[1] "We are never for a moment unwatched; ... if my servant runs after
a butterfly, a two-sworded official runs after him."—Laurence Oliphant,
Letter from Yedo, July 1861.
[2] "As a general rule, our guardians exercise their functions with civility;
when they are impertinent, one has to submit as one would to one's jailor....
With entire humility, one is in no danger whatever."—Oliphant, 2nd
July 1861.
[3] The effect of the commercial isolation of Japan on the value of general
commodities was no less striking. The first foreign traders might have
bought with eyes shut nearly every article that was offered to them, so
great was the disparity of prices between Japan and her nearest markets.
Mr Hunter gives an interesting example. "I had in go-downs," he says,
"8000 piculs of sapan-wood imported from Manila unsaleable at one dollar
and a quarter per picul, which was about its cost. Immediately that the
opening of the port of Simoda to foreign trade was announced officially, an
English vessel was chartered to carry it there. Brief—it was sold for 35
dollars per picul, and the proceeds were invested in Japanese vegetable
wax at a cost of 6½ dollars, and sold for $17 the picul (133⅓ lb. English)," so
that in the short voyage from China to Japan and back the capital multiplied
seventy times!
[4] A story is told of two Samurai meeting on a bridge which was too
narrow to allow of their passing each other. Neither being willing to
give way, they were about to settle the difficulty at the point of the sword,
when a peasant, strolling along the dry bed of the stream, offered to extricate
them without loss of dignity on either side. Amused at his impertinence,
and curious to see how he would effect his purpose, they consented
to humour him; and when each, following his instructions, was seated in
one of the baskets at either end of the pole he was carrying, he swung it
round on to the opposite shoulder, asked pardon, bowed, and went on his
way, leaving them each facing in the direction in which he would proceed.
[5] Ieyasu says the Samurai are the masters of the four classes. Agriculturists,
artisans, and merchants may not behave in a rude manner towards
Samurai. The term for a rude man is, "other than expected fellow"; and
a Samurai is not to be interfered with in cutting down a fellow who has
behaved to him in a manner other than is expected. The Samurai are
grouped into direct retainers, secondary retainers and nobles, and retainers
of high and low grade; but the same line of conduct is equally allowable
to them all towards an "other than expected fellow."
[6] "All my old friends have disappeared," writes Laurence Oliphant on
his return to Yedo as secretary of Legation. "One who was an especial
favourite of mine when I was here last, ripped himself up a short time
ago; and two of the other commissioners are disgraced, and it is supposed
have followed his example. This was all on account of their friendship
for foreigners. Every one, down to the lowest interpreter, who has
had anything to do with the introduction of foreigners, has disappeared
or been disgraced."
[7] This man, Murioka by name, became afterwards well known to
foreigners, and was always ready to talk freely about the whole transaction.
When asked why he struck at a lady he would reply, "How
should I know, never having seen a foreign woman, least of all on
horseback?"
[8] It was a common thing for a Daimio to rid himself of the irksome
obligations of his position by abdicating in favour of his son. On better
acquaintance Shimadso Saburo proved a most genial old gentleman. Three
years later he entertained Sir Harry and Lady Parkes at his capital most
hospitably.
[9] Count Inouyé, the foremost statesman of the new Japan, is said to have
confessed that he set fire to the British Legation with his own hand with
the express object of embarrassing the Tycoon's Government.
[10] The following souvenir of Count Mutsu, Foreign Minister of Japan,
who died in 1897, told by Mr J. F. Lowder and quoted in 'Things Japanese'
by Mr Basil Hall Chamberlain, affords a graphic illustration of this
point. "In the very early Sixties, when he was in his nineteenth or twentieth
year, he was in Nagasaki desirous of acquiring a knowledge of English. A
lady of my acquaintance taking an interest in him used to devote an hour
or two every morning to teaching him to read and write, but it was not
long before he came to me despairing of his slow progress, and asking
whether I could not give him a berth on board ship where nothing but
English was spoken. Believing him to be physically too weak to stand
such an ordeal, I endeavoured to dissuade him, but without success; and
so with some misgivings I shipped him as a cabin-boy, which was the only
position I could obtain for him, on board a small British schooner that used
in those days to voyage between Nagasaki and Shanghai. How long he
remained on board I cannot say, but my recollection is that it was a very
considerable time."
[11] The foreign trade of Japan now (1900) approximates 40 millions
sterling, exports and imports being very nearly balanced.
[12] There is more truth than may appear in the bishop's paradox. Peking
is singularly free from epidemics, except occasionally of smallpox. When
Shanghai suffered so severely from cholera in 1862, there were two British
regiments quartered there—one, the 67th, within the native city, amid
filth and stagnant water; the other, the 31st, in the foreign settlement, in
quarters carefully selected by the surgeon, Dr Rennie. The 31st lost a
third of its strength; the 67th suffered very little. Writing in August
1860 from Peitang, a town 500 yards square in the midst of a great swamp,
into which 17,000 men were huddled, Sir Hope Grant says: "Notwithstanding
the pestilential nature of the place, our troops, wonderful to say,
never enjoyed better health."
[16] Germany in her treaty made no profession, but simply stipulated for
toleration.
[17] M. Eugene Simon, one of the most distinguished of the French consuls
in China, in his book, 'La Cité Chinoise,' awards the credit of this performance
to M. Delamarre, "un prêtre des Missions étrangères," who acted
as Baron Gros' interpreter. "Je tiens," says M. Simon, "le fait de plusieurs
sources, et entre autres de M. Delamarre, qui se glorifait beaucoup de sa
supercherie."
