CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE WASON 
 
 CHINESE 
 COLLECTION 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 740.4.R82 
 
 Chinese foreian policy. 
 
 3 1924 023 136 173 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023136173 
 
CHINESE 
 
 FOEEIGN POLICY 
 
 BY 
 
 BEV. JOHN BOSS, 
 
 NEWGHWANG. 
 
 
 SHA1TGHAI:_ 
 .%">; Pkiktbd at thb "Cm;ESTiAL Empire" OrricE. 
 ^\-''r- 1877;' ' 
 
CHINESE 
 
 FOEEIGN POLICY. 
 
 BY 
 
 EEV. JOHH ROSS 
 
 NBWCHWANG. 
 
 SHANGHAI : 
 
 Pbisted at the " Celestial Empibb " Orricp, 
 
 1877, 
 
CHINESE FOEEIGN POLICY. 
 
 The conquest of the "Middle Kingdom" by the early Chinese 
 settlers, like the planting of the English colonies in America, 
 Australia, and New Zealand, was by the ploughshare rather 
 than by the sword. For they too found other races before 
 them, the Miao and the Man, the Di and the Ti, who occu- 
 pied the hUls for the hunt and the plains for their flocks. 
 But if they ploughed valley after valley and got possession 
 of hillside after hillside, producing food for hundreds where 
 their savage predecessors could scarcely feed units, they had 
 from the first to protect with the sword the produce of the 
 plough. If they have steadUy and rapidly increased both in 
 population and in the acreage reclaimed by their industry, 
 they have never been able to lay aside the sword, for iheir 
 nomad neighbours on all sides much preferred taking the 
 grain for the granary to the toU of tillage. And only a study 
 of her history can show how often China has had to bend 
 her neck "to the bondage of men who passed most of their 
 lives in the saddle and knew nothing of the steady labour of 
 the farm. 
 
 Away from her side, she ha^ seen around her from Japan 
 to India for thirty centuries only barbarians ignorant of phi- 
 
2 
 
 losophy, destitute of literature and learning civilization only 
 by contact with her. Ifot once hut a dozen times has the 
 defeated Greece of the East taught the victorious Eomans. 
 And the intellectual pride which is so offensive t9 our foreign 
 taste, is only natural to' one who has during that period 
 always lent and never borrowed. Other peoples could wield a 
 defter sword, but she has not known that nation which could 
 command so graceful and dexterous a pen. It is only recent- 
 ly that foreigners, possessing so many hundred-fold greater 
 learning, have attempted to make it available to her by giv- 
 ing some attention to style, and any one reading the graceful 
 flow of the native pen need not be astonished if the Chinese 
 up to the present have despised tjjs stilted and uncputh styls 
 ^dietiated by the foreigner. ISTot tl^at she is unwilling to learn ; 
 she has not had the meaijs. There is scarcely one in a myriad 
 of Cl^iiiese scholar? who hag Md any reason to be convinced 
 of the greater philosopliical researp^ and literary ability of 
 westejn nations, though they have long acknowledged, because 
 thpy ha-ve Ijad ocular prpof of, the superiority of western me- 
 chanical skill. Thus her Uterary pride is easily accounted for, 
 and instead of decrying it let those who can, help those who 
 liave begun to remove it, bj teaching her greater learning 
 than she knows and higher truths thaia sjxe is possessed of. 
 ]^ecause she has been tl).e mxist diligent cultivator of the 
 soil in Eastern Asia s}ie has been taid is by far the most weal- 
 thy nation. She has therpfgre never known any nation out- 
 side her borders, which was not actuated by the desire, al- 
 ways carried out when po^ible, of ijlling their leian purses 
 >vith her full ones. Her conquests have therefore been as a 
 rule purely defensive, and instigated by frequent attempts 
 on the part, of her defeated few to plunder hor treasures and 
 take possession of her soil. If the present dynasty an4 the 
 
people under it are in mortal dread of foreign annexation it 
 is only 'because they have never known a country with the 
 power, which had not the desire to rule over China. If they 
 are now afraid of Europeans so were their forefathers of other 
 nations, the Han of HwLngnoo, the "Wei of Zowzan (Yow- 
 yan), the Tang of Doojue (Doogue) the Sung of Liao and 
 Kin, and the Ming of Mongols. If therefore the experience 
 of the ages teaches, Chinese experience proves conclusively 
 that no outside country and no foreign people can seek her 
 borders without designs upon her freedom. 
 
 China's first contact with western nations did not tend to 
 create respect for their character, for, from what is known of 
 the ancient traders, they appear to have heen often enough 
 ready to sell pounds of principle for ounces of silver. She 
 began to fear designs on her territory about two centuries 
 ago as will be seen below. She has since then had occasion 
 greatly to increase her estimate of western power, and she is 
 now ready to submit to almost any humiliation rather than 
 risk a war which she knows wiU be certain defeat. She 
 has learned to dread the prowess of the west, as her ancient 
 dynasties the northern hordes, but she hag not yet acquired 
 the knowledge of the immense superiority of those principles 
 actuating foreign governments. The Chinese are ignorant of 
 Christianity. They are unacq[uaiiited With its power, begin- 
 ning to be felt in moulding the foreign as well as the domestic 
 policy of western powers, and which will soon classify wars 
 of mere conquest with the free-booting, marauding baron of 
 the middle ages and the private individlial robber of earlier 
 times, each of whom believed it right enough to take pos- 
 session of what did not belong to him. If then we fq;el 
 offended, we need not be astonished if the Chinese regard us 
 as their fathers did the Mongols, and it is no great wonder if 
 
they believe that wars are levied against them only because 
 of the indemnity to be paid after the war is over. They be- 
 lieve, and all their bitterly conservative and exclusive foreign 
 policy is based on the belief, that western nations are bent 
 on seizing the treasuries of their cities and the lands of their 
 beautiful valleys. 
 
 It is vain to reason that foreign nations, could take pos- 
 session of her land on any month of any year they chose. 
 It is useless to explain that foreign nations wish only to be 
 her friends and have no other desire than to see her strong 
 aijd prosperous. She will not believe, for aU her long past 
 history proclaims the reverse. If you argue that such a be- 
 lief is absurd after the various wars, which always laid her 
 naked at the feet of the foreigner, and more especially the 
 last war which saw her capital under foreign arms and her 
 Emperor a fugitive, the sage politician will still shake his 
 head and persist in believing that there were other reasons 
 for retiring from Peking, besides the ostensible ones. And 
 what could be this true reason? "The knowledge by the 
 "allied powers of the universal hostility against them in the 
 "hearts of aU the Chinese people, there being no native party 
 "to welcome them, as there always has been in every dynas- 
 "tic change. They saw the time for seizing China was not 
 "y«t come. They retired, but only to bide their time. 
 "They departed, but only after they took important measures 
 "to create a foreign party in China to receive them on their . 
 "return. They are now preparing their armies, laying their 
 "measures, creating a foreign party, and when ready, they 
 "will seek for and seize the merest pretext for proclaiming 
 "war, — a war which will be a short, sharp, terrible struggle 
 "in which thg present dynasty will be cracked up like an 
 "eggshell, and which will leave China plundered as she 
 
"never was before". Such is the universal belief of intelli- 
 gent Chinese, whatever they say, or however they may 
 attempt to hide it. 
 
 It is not true that the present Manchu Government hates 
 foreigners more than a native one would, nor is it true that 
 the common people love foreigners more than the magistrate 
 does; nor again is it true that mob violence is instigated 
 by the magistrsite, though it may be true that he does not 
 always do even what he could to restrain it. Manchu hate 
 of the foreigner is nothing like that of the blue-blooded ' 
 Chinamen's and no one dreads the effects of mob-violence 
 against foreigners as the magistrate does, though I believe 
 that in heart he is one with the mob, not because he is a 
 magistrate but because he is a Chinaman. I have heard it 
 stated on the best authority that after the Tientsia massacre, 
 the highest officials in the land were in a state of terror day 
 and night, and the reader following the above rapid sketch 
 of the present basis of Chinese foreign policy will understand 
 the reason. Mobs are however above the law, for though 
 the Chinese are, in ordinary circumstances, perhaps the most 
 easily governed of all nations, when their passions are tho- 
 roughly roused there is no controlling them. 
 
 Do people who clamour against the tardiness and conser- 
 vatism of the Chinese government know to what they are ^riv- 
 ing? Are they aware that it is as impossible for a government 
 to stand in China as it is in England, without the good wUl, 
 based on the respect of the people? and that the present 
 dynasty has lost enormously in native esteem because of the 
 numerous concessions made to the ever increasing demands 
 of foreigners? The central government labours under the 
 disadvantage of being a small foreign nation ruling over a 
 large one, and ruling by means of .respect for past bravery 
 
6 
 
 and present possession, rather than from a belief in their 
 continued skill in aims. The government is therefore be- 
 tween two fires, dread of seriously offending the foreigner 
 and dread of alienatifig their own subjects. Etery act, 
 every measure of theirs which tends to remove popular esteem 
 is a "nail in their coffin". There are many such now, and 
 foreigners know that the dynasty is reeling on the throne, the 
 unintentional result of foreign action in China. The conse- 
 quence is that the Chinese people are now in that disinte- 
 grated state, out of which revolutions are made, and which 
 requires only a man of power with a good catch-word to 
 blaze out in shot and slaughter at any moment. This is 
 certainly no reason why the ruling powers should refuse to 
 So the right, but it is every reason why foreigners should 
 demand only what is strictly just, and what it would be pro- 
 per to ask of, say, Prance or Germany. That the lamentable 
 murder of the promising young official Mr. Margary was poli- 
 tical, no thiflking person can doubt, for it is almost certain 
 that the Yunnan people believed him gone to and returned 
 from India, not to open a trade route, but to discover the 
 best road for an army, and his small military escort would 
 lend colouring to such a belief; but I wiU believe the man in 
 ■ the moon as guilty of instigating that murdel as the Pe- 
 kingcCentral Government, for it dreads too sincerely a foreign 
 war to run any risk of provoking it. ^nd that which it 
 dreads next to foreign war is an apparently too libetal and 
 ready yielding to foreign demands, for every instance of such 
 yielding is a loss of prestige^ and to the Manchus prestige is 
 everything. 
 
 I have pointed out what the belief is which forms the ba- 
 sis of the foreign policy of China and shown the dilemma in 
 \Thich this belief places the Central Government. In connex- 
 
ion with, the same subject some queries demand reply. The 
 Chinese are one of the most practical of peoples. They are 
 keenly alive to whatever affects their material interests. Ma- 
 gistrate and coolie, scholar and boor are at one in the eager 
 desire to be rich. A fair proportion of the literary men 
 know somewhat of the greater wealth and power of western 
 nations, and many are not unacquainted with the causes 
 thereof. There is not one who hears of them, who does not 
 comprehend the advantages to China of coal mines and rail- 
 ways. But though foreign capital would open the one and 
 lay the other, there is the greatest opposition to the slightest 
 move in this direction. Why is the practical, matter-of-fact 
 Chinaman so strongly opposed- to the opening up of new 
 country to foreign steamers? Why fear the introduction of the 
 telegraph wire? And why are railways a bugbear to rulers 
 and ruled? Because of Fung-shui ? Then why do Chinese 
 build their city towers so high and their temples of several 
 stories? Above all how did the Vioe-roy of Chihli daye esta- 
 blish those tall chimneys, which by their endless volumes of 
 black smoke should frighten away Chihli spirits at least as 
 effectually as the snorting of railway engine or the singing of 
 a telegraph wire? 
 
