quotations of the more salient opinions, may give a fair idea of the general spirit and aim of the writers. The first we shall deal with is Tseng-Kwo-fan's, the Governor-General of the two Kiang at Nanking. He has lately fallen into discredit with the people because of his want of firmness in the Tientsin affair, and what they affirmed to be his truckling to foreign Powers. But until this occasion he had been very popular, and looked up to as one of the leaders of the National or AntiForeign party. Ting-jih-Chang and Tseng-Kwo-fan, together with Chung-how, now in France on his propitiatory mission, are all indeed in

6

disgrace with the people, who ridicule them, we are told, by calling them 'Sun-tsze' (grandsons), and the English and French are called Ying-tze-tsung' and Fa-tze-tsung' (our English and French ancestors), while Prince Kung himself is commonly called " 'Kweitze Liu-urh' (i.e. Sixth of the Foreign Devils), his usual title being that of Sixth Prince. So since the Tientsin affair native servants in foreign employment have been beaten and robbed in the city by 'braves' who called them 'slaves of rebels,'-Mao-nu. When the servants said they were not in the employ of Frenchmen, the braves replied, "They did not care for that, as all foreigners were devils.'