[18] Compare "Jesuits' Estates Act" in Canada, 1890, for which Mr Mercier
was decorated by the Pope.
[19] It will be understood that a concise view of the general mission question
is all that is here aimed at, no distinction being drawn between branches
of the propaganda. Important as are their differences viewed from the
foreign standpoint, they are practically ignored by the Chinese, as we see
from the impartiality with which they visit resentment on all. Our
concern is with the impression produced by the propaganda as a whole,
gathered as far as possible from Chinese evidence and not from the
hypothetical arguments of foreign disputants. In other words, it is the
political bearing of the movement which alone we are endeavouring to
illustrate.
[20] This measure was intended by the Chinese Government to facilitate
the local settlement of disputes where the facts were known, and so obviate
incessant appeals to the Central Government. It has not fulfilled its purpose,
partly because an important section of the propaganda declined to
avail itself of the concession offered to them. Indeed the form of the
concession implies a hierarchy which only Catholic missions possess.
[21] For an unvarnished narrative of both the French and the Russian
advances the reader cannot do better than consult Mr Gundry's 'China
and her Neighbours,' Chapman & Hall, 1893.
[22] "Experience shows us that in the eyes of the Chinese negotiation is
a sign of weakness."—Sir F. Bruce.
[23] "Likin is in its nature an oppressive institution only continued in force
owing to the necessity of providing resources to meet the army expenditure
in the north-west."—'Peking Gazette,' January 18, 1875.
[27] The effect of these imposing edifices, which dwarf into insignificance
the most pretentious native buildings, is well exemplified in the approach
to Canton, where the French cathedral church, erected on the site of the
Viceroy Yeh's yamên, is the only object visible, and where the idea of a
permanent memorial of defeat is well realised. It is not a conciliatory
policy; irresistible force is required to maintain it.
[30] An ingenious friend, who was kind enough to read this passage in MS.,
sent me the following suggestive note: "King Solomon was a thorough
Chinaman, crafty, gaining the throne although the fourth and youngest son
of his mother; killing off the kingdom-maker, Joab, and murdering the
lawful heir, Adonijah. His fondness for pomp and joss pidjin, witness the
Queen of Sheba and the Temple; love of trade, his ventures with King
Hiram to Ophir. His apathy in military affairs, leading to the breaking
up of the empire. His love of sententious maxims, Proverbs. His truly
Chinese and non-Hebrew syncretism, worshipping Ashtoreth, Moloch, and
Chemosh, as well as Jehovah. Now David, judging by the weak characters
of his children, was, like many famous men in history, the reverse of prepotent.
Solomon was a son of erewhile widow Bathsheba. Uriah being a
Hittite, she was presumably one also. So Solomon would be practically
a Hittite—i.e., Mongolian or Tartar; a striking example of the newly-named
but long-observed phenomenon called telegony or 'throwing back.'
Solomon 'threw back' to the first sire, Uriah."
[31] "The boasted influence that the Government of China possesses over its
subjects is almost entirely moral, and they really do not possess the power
to cope with a popular tumult, which is the object of their greatest dread."—H.
Parkes, at Foochow, May 1, 1846, æt. seventeen.
[34] Mr Freeman-Mitford, in 'The Attaché at Peking,' recently published,
tells the following good story illustrative of this (p. 168). M. de Mas, the
Spanish Minister, happening to be at the house of Hêng-Chi, and knowing
that he had a little son of whom he was inordinately proud, thought it
would be a very pretty compliment if he asked to see the little boy, who
was accordingly produced, sucking his thumb after the manner of his years.
Him his father ordered to pay his respects to M. de Mas—that is to say,
shake his united fists at him in token of salutation; instead of which the
child, after long silence and much urging, taking his thumb deliberately
out of his mouth roared out "Kwei-tzŭ" (devils) at the top of his voice
and fled.
[35] Referring to the massacre of Armenian Christians, with regard to which
Germany took up a very different attitude from that now assumed towards
China—a circumstance, by the way, which serves to reduce the "Christian"
factor in the present intervention to its proper value.
[36] Or, as M. Paul Boell expresses it, "Traitant la Chine tantôt comme
un pouvoir tout à fait formidable, tantôt comme une puissance nègre de
septième ordre."
[37] Kwanghsu, being first cousin to the deceased Emperor Tungchih,
could not, according to Chinese usage, be his heir. In adopting him,
therefore, as posthumous heir to the previous Emperor Hsienfêng, his
uncle, the Regent left her own son, the Emperor Tungchih, without an
heir, promising to supply the want from the future offspring of Kwanghsu,
or by some other adoption; but against this procedure strong protests
were made. The arrangement, however, conferred upon the Dowager-Empress,
as the widow of Hsienfêng, the authority of a mother over his
heir, a circumstance which to a large extent accounts for the filial deference
the reigning emperor has always paid to his adoptive mother.
[38] Thirty years ago the great Nanking viceroy, Tsêng Kwo-fan, assured
the Government in a memorial to the throne that if the question of treaty
revision could not be satisfactorily arranged with foreigners, he had forces
enough under his orders to drive them all into the sea.
[39] The question of removing the capital to a more convenient site has
been discussed academically—by foreigners—for many years, their view
being that Nanking would be the most suitable. No doubt a central point
open to the sea would be more convenient for the maritime Powers, but
that is evidently not an advantage which commends itself to the Chinese
themselves. During the Japanese war their strategists urged the removal
of the Court from Peking to Signan fu in Shensi, simply on the ground of
the inaccessibility of the latter site. The transport was prepared and the
Emperor was ready, but the Empress-Dowager vetoed the project.
[40] In 1863 the University of Oxford conferred upon him the degree
of D.C.L.