 It is not J'ung-shui, It is neither f6ar for the repose of 
 the dead, nor for the health of the living, which forms* the 
 main cause of their tena<cious opposition against changes, 
 which, everybody knows, would be a boon to China. It is 
 the BsidEF I have explained above; the belief that these 
 changes would at once be employed by foreigners to facilitate 
 the marching of their armies and to speed their intelligence; 
 Eemove the belief in the aggressive designs of foreign na- 
 tions on the freedom of China, and coal mines may be opened 
 by the hundred, railways laid down in the richest portions of 
 
the land, and thousands of educated foreigners and skilled 
 artizans employed, for every dozen now in China. Eemove 
 that belief, and, though you will not see the childisli legisla- 
 tion of a young Japan, you will see changes which will for 
 ever remove the old cry of conservatism. This conservatism 
 is based not on stupidity, but on patriotism. And in order 
 to remove that belief, which is the soul of Chinese foreign po- 
 licy, it is necessary to understand on what grounds so shrewd 
 a people as the Chinese have come to classify western nations 
 with the nomads, who, age after age, have been China's 
 scourge, for they have long been aware of the superior know- 
 ledge and greater wealth of western nations as compared 
 with Mongols, and have been compelled to look for other 
 reasons than mere savagery and poverty. 
 
 What then, — in the face oi the evacuation by the allies of 
 Peking, when not a^sword was raised against them, — can be 
 the foundation of such a belief in the practical Chinese mind? 
 One voice from Kwang-tung to Chihli cries out "Opium and 
 Missionaries", — "opium to debilitate our bodies and render 
 "us incapable of fighting, while draining our wealth; — mis- 
 " sionaries to steal the minds of our people and prepare aforeign 
 ''party in China''- With the question of opium we have no- 
 thing at present to do, for its effects are known to all, what- 
 ever their opinions regarding its merits, and it is only a very 
 secondary element in the question under consideration, — the 
 creation of a foreign party forming nine-tenths of that foun- 
 dation. In reply to demands for an explanation of the belief 
 in this creation of a foreign party, act after act is cited of 
 oppression by missionaries and especially by their converts, of 
 • false charges against men in order to extort money, of impri- 
 sonment without legal examination, of liberation without trial 
 by the warrant of the missionary, and of shielding criminal con- 
 
verts from legal justice. Never is one purely religious objec- 
 tion. offered, never is any other than political and civil acts 
 brought forward to support the charge. And these acts are 
 all of such a nature that as Earl Granville wrote to Mr. (now 
 Sir Thomas) "Wade six years ago, "There is not one which 
 is in any way connected with any British (*) missionary esta- 
 blishment". Hence a medical missionary addressing Scotch 
 students last winter was perfectly justified in changing the 
 formula to " Opium and Jloman Catholics ". 
 
 The belief then which dictates the foreign policy of the 
 Chinese Government, which rouses the bitter hate of the 
 people from Yunnan to the Amoor, and which is a dead 
 weight in the way of the moral progress and material prospe- 
 rity of China and of the wide extension of foreign enterprise 
 in it, is based on the conduct of the Eomish priests, but 
 chiefly on. that of their converts. There are many of these con- 
 verts respectable men, most of the descendants of the old 
 Eomanists pf two centuries ago being of this character. 
 These secretly lament the evils in their church, against which 
 they dare not raise their voice. But there are many others 
 guilty of deeds which, I imagine, would shock the priest as 
 much as any other, if he knew the truth, but for which he is re- 
 sponsible by shielding the evil-doer from justice, whatever the 
 heinousness of his offence or the number of his crimes. .The 
 "missionary" is hated not because he sets up a new religion, 
 not because he vilifies, while he parodies, an effete Bud- 
 dhism, not because he is a mere "missionary", but because he 
 is in China a magistrate, and in Chinese eyes, nothing but a 
 magistrate, with power over Chinese subjects independent of 
 and above that of the Chinese native magistrate. It is the 
 systematic defence of the most lawless "converts", even if 
 (*) flp might have added "or othe*- Protestant". 
 
10 
 
 "converted" in order to escape the just penalty of their 
 crimes, and the contemptuous defiance of all law and justice, 
 which have taught the sharp-sighted Chinese to helieve that 
 the object for which th« priests are in China .is, not to teach 
 a higher and better morality or establish a nobler and purer 
 religion which would sift applicaijits and reject all "who had 
 given no sign of a change for good, but the "creation of a 
 foreign party", to which men of any character and all condi- 
 tions are welcome. 
 
 The object of this publication is not to draw attention to 
 any religious tenets, any sectarian differences or any forms of 
 church government. It is written, by one who happ&ns to 
 be a missionary, to expose political evils aM grievances, the 
 authors of which happen to be missionaries of various nation- 
 alities, but all connected with the Church of Eome and 
 chiefly under Jesuit guidance. . If Protestant missionaries, 
 or other non-missionaty foreigners are guilty of the evils 
 complained of, thcy must hold themselves charged with 
 complicity with the Eomanists in so long and so uniformly 
 carrying out the pflUcy which has made Chin£i so thoroughly 
 anti-foreign. In order to show that -the Chinese have good 
 reasons for their belief in this "creation of a foreign party" 
 I shall adduce proofs sufficient to convince all foreigners, 
 ofiteial and non-official, who appear to be ignorant of the excit- 
 ed state of the Chinese mind on this subject, and to prove 
 that there is only too substantial a foundation for the ever- 
 growing clamour against the "missionary''. TheSe proofs 
 I shall divide into : Ist.-^^The History of the Eomanists as re- 
 corded in Chinese official books; 2d. — ^The Blue-Book on 
 Missions (No. 1,1872) laid before Parliament; 3d. — The Civil 
 Eanks assumed by Eomanists in China, and 4th. — A few 
 cases illustrating their modus operandi. 
 
11 
 
 lst.■7T^C^INESE History* op the Eomanists. 
 
 Any one visiting the magnificent tomhs of the Eomish 
 priests hx Peking cannot but be struck wiljh the great esteem 
 in which the first missionaries were hejd by Ming and Han- 
 chu Emperors, and cannot help coptrasting and endea,vouring 
 to explain the glory which was theirs then, with the hating 
 fear of which tljey are the objects now. What opened this 
 tremendous gulf between the beginning and the ending of 
 Bomish missions to China? Though the fqUowing few ex- 
 tracts from the "Doonghwaloo" ^ S^ are all the authen- 
 tic Chinese official information which I can at present coUect, 
 it is amply sufficient for the required explanation. 
 
 The first notices of the " "Vyestern OpeSin " men appear in 
 the very early parts of Manchu history, where they figure as ' 
 the makers of "terrific cannon." This occupation they held 
 for long, some of the priestly engineers forging cannon on 
 the Chinese side and some on the Manchu side and much 
 petted by both. But in 1668 when the .war in the south 
 was carried on by a mere handful of Chinese still faithful 
 to the dethroned Ming Dynasty, Ferdinand Verbiest em- 
 ployed himself in the more appropriate task of criticising the 
 Almanac which had been prepared for the ensuing year by 
 the President of the Board of Astronomy. It contained 
 errors, which to the Chinese mind were of great congequeace, 
 and the memorial which he had presented to the Emperor 
 Kanghi having been duly considered by great ministers, it 
 was found that " ISTan Hwai Yin was correct, according to 
 calculation by the 96 quarters," — the President of the Board 
 of Astronomy was therefore degraded and Verbiest installed 
 in the vacant post. On the following year Verbiest accused 
 Yang Gwangsien. and others of speaking blasphemously of 
 the New Almanac, and of falsely accusing "Tan Yowang " 
 
12 
 
 (J. A. Schaal) of plotting rebellion. This led to long and 
 serious discussions, after which the Emperor decreed that as 
 Yang wSs an old man he would escape the penalty of death 
 which he deserved, and the "Tang" would be re-instated in 
 his office of "Teacher of the Doctrine." But "as to the other 
 " Eomanists (5c i), with the exception of Wan and Tang, 
 "they must all leMe the country. The opening of new 
 i' churches and the receiving of new converts to be strictly 
 "forbidden," — implying that if Schaal himself was pro- 
 nounced free from participation in plots, so much could not 
 be found true of his co-religionists. 
 
 In 1717 (56th of Kanghi) the Board of War reported that 
 ^ " a memorial had come from Chun Ang, General in Canton, 
 " setting forth that the Eomanists had established places of 
 " worship in aU the provinces without giving any intimation j 
 " that they received and harboured the worst kind of charac- 
 "ters, robbers and rebels; and that it was impossible to 
 " penetrate what their designs were in Canton, where they 
 " had just opened a chapel ' before my very eyes.' There 
 " are also many men coming in foreign ships, who in great 
 " numbers frequent their premises and have communion with 
 " them, so that it is manifest they have some political in' 
 " trigues on h*id. He prayed the Emperor therefore to issue 
 "aP proclamation forbidding all such. In Kanghi 8th year 
 " (1609) such a proclamation had been issued to the effect 
 " that, except Nan Hwaiyin, aU must forsake the Chinese 
 " shores, it being forbidden them to live in the provinces. 
 "But as the law was established so long" ago it has fallen 
 " into abeyance, and should be now re-inforced." " To this 
 Petition the Emperor agreed." 
 
 In YungohSng, 1st year, 12th moon (January, 1724) Man 
 Bao, Governor-General of Chihkiang and Euhkien, reported 
 
13 
 
 that the " Eomanists were spreading their religion over every 
 " province, that men's minds were becoming excited and ill 
 " at ease as to then- object." He tlierefore beseeches the 
 Emperor " to employ all the foreigners in the observatory at 
 " Peking and to convert their . large Chapel in Amoy into a 
 " Public HaU; while those falsely pretending to follow their 
 "religion should be forbidden to practise it." " This was 
 agreed to." 
 
 2nd year (1724). — The Governor of Shantung memorialized 
 that " there were impure religions floating about, deceiving* 
 " the people and inducing all to believe in their magical in- 
 "fluence; — such as the Mahommedan Religion, The M^- 
 "hommedans neither worship heaven and earth, nor do they 
 " sacrifice to the spirits above nor to those on the eartB. 
 " They have set up an ancestor of their own, different from 
 " the Chinese, who is their Lord, and established a different 
 " date for beginning the New Year. They, are a sect bound 
 " together, determined to defend each other even when in 
 " the wrong. Thus the body covers the individual with its 
 " wings and they therefore commit crimes against the peace' 
 " able people with impunity." He therefore "prayed that 
 " their places of worship should be thrown down and the 
 "practice of their religion forbidden.'' 
 
