The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-07-02
TIE CHINESE MoyEMENr.

misty accounts of it given by that monde
script ambassador. The oratory of Mr.. Bur-
linpame combines, in about equal parts, the !
clustering cant of conscious Digness, which |
he. perhaps, inherited with his Western |
nativity and the pharisaical cant of intel
lectual superiority, which he may be supposed
20 have acquired with his New England edu-
cation. These characteristics may well have
recommended him to the Chinese emperor as
fitting spokesman to glorify before the ma
tons of the Western World the marvellous IN
tellect of China, and the unappreeiable mag
nitude of her numbers. But it must be SAID
that there is something really comical IN the
facility with which this American orator, once
so given to landing In a spread-eagle strain
the gigantic power and growth of his own
country, transfers his grandose volublllty
TO praise of the greatness and progress OF
an empire, incomparably vast indeed, but
commonly regarded by the rest Of the
world as fixed and petrifed in a dead an-
tiquity, and weak in proportion to Its
immobility. reflective spectator OF
this change of oratorial vocation on the part
| of Mr.. Burlingame can not avoid recurring to
his annual salary of fifty thousand dollars in
celestial hard cash, as by possibility the sordid
| inspiration of his present eloquence. How
ever this may be- the extraordinary position
which he occupies as head of the first Chinese
embassy deputed to the trans-Asiatic eoun-
tries gives importance to his utterances, and
we naturally look in them Tor an exposition
of the state of affairs in China, such as would
enable us to measure the significance OF a pro-
ceeding which is a solecism IN the history OF
that empire But it must be said that thus
far they have but poorly repaid the curious
perquisitor. In his recent speech at the din
ner given in New York to the Chinese en-
bassy, he went farther, apparently, in I'M
bosomjne the burden of his mission than be
has yet gone, and from the more explicit pas
sages of that speech, quotations are here sub
joined;
Isay on the contrary, that tits a great and noble
| n, ople Ii has all the elements of a splendid ma
iionaliiy. Ii has the most numerous population
| on the lace of the globe. 1t has the most homo
oenous people in tie world. IL has language
which Is spoken by more human beings than any
other lsrgusge in the world, aud u Is written 10
the rock. 1t Is a country where the mix MS Of
the great ssges coming dewn nem0rlzed have per
|
| an instinct rather than requirement. The peo-
| pe sre loyal while living, and their last pray r
uhen diving is 10 sleep 10 the SOL OF ther tathe 81
II is the lard Of scho aud the land of schools
Ii is the land OF books from small pamphlets to
encyclopedias of five thousand volumes. Its the
| land where as you have said, Mr.. sherman, the
!, privileges are equal Ii is q land without caste
for they DESTROYED their feudal system twenty
| hundred years ago, and they built up their great
structure OF civilization on the idea that the
peoule are the source of power. That idea
was uttered by Mencius tweny-three hundred
| wears ago, and was old wien he uttered 1t.
The power flows forth from that people lutO
prs, teal government. through the comparative
system and they make scholarship the test OF
! merit. / say il is great people II Is pOlite
| people ; il Is a patient people; II Is a sObtr
pee pie /; II is an industrious people. And II Is
| such a people as this that some bitter men
, | would exclude from the council ball or the
nations and it is such a nation that the tyran-
l | meal element would put under It's ban.
: | And / aver hat there Is spot on this earth
where there has been greater progress made
| within ne past few years than IN the empire )f
7 | China. She has expanded her defenses she mas
| reformed her revenue system she Is changing
| her militia ard naval Crganiz III n; she mas
I established a great school were m0dsra science
| and he foreign languages are TO be taugn''
| She has done this under very adverse crc1 n
Stances she has done this after q great war.
| lssrIrC through thirteen years-a wsr out OF
| which she comes with no national debt.
Lei her alone ; cave her her ind pendeDce
' let her develop herself IN her own ume and her
{ | own way. she has no hostility to you. Lei her
| do this ard she will initiate a movement which
will be fell 10 every Worship in the civilized
: | world. She says low: 'Send as your Whe A.
SIND us your lumber, send Us your golt, send u
| your goods from everywhere-~e VIII take ~
many OF them as we can. We give yOa back our
; tea ,ur sils, cur free labor which We have sent
out so largely into the SOrldn IL has 0vertOged
upon siam, upon the British provinces, upon
: Singapore. upon Manila, ulOn Peru, upon Au ira
| tiuh.. L. ~. n 4 y.t
, will be as kind To her nationals shs Is % yO1r
u nationals She wishes simply that you viii d.
Justice. She is willing not only 10 exchange
goods with you, bu she is willing TO exchange
thoughts. She IL willing TO give you what she
thinks i her int lectnal civilization 10 eXcnang
# for your material civilization. LIE her al lone dnc
, the caravans towards the north # Russia will be
:, ] arger than they are now. Let her alone, ant
thar silver which has flown hui dreds Of years infs
b her soil disappearing like the lost rivers OF th'
a West. but which still exists, will come out int
. the affairs OF men, and your steamers may mutt
ply their tonnage Let her alone, ADD mat Sret
y line which is the pride of New 1ork-the Ptclh
& nail and as many other lines as you choose q
>, establish. will increase their tonnage teniOld, an
hey will sill have to leave their freight on In
wharve- at Hong Kong and Yokohama.
In all this there is much more suggestion
|. than direct information. Me-. Burlingam
does not address his statements to a v4riet
y of questions which his mission is apt to ex
cite. But if we add to that which he tells u
y that which his position forbids him to tell, an
e which may be reasonably presumed to accom-
. pany such facts as he reveals, we will not b
Il far from tue diagnosis OF the case @
l. China. Mr.. Burlingame is merely rhetorics
when he speaks of the immense populatio
and the incompatible antiquity OF this en-
. pire, as though these were now invincibl
n elements of strength. The truth is that II
ancient and infexible civilization weighs
II down and disarms it before the aggressiy
o tendencies of the western world, and tn
u immensely Of its numbers, attended b
g chronic rebellion, renders it still more III
n wieldy and helpless i'll respect TO the QUITE
world. There is reason to suspect that muc
IT of the change which he reports in Chimes
% policy is due to an internal terment which
v more significant of decomposition than
is reinvigoration The celestial governme1