 The Emperor replied that " Mahommedanism from tfce be- 
 " ginning had no custom worthy of imitation. But they 
 "were now long in the country j their religion was not one 
 "praised by aU, but on the other hand condemned by the 
 " people while six-tenths of their men of understanding con- 
 " tinued to profess, only because they were born in it. It 
 " has not taken root among the people and their places of 
 " worship are held in reverence only by its own followers. 
 " How then can they be said to deceive all the people? the 
 
14 
 
 "Emperor wislies to put a stop only to those people who 
 "under ,pretenoe, of religion seek the destruction of the 
 " people. But the old Buddhist, Taoist, Mahommedaii Ee- 
 " ligions, which have had root for long should be left as 
 " they are. If you attempt to uproot their religion is it pot 
 "persecution? and how can that he permitted? what law ot 
 "custom is there to countenance it?" He then concludes by 
 sharply reproving the memorialist for recommending such 
 cruel measures. 
 
 ^ 6th year (1728). — Liw (Shih) Shuming, Governor of Fuh- 
 kien reported that "the Eomanists had no "Shunfoo"' (Gods) 
 " in their houses, nor did they worship ancestors, but they 
 " disturb men's minds by forbidding the use of meats like 
 '•" Buddhists and Taoists." 
 
 The Emperor replied that "only the unclean. Magical 
 " Religions which injure men should be forbidden; that as to 
 " the abstinence complained of — who ever heard of any enact- 
 " merit in the past against it!" 
 
 P. Hue in Le Christianisme states that the prefect of 
 Fon-ngan received an edict from the Viceroy (Governor- 
 General) against Christianity on 12th June 1723, denouncing 
 it as a "foreign religion seducing the people and corrupting 
 "manners." In September 1723 the Viceroy promulgated 
 another edict banishing the priests to Amoy, and in January 
 1724, this step was confirmed by the Emperor who was well 
 acquainted from infancy with the doctrines of the church, 
 and now ordered the Viceroy to send a Mandarin along with 
 the priests to take care of them and guarantee them from 
 insult. In August of the same year Prince SourWa was 
 banished beyond the great wall. P. Morao, Superior of the 
 Jesuit Missions in China, was banished along with sons of 
 Sourraia for complicity in a plot to put a brother of Yung- 
 
15 
 
 Cheng's on the Throne. Morao was sentenced to death, and 
 the sentence executed at Kokouor as soon as the Emperor 
 heard of the arrival of a Portuguese Emhassy. From the 
 " Doonghwaloo " we find that out of the twenty-three sons of 
 Kanghi there were four who never acknowledged TungchSng, 
 and at last exhausted his patience, were hanished Peking 
 and aU " took ill and died." This was the occasion of the first 
 " persecution " against the Eomanist Converts, and it hjd 
 very little of religion about it. 
 
 The above Memorial of Kanghi 56th, in substance so 
 wonderfully like the papers of Wen Siang to be quoted 
 belo"w, explains the cause of the sudden expulsion of Kanghi 
 8th, and the various " persecutions " under YungchSng an^ 
 and Kienlung. These quotations are aU the more important 
 as they were intended, not for a foreign eye, but to lie 
 buried, as they are, in general Manchu history. The italics 
 are especially commended to the reader. Let him look at 
 the Memorial on the Mahommedans, whose system presents 
 to its followers, more of undiluted truth than Eomanism, the 
 latter being by so much allied to Buddhism as it is distinct 
 from Mahommedanism. If then the latter, whose followers 
 combine and act now, as they are said to have done in 1724, 
 is not only tolerated but protected by law, how did it come 
 to pass that Eomanism, in everything characteristic of it as a 
 sect, so much like Chinese Buddhism, came under the lash 
 of the pen and latterly the stroke of the sword ? the above 
 documents reply, as every literary man in China does 
 to-day; — It is not because it is a religion but because it is an 
 independent state; it is not because it receives converts but 
 because it harbours criminals. 
 
 The reader cannot but observe the extraordinary leniency 
 with which the foreign priests are treated even when known 
 
16 
 
 to be plotting and acting against law and government. 
 There was then no Treaty, — no engagement whatever on the 
 part of the Chinese Government to shield the life or watch 
 over the property of any foreigner. The wonder is, not that 
 the Eomanists were sent out of the country or " into the 
 " observatory," but that every one of them was not murdered, 
 as, in the same circumstances and at the same time, they 
 would have been in any country in Europe. 
 
 ■ "When at length the wild persecution under YungchSng 
 broke out, it was only because the priests were found plot- 
 ting against the Emperor, and because their converts through- 
 out the Empire " would hear no voice but that of the 
 ,." priests." Yet even then, when an effort was made to stamp 
 out this political religion, the priests were treated in the most 
 respectful manner, and strict orders given to shield them 
 from the rage of the people and convey them in safety and 
 comfort to the coast. 
 
 The sentiments of toleration enunciated by the Emperor to 
 the Governor of Shantung are in accordance with the Chinese 
 nature and law, and his appeal to ancient Chinese history in 
 favour of toleration is abundantly justified, for in the annals 
 of full 2000 years of that history I can recall only one in- 
 stance of what was purely religious persecution. This was 
 under the short-lived, rude and rough Mongol dynasty called 
 Wei, which compelled Buddhist priests or monks to profess 
 the Taoist religion and adopt its cultus, taking the lives of 
 four Buddhists who refused. Every native Eomanist who 
 has been put to death in China has been as much the victim 
 of political meddling as was the Jesuit Cappian in England 
 when exhorting the Romanists there to rebel against and 
 assassinate their sovereign. 
 
17 
 
 2d. — Parliamentary Blub Book No. 1, i872 (on Missions). 
 
 In order to understand tlie present attitude towards fo'r- 
 eigndom of the Chinese Government and people, it is neces- 
 sary only carefully to study this important Blue Book, which 
 though, (perhaps because), five years old has more living 
 influence, connected with the conduct of Eomaiiists, in China 
 than perhaps any other papers in the Chinese Foreign Of&ce, 
 and the influence is wielded not by what it says, but by 
 what it does not say* This the reader will -see for himsetf, 
 for though he may not have seen the "Book"' in extenso we'» 
 shall skim the cream for him. 
 
 Among many foreigners in China there is the most firm 
 belief in the unfathomable falsehood of Chinese magnates 
 and the unimpeachable veracity of the Jesuits, who, knows 
 in most other countries as men who have converted falsehood 
 into a holy art, are here gentle as a dove, kind as a mother, 
 good and harmless as one of the saints in their own calendar; 
 in fact they might be called "innocent lambs" as those were 
 who preached the holy duty of murdering Elizabeth. It is 
 probably under the influence of some such belief that Mr. 
 (Sir Thomas) "Wade states to his home Government that but 
 for the discovery of a similar paper addressed to Sir R. Al- 
 cock in 1869, he would have regarded the paper of Wen 
 Siang in 1871, as framed to appeal to the west for a more 
 lenient judgment on the Tientsin case. The following few 
 extracts from the earlier document by W6n Siang (June 
 1869) suffice to show that Sir Thomas was justified in be- 
 lieving that the later document was not fabricated for the 
 occasion: "Among their (Eomanist) converts are men evil 
 "disposed and well disposed ... Eelying on their creed as 
 " a sort of magic spell, by their conduct (the converts) bring 
 " the preaching of Christianity into discredit ... the evil make 
 
le 
 
 " a pretext for defrauding and oppressing unoffending people, 
 " till by degrees indignation and rage reach a ppint . . . Case 
 " after case of murder tas occurred . . . The native Cliristians go 
 " further : they oppress ordinary subjects of the country and 
 "withstand and disobey the authorities". And the reason 
 why it was sought to subject priests to the supervision of the 
 authorities, where no foreign consul was near, was only that 
 thus Christians and non-Christians will be placed "bn a just' 
 * level vis-a-vis with each other and no troubles wiU arise ". 
 ■ This is the one aim of those documents and of that pleading, 
 viz., that all Chinese natives, irrespective of creed, be subject 
 to their own laws. But "if no preventive measures (*) are 
 adopted some great catastrophe will inevitably arise", and it 
 •did and will again. 
 
 The memorial of the Tsungli TamSn of 9th February 1871 
 is drawn up by the same hand and in the same manner, but 
 more detailed, the frightful Tientsin massacre having mean- 
 time taken place, to the terror of the native government. In 
 it occur the following words : — 
 
 " During the ten years the Prince and Ministers have held 
 " office, the apprehension (of such as the Tientsin rising) has 
 " been to them a subject of anxiety from night to morning; 
 " and now this year . . . did come this outbreak at Tientsin. 
 " The condemnation of the local authorities, the decapitation 
 " of the principals and the payment^ for indemnity and repa- 
 " ration have all been nearly arranged, but they (the minis- 
 "ters) cannot help continuing anxious because if measures 
 " like these are all that one can rely on (for the disposing of 
 " quarrels between the people and the christians), the oftener 
 " they are resorted to the greater loill be the difficulty (of ap- 
 " plying them), and outhre'ales like this will recur, each more 
 
 (*) To prevent converts from oppressing their neighbours. 
 
19 
 
 "terrible than the preceding". And when piesentin gthe rea^ 
 sons for this universal discontent, the comparative purity of 
 the church and the high social standing of the converts of 
 the missionaries two centuries hefore, is contrasted with the 
 want of moral character in the majority of the converts since 
 the Treaty of 1860, for it was to borrow the terror of the 
 foreign name that many applied for admission, and then 
 began the modem civil evils of Eomanism in China, for up • 
 tUl this period they never had recovered the political influ- 
 ence which they lost under YungchSng. But after the Treaty 
 the priests again swarmed into the interior to search out the 
 scattered remnants of the church, and to triumph over the 
 empire which had so long destroyed their civil authority. 
 The power they displayed was not slow in filling their 
 churches, for "all sorts" were welcome: — 
 
 " This indiscriminating enlistment of proselytes has gone 
 "so far that rebels and criminals of China, pettifoggers (!) 
 " and mischief-makers with such like, take refuge in the pro- ^ 
 " fession of Christianity and, covered by this position, create 
 " disorder. This has deeply dissatisfied the people, and their 
 " dissatisfaction long felt grows into animosity, and their ani- 
 " mosity into deadly hostility . . . The people . . . include all 
 " under the one denomination of foreigners, and thus any 
 " serious collision that occurs, equally compromises all foreign- 
 "ers in China". 
 
 In a long paper following the above, there are numerous 
 plaintive ditties but all to the same refrain, the lawlessness of 
 converts and its impurity because of the shelter given the cri- 
 minals by the priests. There are numerous examples given, 
 with the names of persons, places and dates, of bands of Eo- 
 manists murdering people, plundering their cattle and pro- 
 perty, seizing their wives and daughters and in 1869 a whole 
 
20 
 
 prefecture sent in a petition to the Governor of Kweicb-OW 
 who reported to the throne " that soi disant rehel generallis- 
 " siinos had been received as converts, that innumerable peo- 
 " pie in the towns and villages had^ suffered injury at their 
 " hands — Tang, etc., etc., employed in the business of the 
 " religious establishments were tyrannising over the orphan 
 " and the weak and oppressing and extorting money," etc. 
 i' If any converts were non-suited, Yang, etc. " at once forced 
 " their way into the magistracy with a crowd of converts and 
 "compelled the magistrate to alter his decision". When a 
 native was murdered by one or more Eomanists, there was no 
 possibility of bringing the murderers even to examination. 
 3 If a convert was murdered, justice in the shape of life for life 
 was insufficient to appease his fellow-coijverts. 
 
 Then follows an account of the extraordinary mode in 
 which the-priests demanded and must have restitution of lands 
 and houses sold and often resold since they were driven out 
 of the country two centuries before, and if anything could 
 make a Jesuit blush it is when a so-called heathen Govern- 
 ment is praying that the priests whose calling it is to preach 
 "virtue'' should be ordered by their own Governments to 
 pay some regard to virtue in their churches. They then 
 again implore foreign Governments to adopt such measures 
 as will place aU native Chinese subjects on a level before the 
 law; and if .this had been done as it should have been, fo- 
 reigners would have found no greater miscarriage of justice 
 in dealing with honest men among the native converts than 
 in France or England. , For the magistrate, even if willing, 
 would be terrified to injure a man merely because he was a 
 convert. 
 
 The foHowiijg conclusion of the document we strongly 
 commend to the earnest attention of every well-wisher of 
 
21 
 
 China: "The prince and ministers ^YOuld guard against 
 " mischief before it becomes a fact; and they seriously ap- 
 "preheud — that when the Tientsin case is closed the christ- 
 " ians in diiferent places, knowing no better, will be embol- 
 " dened by it and allow themselves to swagger and bluster 
 " ad libitum; the dislike of the people will be intensified, 
 " and after due accumulation their wrath will burst forth at 
 " a day's warning... it will be beyond the control of the local 
 " authorities, presently beyond the control of the Provincial 
 " Governments and the Yamen for Eoreign Affairs will be 
 " equally powerless. And if there be an unanimous rising of 
 " the Chinese people. His Majesty our Emperor may send 
 " Special Commissioners, or may set troops in motion in all 
 " parts of the Empire, but the whole population cannot be 
 " put to death. But when it comes to this that the damage 
 " is past help, and the Governments,- Chinese and foreign, 
 " are without the means to preserve the common interest 
 " from harm, a charge will he at the door of the international 
 "agents of both, from which th'ey cannot excuse themselves''. 
 
 To this pleading appeal of the Chinese Government to the 
 foreign nations... an appeal in which appears the utter inabi- 
 lity of the native Government to deal with the subject single- 
 handed, for fear of offending the western powers, I am grieved 
 to have to say that our ministers, representing by fa» the 
 greatest foreign interests in, and power in the vicinity of, 
 China, wrote a long reply evading the question at issue, by 
 throwing doubts, which he did not entertain, as the truth of 
 the facts adduced. Hence the belief of the Chinese that Eng- 
 land is combined with France in supporting the civil autho- 
 rity and political status of these Eomanist "infinite indepen- 
 "dent states'' in China. 
 
 I shall now quote the views of the various foreign Govern- 
 
22 
 
 ments, cMefly interested, and of their representatives in China, 
 on the above memorial. 
 
 FEANCB. 
 
 "M. Gavard (in London) — denied that the facts justified 
 " the accusations. If they did so, tlm French Government 
 "would he the first to condemn tliem". 
 
 M. de Eemusat calls the statements of the Memorial "pre- 
 "tendus abus'' and concocted hy the Chinese with the view 
 "s'afiranchir des engagements qu'il a contractus"! 
 
 Mr. Wade writes the Tsungli TamSn : — "I am assured by 
 " the representative of France that, although he considers it 
 " most desirable that the Eomish Bishops and their mission- ' 
 " aries should have such access to the chief authorities of 
 "jurisdictions as wiU enable- them to represent any wrong 
 " done to their congregations in the matter of religiom free- 
 " dom, the French Legation does not recognize the claim of 
 " the same ecclesiastics to interfere hetween the Chinese Ghrist- 
 "ian and his official in any question in which the free exercise 
 " of his religion is not affected". 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Earl Granville: — "I told M. Gavard that I could not pre- 
 '' tend to think tjhat the conduct of the French missionaries 
 " had been prudent in the interests of Christianity itself, and 
 " that the support which had been given by the Eepresentdr 
 " tive of France to their pretensions was dangerous to the 
 "future relations of Europe with China"... Proper to "re- 
 " strain their missionaries from doing things. . .which seriously 
 " endangered the relations 'of European Powers with Chi- 
 "na"..."the policy and practice of the Government of Great 
 "Britain have been unmistakable.. They have uniformly 
 " declared, and now repeat, that they do not claim to afford 
 " any species of protection to Chinese Christians which may 
 
23 
 
 " be construed as withdrawing them from their native alle- 
 "giance."... 
 
 Mr. (Sir Thomas) "Wade was prepared to have taken,the 
 same view of the Memorial as M. de E4musat, until at the 
 instance of Wen Siang a search in the British Archives 
 hrought to light the memorial of 1869, hidden away and 
 neglected in the dust of nearly two years. This discovery 
 convinced him of the bona fide nature of the memorial of 
 1871 of exactly similar purport and he helieved that, — "It 
 " is intended to he an expose of a state of things that is 
 "sorely irritating the educated class who govern China"... 
 an entire misapprehension of the main point of the docu- 
 ment, which has extremely little to do with the educated 
 class, but is chiefly confined td the bearings of Eomanism on 
 the people. He believes from the "conversations of eight 
 years" that the document is upon the whole true in its 
 charges against Eomanism, but this to his own Government, 
 his language to the Chinese leading them to inter the reverse. 
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 "The views of the German Government on this question 
 " entirely coincide with those expressed in your Lordship's 
 "(Granville's) despatch", (see above). 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 " The President will see with deep regret any attempt to 
 " place a foreign ecclesiastic, as such, on a different footing 
 "feom other foreigners residing in China... The President 
 " would look with equal regret upon any attempt to with- 
 " draw the native christians from the jurisdiction of the Em- 
 " peror without his free consent, or to convert the churches 
 "founded by the missionaries into asylums... he particularly 
 " desires it to be understood that the profession of the Christ- 
 " tian faith is ilot regarded by the officers of the United States 
 
24 
 
 " as a protection against punishment for crime. Ecclesiasti- 
 "cal asylums for crimiaals have never existed in this coun- 
 " tty, nor will they he planted elsewhere through its agen- 
 "cy". 
 
 Mr. Low in his reply to the Tsungli.Yam^n is more direct 
 and practical than Mr. "Wade, yet he himself acknowledges 
 that he evaded the main issue hy, like Sir Thomas, insinuat- 
 ing douhts which he did not feel on the correctness of the 
 facts of the memorial. He writes to his Government, as 
 Mr. Wade did, that it was only the discovery of the document 
 of 1869 caused him to believe in the genuineness of the 
 Memorial of 1871. He knows that no Protestant mission- 
 ary is guilty of the abuses complained of and he believes that 
 Eomanists are. After referring to the age, experience and 
 ability of WSn Siang ("Wan-Tsiang"); who drew up the 
 Memorial, he writes: — "That he (Wen Siang) is sincere in 
 " his professed anxiety about the future, no one well acquaint- 
 "ed with the real condition of affairs here will question... 
 " To reply" (to the Yamen) "and admit what / really heliev- 
 " ed to be true that the Chinese have some ground of com- 
 " plaint, without being able to suggest a practicable remedy, 
 "would only (Jo harin...to simply say that, as their com- 
 " plaints are against the Eoman Catholics, it is a matter 
 " which concerns the French alone, with which other na- 
 " tions have nothing to do, would have the effect to defeat 
 " what the other Treaty Powers have been anxious to bring 
 " about, viz., that when the Chinese have difficulties with 
 " one foreign nation, which are likely to involve all in trou- 
 " ble, they should frankly state their case to be judged by all, 
 " and in this way bring the force of an enlightened public 
 " opinion to bear upon the action of any Government that 
 "attempts to oppress or deal unfairly... My opinions as ex- 
 
" pressed in former despatches touching this matter (of Eo- 
 " mish civil authority in China), are confirmed by further • 
 "investigation". ' • • 
 
 To what does all this amount? The Chinese, afraid to act 
 alone, for fear of offending western Powers, consult with these 
 Powers in order to put an end to that lawlessness on the 
 part of Chinese subjects, converts to Eomanism, which causes 
 bitter hatred against foreigners, makes justice impossible,, 
 murder certain and massacres and wars probable. The Chi- 
 nese "state their case to be judged by all" the Powers, for 
 conjoint action is desired by the latter. There is conjoint 
 action and conjoint double action, for all the ministers agree 
 in stating to their Home Governments that the Chinese have 
 a case, and in stating to the Chinese that they have no case, 
 which is the only sense in which the Chinese can read those 
 evasive replies. France calls the statements made "preten- 
 •■' dus abus, " denying that any such state of matters existed. 
 Mr. "Wade believes it exists, but says in effect to the Chinese 
 Government, what you state is most unlikely to be true, and 
 if it is partially true, appeal to the French ministers who 
 • has already refused to believe. Mr. Low believes it exists 
 and when asked by tne Chinese Government to help in stop- 
 ping it, says that no citizen of the United States will be per- 
 mitted to act in any such manner as that complained of. ISo 
 much for conjoint action. This may be politics, but its ho- 
 nesty is suspicious. 
 
 Both Messrs. "Wade and Low blame the Chinese Govern- 
 ment for resting their case chiefly on the violent deeds of 
 Eomanists in such remote places as Szeohuen and Kweichow 
 where there are no merchants and therefore no Consuls. Both 
 ministers are, I doubt not, perfectly aware that Eomanists do 
 not permit their converts to display their power or snatch 
 
26 
 
 their prey where they can be readily detected; but that, the 
 further from Treaty Ports, the greater the power they wield, 
 u£d the more numerous the converts they make : Both mi- 
 nisters make capital out of the instances quoted to force upon 
 the notice of the Chinese the desirability of opening those 
 ports to the merchant and the Consul. This is a most laud- 
 able object, but I fear that it has led the Chinese to infer that 
 I the foreign ministers think all of trade and nothing of justice. 
 Looking at these replies to the Chinese Government, which 
 are to say the least wholly evasive, is it at all surprising that 
 first the Government and now all magistrates and scholars 
 have inferred that aU foreign nations are either indifferent to, 
 or highly pleased with the Eomanist civil authority over the 
 magistrate and people of his neighbouthood or that the others 
 write evasive replies lest they offend France 1 Mr. Low or 
 his Government should not be surprised that his fear of mak- 
 ing a candid reply according to his belief, has classed the 
 American Government alongside of the others as an abettor 
 and upholder of "ecclesiastical asylums," for he too has 
 given these a helping hand, a help exactly in proportion to 
 the power of the tJnited States in China. 
 
 The rock on which tbak memorial split was the belief of 
 the Chinese Government that the only mode of securing the 
 equality of converts and non-converts before the law, was to 
 get the foreign priest to acknowledge the authority over him 
 of the Chinese magistrate, and to stand before that authority' 
 with the status of a native literateur. The history of the 
 Eomanists in China shows that they were then most power- 
 ful and most successful when they were under native laws 
 and before they began to dictate to and defy native magis- 
 trates. Yet it is perhaps proper that even inland the foreign- 
 er be subject tb his own laws, especially in the present state 
 
27 
 
 of universal giiiiaosiliy against the fpreigper begojiten by the 
 priests. 
 
 But snraly among so many able diplomatists sgrjov^sly en- 
 gaged on that bungled memorial, it might have struck some 
 one that it was possible to secure the equality of native? of 
 all creeds before, and their responsibility solely to, the laws 
 of their own country, without including foreigners therein ! 
 For to any one ^arefuUy reading, this equality pf natives is 
 the pne raison d'etre of the doouinent. 
 
 Meantime the Chinese Government is igntirant of the ex- 
 pressed desire of all the great western Powers, France not 
 e?.Qepted, that it should have abaolnte control in all civil 
 matters over all jts own subjects, and the ha,nds of tj^e Chi^ 
 nese magistrate are paralyzed by the attitude assumed by all 
 those Powers through their Eepyesentatives in Peking. They 
 know the letter of the Treaty on the subject, but they are 
 compelled to read the Treaty in the light of those evasive 
 replies. 
 
 When the Chinese Government had, and still has, a case 
 which every foreign minister acknowledged a just one, every 
 foreign minister agreed to refuse the Government a hearing, 
 or move a little finger to help it ; yet we are al^vays crying 
 put sigainst the Chinese Government because it does not con- 
 cede every foreign demand as soon as made. If this is po- 
 licy it seems to me a someiwhat unwi?e one which some day 
 may produce fruit. Has it nothing to do with the eager de- 
 sire of the Chinese to have all trade in their own hands and 
 tbus rid themselves of the foreigner? 
 
 I have felt compelled to take the liberty of 'criticizing tljie 
 acts of those in authority, only because ot];ierwise it woi^d ba 
 impossible to assign any reasonable cause for the present atti- 
 tude of China towards the Roman Catholic missions, or ac- 
 
28 
 
 count for the general belief that all foreign nations are in- 
 terested in supporting the civil status and power of the priests. 
 Xhis belief exists and cannot in any other manner be account- 
 ed for. 
 
 3rd. — Eanks assumed by Eomanists. 
 
 Those who are in any way acquainted with Chinese cus- 
 toms know with what extreme jealousy they preserve the 
 distinctions of their nine magisterial grades, which foreign- 
 ers somewhat comically call the nine "buttons", from the 
 knobs of precious stone on the official hat, denoting the rank 
 to which the wearer belongs. It is true that some grades, 
 and especially military ones, can be purchased, but these de- 
 ceive no Chinaman, who regards them with contempt; while 
 the civil grades, as implying high literary attainments are 
 greatly superior in Chinese eyes, to the same grade in the 
 army. 
 
 Though these grades are held by literary men only, and, 
 theoretically, the prizes of pure literary ability, no amount of 
 literary attainment or intellectual talent confers any of these 
 grades upon any man. They are official and magisterial 
 and not literary grades, the literary degree and the magiste- 
 rial grade being as distinct as an M, A. and a Judgeship. 
 Any Chinaman discovered guilty of assuming a grade to 
 wfeich he has not been appointed is subject to at least as 
 severe penalties in China as a man deceiving the public in 
 England by calling himself Count This or Judge That. Only 
 those who have Government appointments, civil or military 
 official employment, belong to the nine grades. .The grades 
 of Buddhism and Taoism are purely religious and honorary, 
 conferring not an iota of civil power. 
 
 The Chinese recognise foreign officials, Ministers and Con- 
 suls, as of such and such a grade, while the in-door staff of 
 
29 
 
 the Customs have, I telieve, a certain grade, because in Chi- 
 nese official employment. Any foreigner beyond these ser- 
 
 • 
 
 vices claiming any one of the Chinese grades is guilty o^the 
 same offence against the laws of China as would a Chinaman 
 in England claiming to be a law officer of the crown, from 
 the Woolsack downwards. But what of a Chinaman in Eng- 
 land, possessing probably not a first class education in his 
 native tongue, assuming the rank of English Judge of the 
 Circuit and arrogating the same function ; sometimes judging, 
 condemning, imprisoning and fining English subjects, some- 
 times forbidding the English Judge to examine, and again 
 causing him to reverse a judgment already passed: suppose' 
 such a case, and you have the exact parallel of what Eomish 
 priests do in China j and not only what they do themselves,* 
 but what they empower native converts, attaining to the 
 grade of priest, to do. To the Chinese the term semi-poli- 
 tical has no meaning as applied to the Eomish priests until 
 you drop the semi. 
 
 Observe the phraseology employed by the Eomanists. 
 They are in China to receive adherents and manage all the 
 affairs, civil and religious, of their converts by "Imperial 
 "Authority" or "Letters-Patent".. There is no Pope, but 
 there is the "Emperor of the Faith " ^•f{j^ The Cardinal 
 becomes "King of the Faith", ^ 2,of whom there arelfo^r 
 "Great Kings" ^ 2, who choose the new "Emperor"; 
 The Bishop is "Lord of the Faith" fj; ^; and the only in- 
 congruous name is that of the priest who becomes, "Father 
 " of the Gods", as any Chinaman will translate jjiiji ^t- The 
 key to their whole system is this "By Imperial Authority", 
 or as we used to say "By Eoyal Warrant" or "Letters Pa- 
 ••tent". These two words "Chin ming" are graved in large 
 characters and hoisted high before their chapels to be seen of ( 
 
30 
 
 all. Every writ or warrant by which they imprison non- 
 oonvert natives, who have come under their displeasure, or 
 
 c 
 
 are ]jpt ready to meet the terms of peace dictated by the con- 
 verts, begins as foUows ^ ^ :k fil B M W W.° ° " 
 M'^ Wi ^^°-! ^^^-t *^8 three blanks standing for name of 
 Province and of Priest. The same official writ is stamped 
 in red at the bottom of both the beginning and end of the 
 paper, the large foreign envelope enclosing this writ being 
 stamped in the same manner, the oval stamp being of the 
 following size and style : — ■ 
 
 * Name + 
 and Surname 
 of priest in 
 French. 
 
 » 
 
 +t Priegt's 
 title, 
 
 000 Three 
 Chinese "seal" 
 characters — 
 ■priest's sur- 
 name and 
 
 QUO Name 
 of province. 
 
 + Cross re- 
 quirdfe no ex- 
 plaii^tipn. 
 
 ME I take 
 to mflm «Mis- 
 stons Etran- 
 g^res." ' At 
 as.ph side of 
 the inner oval 
 is a flower. To- 
 avoid person- 
 alities I have 
 
 * not given the name. Above this ataiBp at both the beginning and 
 
31 
 
 the end of th6 paper are the two characters ^ 0]5"\vhijao," imply- 
 ing that the document is written by one who has at least equal ma- 
 gisterial status with the person addressed. * 
 
 • » 
 A foreigner may langh at the miserable imposture of 
 
 palming off a private stamp for an ofacial and magisterial 
 seal, but to the Chinaman who does not know a roman letter 
 the above is as formidable as any imperial seal of office, he 
 naturally judging of the seal by the form of address to him- 
 self, and being unable to comprehend, or even believe, that 
 any man would have the boldness to issue falsehoods of so ' 
 grave a nature, for he is addressed by one who " by Imperial 
 "Authority" is a "Magistrate of France" to "rule over" "all 
 " matters" without exception which have any connexion with 
 "the faith", or, which is the same thing, ":with the coif- 
 "verts"; and who is a magistrate "the equal" or "superior" 
 of the magistrate addressed. Hence no amount of laughter 
 will convince him that this seal is not given either by the 
 Emperor of China or the "Emperor" of Erance, for the Ro- 
 manists leave him to infer whom he choses. When there- 
 fore a prisoner is brought by a band of "converts" with a 
 writ as above described the magistrate dares not ask to exa- 
 mine the case, dares not refuse to receive the prisoner, but 
 has to throw him into the condemned ceU, for, the prisoner 
 has already been judged and condemned by the priest, ^qr as 
 in most cases, by his subordinates. And the man lies in 
 prison till the priest or his " converts " release him or tiU he 
 dies. 
 
 The official who, with fear and trembling, let me see one 
 writ from which I copied the above, told me I could see hun- 
 dreds such if only he could be sure that he would not lo^e his 
 situation, by the vengeance of the Eomanists. I got the 
 sight of that one only because I had said over and over again j 
 
32 
 
 that the conduct universally ascrihed to the priests was im- 
 possible and incredible. 
 
 ,TJhe Eomish Bishop assumes the rank, position and preced- 
 ence of a Taotai, i. e. 3rd. grade (1st. being the highest in Chi- 
 na); the common priest is of the 4th, that of Chihfu, taking 
 precedence of all magistrates, under that grade, the lower five 
 grades belong to native converts according to their position 
 in the church. Some of these natives are of such mental cali- 
 .bre and education that they would be unfit for common 
 clerks in a native TamSn, yet one such whom I saw 'some- 
 time ago said with great humility that he was not 4th grade 
 yet, he was only 5th, Which is the Grade of Chihchow. 
 
 In 1868 a Bishop had the impudence to write to the 
 Tsungli YamSn by the Government post couriers, using the 
 form " chao hui " ( Jaohwi), commending ^ Taotai and others 
 to the YamSn and asking for them extraordinary marks of 
 favour ! 
 
 The Chinese Government was of old aware that the titles 
 assumed by the priests were false and their claims to juris- 
 diction over Chinese converts and non-converts, an impos- 
 ture, and we have seen how they were treated by foreign 
 Ministers when endeavouring to come to a proper under- 
 standing on the subject. ■ Hence their belief that all foreign 
 governments are at one in upholding those titles and abetting 
 those claims, in order out of these " converts " to form a 
 foreign' party. 
 
 4th. — Cases illustrating the Civil Modus Operandi. 
 
 An illustrative case which happened three years ago can 
 be briefly stated. A few years ago a man became a convert 
 to Eomanism,- whose ancestor had gifted a portion of land to 
 a temple. The convert demanded restitution of that land 
 and his demand was not complied with. He laid his com- 
 
33 
 
 plaint before Chihhien, stating in his petition, according to 
 Eomish, but contrary to all native usage, his religious 
 persuasion, in order to have the more weight with the '^^- 
 gistrate. The Magistrate decided that as the claimant 
 acknowledged the former, free, unconditional gift to the 
 temple, the gift could not now he recalled, and dismissed the 
 case. 
 
 The case was .appealed to the Tartar General three years 
 ago, who, after the necessary examinations, confirmed the 
 decision of the lower court. 
 
 Now appears the peculiar action of the priest, for it is only 
 when the members of his flock are unable to carry their 
 point that he interferes. The priest went into Moukden, 
 marched into the presence of the Governor-General and 
 demanded the reversal of , the sentence, for — "we do not 
 " believe La the temples." The Governor-General replied that 
 it was a case of mere justice, and that he cahnot decide 
 otherwise than he did. But the persistency of the priest 
 gained the point, as often before and since, and the Gover- 
 nor-General had to yield, reversing his own decision and 
 ordering the Chihhien to find for the pursuer. 
 
 It is this appeal to the Governor-General which frightens 
 the inferior magistrates lest he, who, in his turn, fears inter- 
 national difficulties, should strip them of their office £»nd 
 send them into private life, for causing trouble by opposing 
 the priest. This fear exists, whether justified by instances 
 of such degradation or not I have not enquired. This case 
 is however one which causes no great stir, it is quoted by 
 Eemanist converts to show the power of their priest) by 
 other natives to show that power combined with injustice. 
 But the two cases following, in which I have been a score of 
 times implored to interfere in the interest of justice are of 
 
34 
 
 the kind which rouse wide spread enmity and lead sooner 
 or later to murder. 
 
 , «[n Pooho, a village north of Moukden, an old man Shu, 
 without dependants, opened a small eating house for foot- 
 travellers, by which to eke out a scanty livelihood. In the 
 same village there lived a "ne'er-do-well," Ni, whose only 
 occupation was gambling, which as it is accompanied by, or 
 leading to, all kinds of vice, is strictly prohibited by Chinese 
 law and for which many have been beheaded in Moukden. 
 i(i patronised the small eating house rather more than Shu 
 desired, for a whole year had passed, his account accumulat- 
 ing with every meal. 
 
 In December last he appeared in the eating house along 
 with five friends for whom he ordered dinner and with whom 
 he made so merry that he became intoxicated. When they 
 rose to go, M ordered the landlord to " put this down to his 
 " account." The old man refused, saying that his account was 
 already too large, for that it had now run up a whole year 
 without any cash payments. This refusal led to high words, 
 and what with drink on the one side and outraged anger on 
 the other, the matter became at last so hot that M smashed 
 all the crockery-ware of the inn and cut open his own head, 
 so that blood appeared, — a common Chinese trick, — in order 
 tfftbe sure of vengeance. By this time many of the villagers 
 were on the spot and by their mediation a peace was patched 
 up, M agreeing not to prosecute for his broken head, and 
 Shu not to count his broken dishes and to cancel Ni's 
 account. 
 
 As none of the parties was a Eomanist the affair was 
 regarded as closed. But a cook of the priest's in Moukden, a 
 native of that village, and some distant relation of M's, who 
 was a convert, got a travelling cart, by which he sent off his 
 
35 
 
 old mother, Mrs. Yao, to the village. She entered the inn 
 and after stating whence she came, demanded the immediate 
 payment of 400 tiaos (Tls. 50 or £15) in order to hush^p 
 the qnarrel of her relation Ni. The landlord, who could not 
 raise a third of the money, and perhaps smarting under his 
 losses hy Ni, indignantly refused to give the whole or a part 
 of the extortionate demand. Mrs. Yao however would not 
 have a hare refusal, but sat on. using her tongue and her pa-, 
 tience, as only Chinese can, till at length Shu, in despera- 
 tion, sent for the headman of the village. He knew well all 
 the parties in the play, explained to Mrs. Yao how unjust 
 were her demands, and urged her to depart. "With the jus- 
 tice of the claim she had nothing to do, and she would go 
 away as soon as the money was paid. The assistant head- 
 man was next summoned in and he agreed with his chief in 
 everything he had said, both advising the woman to desist 
 from making such a claim after the principal parties had 
 already dropped the matter. But her tongue and pertinacity 
 more than matched both them and the villagers who had 
 collected. 
 
 The villagers seeing no probable end to the affair, know- 
 ing Ni's worthless character, determined, in their anger, to 
 bring the matter to a crisis by accusing Ni, to the magistrate 
 in Moutden. They therefore bound Ni, set him on a "large" 
 cart, surrounded by Shu, his nephew, the two headmen and a 
 fifth as accusers and witnesses. Theirs however was a slow 
 cart, and Mrs. Yao in her "small" cart got into Moukden . 
 long before them. "When therefore the large cart got inside 
 the gates of Moukden, but before it got to the Yam ^n, it 
 was surrounded by a band of over twenty Eomanists, which 
 compelled the party to go to the Romish Chapel. There a 
 native priest named Hia, of course well posted up, sat in 
 
36 
 
 judgment over the six, for he too is a H^To. 4 button magistrate. 
 
 . He found the five guilty of the crime of persecuting the 
 iaribcent M; drew out the usual writ, stamped it and sent 
 the party of five bound to the Yamen, whither they had been 
 leading M, who, more fortunate than they, was safely lodged 
 in the ChapSl. The native magistrate had to imprison the 
 five men in the condemned cell, which is possibly a slight 
 improvement on the "Black Hole". 
 
 1 ^ The yhole story soon leaked out. The five men prayed 
 for legal examination by their ' own magistrate and before 
 their accusers. Their friends oUtgide joined in the prayer, for 
 old Shu became seriously unwell and it was feared he would 
 
 , add another to the deaths said to have been caused by the 
 Eomanists iii this way. The fifth man had some friends 
 among the "converts" by whose aid he was liberated on pay- 
 ment of a reduced fine, but the magistrate dared not move. 
 And though after sometime, various attempts were made to 
 induce Ni, the prosecutor, to' appear to support his charges 
 before the magistrate, he thought it safer to remain in the 
 Chapel. 
 
 All this time some Eomanists daily visited the cell, partly 
 to see that the prisoners were not removed to a less noisome 
 apartment, and partly to induce them to come to terms. 
 Freedom was offered them on condition : 1st. — That Ni would 
 remain for ever unmolested, and 2nd. — That a large fine should 
 be paid, or a reduced fine if they became Eomanists. The 
 
 .first, before a month of this frightful imprisonment had pass- 
 ed, they were ready to grant, but with the second they 
 could not 'Comply, for though they tried hard to raise the 
 amount, they were unable, and they would not become Eo- 
 manists, as some have done to escape persecution. 
 
 A young scholar, Yin, a native of the north of Moukden 
 
37 
 
 and a relation of Shu's, had heen received sometime as a 
 member of the Protestant Church in Moukden. The four, 
 prisoners, believing him one of the Eomanist set, besoag^t 
 him through another friend to procure them a trial, for they 
 sought only to be tried, willing to suffer for whatever crime 
 of which the law might find them guilty. He went to the 
 Yamin but was informed that without authority from the 
 priest it was impossible to move in the matter. He went to 
 Hia, who for certain reasons used to be very gracious to him, , 
 but was anything butgracious now. Soon after this I went to 
 Moukden and heard of the case first from him, he beseeching 
 me to interfere by getting either the priest or the magistrate 
 to agree to a trial, for that the magistrates would not dare 
 
 9 
 
 refuse if I asked him. I objected, telling him that if Roma- 
 nists broke the law to injure men, I could not break the law 
 even to save them, or in any way interfere with purely na- 
 tive matters, with which I had no concern. At the same 
 time I informed him that only native magistrates had juris- 
 diction over Chinese subjects, and that by Treaty with all 
 foreign nations the native magistrate had jurisdiction over 
 all Chinese subjects, who, irrespective of creed, were amena- 
 ble for their conduct to the laws of their native land. 
 
 Ic was probably on account of this information that a day 
 was nominated for the trial, and messengers were sent'ttfthe 
 Eomish Chapel to invite the prosecutor to appear. They were 
 met at the gate by a lot of converts who informed them that 
 Ni was inside, but defied them to move one step across the 
 threshold. They then began to abuse and revile the mes- 
 sengers in Chinese style and with such good effect that the 
 representatives of the law skulked away with blushing faces 
 and the trial did not come off. 
 
 It would appear that in his desire to have a trial Yin was 
 
/ 
 
 38 
 
 giving more trouble than the Tlomanists usually encounter 
 and to crush the apparent plot to thrust off their yoke, they 
 nowcput forward their last and strongest card — the French 
 priest. He goes to the YamSn and sits there, keeping the 
 magistrate a prisonet for four hours, till the second watch 
 struck and long after the lamps were lit, in order to gain his 
 two points: 1st. — That M should remain unmolested, and 
 2nd. — That the bad man Yin should be at once imprisoned. 
 Tlie weak maf;istrate at length yielded the first, but would 
 grant the second only on condition that the priest would 
 write out a formal indictment, which though he threatened, 
 he did not think proper, to do. 
 
 M had been now some time baptized in his asylum, and, 
 probably fearing they might get into a scrape, a member of 
 the brotherhood was sent to the Yamen, got the four prison- 
 ers' away to the chapel, where they were admonished on 
 their evil conduct, a word of expostulation from one of them 
 bringing down an angry order for silence else they would be 
 sent back again. They fell therefore on their kneesj kept 
 their silence, gave the greatly reduced fine and were rejoiced 
 to find themselves free again. 
 
 "And what of M"1 I have enquired of more than one of 
 his feUow-viUagers. They, taking me at first for a Eoma- 
 nist,''«ay "he is a very good man," but at length give their 
 true convictions, that he will be free to act as he chooses now 
 that he is baptized, none daring even to hint of prosecution, 
 for such a hint is equivalent to the hasty man's imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 In one of the south streets of Moukden there is a distille- 
 ry in which a neighbouring pawnshop had invested a sum of 
 money, which with interest amounts to Tls. 10,000, but had 
 no active management. Hii Minli, an employS of the distille- 
 
39 
 
 ry, was so good an assistant that, besides his wages, a certain 
 small share had been allowed him out of the profits, from 
 which he has received considerable suits of money. Lasfcoy^ar 
 business was so bad that the distillery had to stop work, 
 was closed at the end of the Chinese year in February, and 
 Minli dismissed without any additional share, inasmuch as 
 there had been a loss instead of a profit. Some time after 
 his dismissal Minli, at the head of a dozen men with three 
 large carts, presented himself at the gate of the distillery to, 
 take forcible possession of all the grain he could lay hands 
 on. This robbery was of course resisted by the men in 
 charge, but a small sum of money or quantity of grain was 
 offered him for peace sake; sufi&cient to keep him in food for 
 some months. This he scornfully rejected and a "row" be- 
 gan, Minli pushing his wife forward in front of his men, 
 saying "Strike, if you will"! As he found himself unal&le 
 to carry out his design he led his wife towards one of the 
 wells in the compound, urging her to jump in. This terrified 
 the distillers lest they should be accused of murder, or, 
 which is in Chinese law much the same, of cruelty such as 
 leads to suicide. As they were so much more numerous than 
 the assailants, they therefore laid hold of Minli and his nlen 
 and bound them. 
 
 One of the partners of the pawnshop, knowing of tha'dis- 
 turbance, went over and exhorted to peace and reason, again 
 saying to Minli that he might have some money or a little 
 grain, but that the distillers could not allow him to act as hp 
 desired. That however did not suit his plans and the dis- 
 tillers saw no other way out of the difficulty than by formal- 
 ly accusing Minli to the magistrate. This they did, leading 
 him to the Yamgn themselves. Here they were met by 
 "converts" from the Romish shapel, with the card of the 
 
40 
 
 .priest vrh.0 forbade the magistrate to imprison tliis man, who 
 was a relation of the legal factotum of the Eomanists called 
 Jang Chungju, an illiterate man, who gets others to write his 
 writs, ,by whom he was now supported, and at whose insti- 
 gation, it is supposed, he acted. Minli was therefore set 
 free, before he crossed the YamSn gate. This was however 
 only step first in what is believed to have been a well-laid 
 plot, the rest to be carried out by Chungju who was now 
 tieaj^d to utter threats against the pawnshop, his design being 
 inferred to be to compel the paiwnshop to drop, in his and 
 hia friend's favour, its interests in the distillery. This plot 
 was joined by some of the distillery bankrupt partntrs, all 
 under Chungju. The pawnshop men heard of his threats 
 frequently and these were directed, not against, the employes 
 but against the principals. One day he appeared at the head 
 of a band of "convertsj" entered by the front gate of the 
 pawnshop, passed through to the back where he found part- 
 ner Liw in a room by himself. Him.they seized; but in- 
 stead of going back through the shop where they might be 
 ppposed, they took him out by the back door, some of them 
 leaped over the north wall of the compound and Liw was 
 handed to them over the wall, conducted to the Tamin and 
 imprisoned by the writ already described; He was impri- 
 soBed on the charge of binding Minli and his band. Soma 
 influence was brought to bear on the magistrate and he sought 
 to siit in court on the subject, but no prosecutor would ap- 
 jjear. He made up his mind to memorialize the Governor 
 General but his courage failed him. As Chungju did not 
 get his will carried out as speedily as he sought, he now 
 threatened, to imprison every one of the partners of the pawn- 
 shop, unless their interest in the distUlery was propped in 
 his favour. The result was that all the partners fled, some 
 
41 
 
 to theii houses, soine to hiding places in Moukden, the one 
 who gave me the story living in a small room in an inn, 
 ■which was locked aU day and which ho dared open onlji at 
 night, and the large husiness has heen suspended for now 
 nearly four months, a few only of the employes heing left 
 there to keep watch. The case is now under appeal to the 
 French Consul, Liw having at last ventuued on that course 
 as his only hope, not of release, but of trial, for he too and 
 his co-partners desire simply to have the matter tried ^y the 
 aative magistrate and he judged a<eeoEding t^ hM. At first 
 he dared not appe^, for h^ believed the statepients of the 
 Romanists, that there is no authority superior to theirs in 
 China and feared that by appealing, his case would becoiOB 
 worse. Chungju, who has a paid agent in the Yaamifen, known 
 to everybody, heard of the appeal immediately, aad was 
 quieted down for some time. But as on acciouiit .of other 
 pressing business, the appeal was not speedily repliad to, he 
 has, I am informed, again betaken himself to his old courses 
 and has recestly imprisoned another merchant. I trust how- 
 ever it will be about his last, for if the Conswl xmrely states 
 to the ffia^kate that all Chinese subjects irrespective of 
 creed are responsible to Chinese magistrates, we shall hear no 
 mor^ of this bare&ced lawlessness, which is based /entirely on 
 the absolute support of men like Chungjvi by the priest. 
 The priest is willing enough that the prisoner he examined 
 by the magistrate, but Chinese law cannot act if the accuser 
 and accused are not face to face, and /the priest has too 
 much affection for lambs of his flock like Chungju, to 
 permit the magistrate to examine them even as prosecutors 
 or witnesses. Hence an examination means, "to examine 
 " the prisoner and find him guilty'', and as the Chinese ma- 
 gistrate cannot do this, ths prisoner remains a prisoner till 
 
4»2 
 
 he is released by accepting the .terms of his persecutors, or 
 by death. 
 
 ^ eft may be objected that the Chinese are such liars, that it 
 is extremely difficult to teU when they speak truth, and the 
 statement is, alas ! only too correct. It is true also that the 
 fear of trouble of any kind or a fairly good bribe would in- 
 duce magistrate or witness to reverse his former testimony. 
 Yet in regard to these two cases I personally believe their 
 'truth, 1st. — because of their verisimilitude and coherence as 
 cause and effect; 2nd. — because when I was implored to act in 
 the matter, it was not to defy, evade or mitigate a sentence 
 already passed by a competent judge, it was not even to show 
 some interest in their 'fate while being judged, in order to 
 secure a more lenient verdict, it was in order that they might 
 have a fair legal trial in native fashion, under native laws 
 and by their own native magistrate, for they did not even once 
 hint at the desirability of my presence in court. Others, not 
 in any way connected with Bomanism, have come to me in 
 order to mitigate or annul a sentence passed, or likely to be 
 passed by the magistrate, but these belong to a different cate- 
 gory. Inasmuch as the Pooho case is already finished I 
 believe it would be difficult to get some of the principals to 
 speak, as when they were in > prison^ because they fear Ro- 
 nlieh vengeance, though there are a few men who would still 
 witness anywhere to the details ; while there is no difficul- 
 ty about ascertaining all the truth in re the pawnshop while 
 it is subjudiee, Liw unexamined, being still in the condemned 
 cell and seriously unwell. 
 
 But, for argument's sake, suppbse the filling in of the 
 Pooho case to be a fabrication of the headmen and villagers 
 of that village, suppose those headmen to be scoundrels, old 
 Shu with the other witnesses rogues, and M a pattern of 
 
43 
 
 moral excellence, what conceivable object could those five 
 men have in prosecuting a man at great cost of time and mo- 
 ney out of whom they could not "squeeze" a doUarl Aad. 
 why the Eomanist band seizing the cartl Suppose even 
 they did not seize the cart, my unabated charge remains the 
 same, that Romish priests, or their native retainers using the 
 priest's seal, can imprison any Chinaman over the magis- 
 trate's head and against the magistrate's will, and can open 
 his prison doors in the same manner, of which there is proof 
 in the archives of the Moukden magistracy in the form of the 
 stamped writ imprisoning those five men. The same reason- 
 ing applies to the pawnshop case. The power which impti- 
 sons is that of the priest; the power which liberates is that 
 of the priest, the magistrate cannot refuse to lodge the priso7 
 ner, he Cannot free him and he must free him when the 
 priest or Jang Chungju desires. 
 
 It is, I imagine, scarcely necessary to crowd more pages 
 with other instances of this authority. As to material there 
 is xmfortunately only too much of it ; and from my own ex- 
 perience I feel as if I could guarantee numerous such 
 instances in the Tamen of any city in China, iu the neigh- 
 bourhood of a Eomish Chapel and at some little distance 
 from the ports ; for probably there is a good reason why one 
 never hears of such things taking place on the Coast. '■' 
 
 It is decidedly true that the Eomish form of Christianity 
 in China turns father against son, son against father, hus- 
 band against wife and friend against friend. But in China, 
 the " tables are turned," for it is the convert persecutes the 
 non-convert, and hales him to prison, where he lies tUl he ia 
 tamed into willingness to come to terms with the converts ; 
 but he is never freed by the force of justice or the power of 
 the magistrate. 
 
44 
 
 Not far from Mbukden two near relations own contiguous 
 properties. One was a " convert/' the other not. The con- 
 ^^0?t wfts encroaching on the land of thenon-convett, who 
 resented it, and a quarrel got up, which seht theoonTert into 
 Mbukden to his priest to complain that his neighhour would 
 neither enter the church himself, nbr perihit him peaceably 
 to enter ; liot only so, but he had trampled on d, cross ; an 
 unintentional crime for which mdt a few have! been im- 
 brisoned. A writ was immediately dra^rn out and stamped^ 
 arid the nbn-oonvert lodged in the prisdli till he came to 
 terms with his converted kinsman; 
 
 Thesd facts aie presEinted to the readerj not to Stir up a 
 ^ilferous ikdigiiation against frhe rdektess authors of such 
 eriinesi but to show that th© Ghinbse hare good reason to 
 ooAbiflia " Opium and Missiojiaries," as the causes of theit 
 restless fear of, and aversion against, foreigner! It iS t& pte'- 
 vent acta likd this that the memorials of 1869 and 1671 were 
 (dia^n up by WSk Siang, and it is beeai:fee etasive Replies 
 were given to those memorials that the Chinese persist in 
 Mieving that, in theit d^site tO ereatfe ftn independent 
 foreign pfeitty, It is the Will of all the Si^at toWerS to havd 
 matters thUs. 
 
 It Tcas foflabriy the faaMon to deny that the j)tlests acted 
 tfius, actogating fcilfe6 titles and tistiiping a oitil authority> 
 eV*il ovet tli*i* own eonvettSi But Whto tho priests th^m- 
 M'^es 'glot^ ill th6 fOtaer ifi the'it "Afmd'es M la phipAga- 
 I^H de ia iPW, " detailing ^ith p*id6 ik^ abtotopanimdnts of 
 Ihfeiil t«,nk,-^the fflrftog of guAfe, unfuHiag Of banaers, inusits 
 And dvelcf otheic in»k of 'distinction, belonging to high man- 
 d4Hii4;^wlien tWey take fio ttoubte to hido the tank they 
 assVimfe bven ia petl towias, ahd mate the gteatest disjday of 
 it inland, only lamentable ignorance can m future que*- 
 
45 
 
 tion this crime against Chinese law ; and when, with a 
 wonderful logic worthy of the cause, passages of scripture 
 are advanced by them in the Celestial Umpire, llth,]^o- 
 Tember, 1875, in fayour of preventing any convert of any 
 character from appearing in Court to answer for his crimes, 
 the sceptical may believe that the priests will shield all their 
 converts, — even if they wUl not believe the distinct state- 
 ments to that effect of Messrs. Wade and Low and Earl 
 Granville. But what the Chinese people object to chiefly 
 is, not that Romanists can never be got into a Court of Law 
 as defendants, but that they are so frequently in the Court 
 of Law as prosecutors, — nay as condemning judges. Of this 
 I have given two instances simply because I know them to 
 be true from personal connexion with them. The two can 
 be made two hundred by the proper authorities. 
 
 It is a clever device of the foreign abettors of this systSm 
 of robbery and oppression to endeavour to gain foreign 
 favour by always decrying against the enmity of the literary 
 classes, as Lf such enmity had been incurred by protecting 
 the poor from injustice. This is certainly not true. All 
 China and especially the middle and lower classes, outside, 
 the " converts," unite in this hatred of the foreigner and for 
 the causes detailed above. 
 
 As an apology for the exercise of this imperium in im^irio, 
 it is urged that Chinese Magistrates are so corrupt. "When 
 we say that the Chinese Magistrate is much better than the 
 Turkish, possibly equal to the average Eussian; and not 
 always much more corrupt than some judges in other Christ- 
 ian lands, it does not prove him of a high moral standard 
 as to the sources of his income. Their precarious tenure of 
 office, and their miserable salary, which is in many cases in- 
 sufficient to clothe them, drive Chinese Magistrates into 
 
,46 
 
 dishonesty, as it would drive some members of the feritish 
 Parliament, if they had not private ways of making ends 
 m^eW If the Magistracy is corrupt, it is, for the Chinese 
 people to change it, unless you are prepared to make China 
 a second India. It is no reason for establishing another 
 corrupt Magistracy beside it. But even though the Magis- 
 trate is everywhere spoken against as a lover of private gain 
 rather than of public justice, all the people unite with him 
 in detestation of this foreign yoke which compels the law to 
 ' pick pockets in the face of day. Hence the Chinese say 
 there are two kinds of people become "foreigners," — as 
 " converts " are called, — one, the few wealthy in order to 
 escape from plunder; the other, the many poor in order to 
 te able to plunder with' impunity. The prediction of WSn 
 Siapg is abundantly verified, for since 1871 the power of the 
 prfests has been greatly increased and the deeds of violence 
 and robbery by the converts have become more numerous, 
 because the magistrate believes all foreign nations bound to 
 support those who create this "foreign party." It is indeed 
 true as Mr. (Sir Thomas) "Wade points out, that the Chinese 
 Magistrate is more careful than ever of the life of the priest, 
 — but not because the priest has behaved more honestly, 
 but because the Chinese dread a war with Europe which 
 they, believe wUl he the result of a murdered priest, and 
 which they fear may ultimately result from refusal to obey 
 the priest. If there is murder of priest or convert, rest as. 
 sured it is as much against the desire of the ];esponsible 
 magistrate, whatever his secret inclinations, as against that 
 of any foreign power. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Lest the foregoing be misunderstood let me say that I 
 don't believe a foreigner capable of plundering the Chinese 
 
47 
 
 in thia manner, — whatever the Chinese say to the contrary : 
 — secondly, that the foreigner is probably never informed of 
 any case going on till the magistrate becomes a little rfrjc- 
 tiouj and requires the presence of the priest to reduce him 
 again to due submission ; and thirdly, that the priest, though 
 well aware there are cases in which it would be unsafe for 
 members of his flock to be examined before witnesses, is 
 rarely acquainted with the merits of any case in which he 
 acts, but that he is the puppet pulled by his clevarer con-, 
 verts any way they please and deceived by any story they 
 forge. This however does not in the least alter the political 
 aspect of the question, for the name which is used is that of 
 the priest, the power which is wielded is that of the priest ; 
 the name of the Chinese actor never occurring on any writ, 
 and the power of that actor being nil. The priest is there- 
 fore guilty of the illegality of imprisoning and extortion iu 
 every instance, whether such illegal acts are known to him 
 or not, — for he must either agree to the use of his name and 
 seal in each individual case, or empower his subordinate to 
 use them whenever he has any reason for their use. The 
 priest may therefore be deceived by his subordinate, but he 
 cannot shake off the responsibility of crimes, which, if not 
 always done by himseK directly, are always done under his 
 authority. ' *' 
 
 I am far from desiring to see real converts fewer in number 
 or priestly influence for good any other than greatly in- 
 creased. But I do most emphatically protest againsji 
 converting " the house of prayer '' into " a den of thieves," 
 or what the President of the United States calls " Ecclesias- 
 " tical Asylums," andjthe exercise by the priests of a usurped 
 political authority to which they have as little claim as in 
 France or Germany and such as they never had in any 
 
48 
 
 other country or age, for when the western magistrates had 
 ;to carry out the behests of priests by faggot or fine, it was 
 oulf when magistrate and people willed to have it so. 
 
 To recapitulate : the foreigner is hated in China. He is 
 hated by Chinese, if possible, even more than by Manehus.* 
 He is hated because he is feared ; and feared because he is 
 credited with designs upon the freedom of China. The 
 only proof of these designs is the creation of a "foreign 
 , " party " in China, prepared by " Missionaries," who are 
 supported by all foreign nations, especially by France,, 
 in defying Chinese law, in overruling Chinese magistrates, 
 in shielding Chinese criminals and imprisoning the victims of 
 those criminals. The preceding facts are propf sufficient that 
 the Chinese have only too good reason for their belief. 
 
 The Manchu Government occupies a difficult position, as 
 already noticed, and it requires no great keenness of vision to 
 perceive that the fact that an unarmed foreigner in the re- 
 mote corner of Szeohuen or the wilds of Kirincan successfully 
 support a native Chinaman in defying the law and outraging 
 jwsticB, is calculated to remove all respect for the weak Go- 
 vernment, which permits such an intolerable state of matters. 
 What is the Ekmkdt for this evil? The evil is itself a poli- 
 tical not a religious one, it has political not religious issues, 
 arfd the remedy must be consummated by the politician not 
 by the missionary. And the sooner the politician sets to 
 gra^ppling with and removing the difficulty the better, for he 
 ,will remove what is a disgrace to western civilisation, and 
 what is irritatimg the Chinese people in every province so 
 -constantly and increasingly that murder is sure and conse- 
 quent war probable. If France does indeed desire to annex 
 
 • In " Celestial Empire " 26tli May, 1877, the following corroborat- 
 ing words oocnr : " the obstructwe element is not to be found in the 
 Imperial clan— it is to be found almost exclusively among the Chinese." 
 
49 
 
 tlie whole or a portion of China and is eager to secure te- 
 spectahle "casus belli", she has only to permit the priests to 
 pursue their present policy and order her ministers to cry 
 "pretendus abus" whenever the Chinese complain, an5 in 
 trial she will have " casus belli " sufficient. But I cannot be- 
 lieve that French policy has sunk so low, I would rather be- 
 lieve that her Government is unaware of the truth. 
 
 Address the priests to apply the remedy; they will stare 
 at you; and in spite of the clearest evidence to the contrliry* 
 they will tell you that they observe the Treaty with the InosS 
 scrupulous care. Appeal to them to avoid future war by 
 acting like honest men in renouncing titles which are a lie 
 and power which is a falsehood, they will laugh at or revile 
 you as a calumniator. They will not kill "the goose ilf&t 
 "lays the golden eggs." Ask Messrs. Wade and Low to ex- 
 tricate the matter, they refer you to the French MinistBrt,nd 
 he in his turn replies "pretendus abus" ! When the Chinese 
 people feels the coils of a hostile and foreign power tighten- 
 ing round the throat of its national life, it regards the mur- 
 der of the agents of this power as a meritorious deed, just as 
 did every nation in Europe. Will this murder in detail or 
 wholesale be regarded by the French Minister as "pretendus 
 " ■massacres"1 If not he should unite with the other ministers 
 in preventing it. ., 
 
 The Eemedy is not far to seek nor difficult of application. 
 It is not, as Mr. Low affirmed it ''is, with France alone." 
 To whomsoever will be due the merit of pointing out the 
 remedy, its application is with the Chinese magistrate alone, 
 for no law will control the priest, when away from foreign 
 eyes. In defiance of special legislation, in spite of Treaties, 
 he will continue this course of conduct to the end, as he has 
 done since 1860, unless the Chinese magistrate is plainly • 
 
50 
 
 informed of the publicly exjDressed professions of the 'western 
 Powers, as (iohtained in the above quotations. 
 • AH the Chinese Government desired, all the magistrate 
 ■wSnfs, is to have , all Chinese people, without exception, sub- 
 ject to their native laws for all civil and political purposes, 
 
 Xiet then the Chinese Government know the honest truth, 
 and widely as the YamSn prpclamation has declared that all 
 foreigners without exception are amenable only to the laws 
 q^ their native land, so widely let it be known that Chinese 
 i^ujpjects are amenable oidy to Chinese law, that all Chinese 
 subjects irrespective of creed are amenable to these laws, and 
 that no (jonversion to, any creed aifects the civil and political 
 relations of a .Chinese subject, th« Gordian Knot is atonQe 
 iintied, not cut as otherwise it must be; , ' 
 
 Let the politicians in power, intereked in the preservation 
 o^ peace, in the integrity and future prosperity of the Chi- 
 nese empirp and in the establishment of more cordial rela- 
 tions between her and the west, inform the Chinese magis- 
 trate that he can demand and compel the appearance before 
 him, and the legal examination, pf any Chinese-born subject, 
 and that he will be in no danger of plunging his native coun- 
 try into war, or of losing his own position, for refusing to act 
 as the turnkey of the priest, or opposing his unjust and ille- 
 gal demands, for that he is bound by the written Treaty and 
 i^pt by the deceptive words of a priest. Then you will hear 
 no more of the anomalous combination, " Opium and Mission- 
 "aries." Let the p^^est be permitted to. preach that the Pope 
 cannot err, to argue and prove that canvass or even stone 
 Madonnas can wink, that the bones pf saints can cure ner- 
 vous diseases. Let him convert all China if he can to be- 
 lieve in the propriety and benefit of kissing, bending before 
 and making, the sign of the cross or any other image. But, 
 
51 
 
 let the Chinese magistrate know that the priest's magisterial 
 stamp is a forged one, that his title is a false one, that his 
 power is a usurped one. And the helief which mouldg and 
 has moulded Chinese foreign policy will cease; for when 
 every Chinaman of whatever creed is subject to the laws of „ 
 his own country, the helief in the desire of foreigners to en- 
 slave China, will disappear with its cause. 
 
 Sir Thomas Wade was incorrect in stating that the "hos- 
 " tility of the lettered class" was all, or even the larger pA- 
 portion of, the danger roused by the conduct of the prie?ts, 
 hut he is perfectly correct in stating that, — "Either the mis- 
 "sionary must he supported out and out by the sword of the 
 " protecting Powers, or he must be placed by the protecting 
 "Powers under restrictions which wiU enable the Chinese 
 " Government to declare to those whose conservatism chafes 
 " at the present pretentions of the missionary, that he (^e 
 " missionary) is not authorized by the Power-protecting him 
 "to put forward the pretensions objected to". This can 
 be done easily, and can be done only in the manner men- 
 tioned above, requiring neither revision of Treaties, nor 
 months of telegraphic correspondence, but a straightforward 
 statement of the true meaning of the existing Treaty. 
 "There is", therefore, as Sir Thomas again says, "really no 
 " need for modification of the Treaties in force", but there 
 is the greatest need of an honest observance of them. 
 
^■^■.''^ ^.