The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-21

ADVSsiuiau
lnGome-tax-the actual twopcncc and prospective
hoOody KNOWS how many pence. which after all
must be traced back to fervent desire ON fine
part on small knot of sincere. but imprudent
people TO improve Abyssnan Christianity
makes us vince. We all know the duty of
sowing the Gospel seed in heathen lands and
many of us think that, so long ~ it is sown, the
sower and his tools, the times and seasons for
sowing, are very imma terial; indeed to inquire
about them at all is often considered to be the
sign OF the taithless if not of the scolfer. Still
at this moment, like Cowper's tithe-payers down
drop our chns we bring out our bags. and we
mutter rs we review the cost of our Abyssinian
sCr1nOns:-
"A rarer man than you
In pulpit none shall hear;
But yet methinks, to tell you true,
You sell IL plaguy dear
This nervous and irritable state of the public
mind accounts for the Interest felt in debate in
the House of Lords on Tuesday on certain Chi
nese dispatches respecting ''thc attack on British
Protestant Missionaries mt Yang -Chow-Foo." last
August. We now learn that we have escaped
another Chinese war literally by the skin of our
teeth, and all to avenge little popular brawl, in
which certain persOns-nobody knows who. but
calling themselves missionaries their books
and furniture and certain female fallals and one
of them got bad black eye. 1t seems that in
the poly-mono-syllabic town above mentioned, in
the interior of the country, domestic party of
English folks styling themselves the China Inland
Mission have planted themselves. Who or what
the China Inland Mission is nobody seems to
know. The Missionary Societies disavow them;
Lord Shattesbury speaks of them with con-
temptuous ignorance. The China Inland Mission
is unknown to London and, if might
lecture, it is some offshoot of some small Dis
senting community existing in one of the
Chinese consular cities which has planted itself;
for nobody seems to be responsible for its origin
or existence. The Mission seems to consist OF
large domestic party-One Mr.. Taylor, Director,
with his wife and four little children, another
married couple, two single gentlemen and three
single ladies' and nineteen teachers and servants.
1t does not seem that this party did anything very
active in the way of missionary work. They rented
house under the provisions of the treaty, but
they not popular. As has happened ever
since Christianity existed, they suspected
by the barbarians of being cannibals. The old
scandal raised against the primitive Christians
reappears in China, and the missionaries are
suspected of keeping children for the purpose of
cooking and eating them, scooping out eyes,
and ripping up women with child. The literary
notables and gentry OF fang-Chow dlssemi-
mated these atrocious reports; the consequence
a popular riot, the mission-house riddled,
and the missionaries robbed and ill-treated.
No lives were lost, but one eye was reported
to be missing, though it seems after
wards to have been recovered, not however
without, it is said, possible permanent injury.
This was the utmost result of the riot. Mr.. D-
rector Taylor Immediately appeals to Consul
Medhurst and as the name Medhurst is familiar
to us in connection with Chinese missions, we
are not surprised that this official parsonage
looked favorably on the case. He at once pro-
ceeds to vindicate the wrongs of the missionaries
with very high hand. He summons Ill. NJ. s
ship Rinaldo and, with an imposing force, de-
mands all sorts of penalties and redress. He was
determined to assert the treaty rights. de-
Jermined that the missionaries should be well
paid for their wrongs, determined that every
humiliating apology should be eXacted from the
Chinese authorities, etc. Chinese authorities
demurred. Mr.. Consul Medhurst was firm, very
firm. The captain of the Rinaldo was, much to
his credit, rather lukewarm. Sir Rutherford
Alcock appealed to: the admiral on the sta
tion was appealed to. Each and everybody
backed up Mr.. Medhurst with the whole force of
the British name and British navy. Captain
Heneage was despatched by Sir Henry keppel
with the Rodney and three hundred men, and
after seizing most innocent Chinese steamer
private property, the missionaries demands were
of course acceded to- A large sum in the way OF
compensation was paid by the Viceroy, and we
are not at war with China Indeed we have
performed glorious feat of arms, and achieved
Il commercial success which runs second, il
second only to that which we won on behalf OF
Don Pacifico.
This great victory of the Gospel and the
Union Jack seems to have been received some
what coldly at the Colonial Office. Lord Cla
rendon has acknowledged the latest triumph OF
British diplomacy by sending out instructions
to British Consuls in China, ''to remember thai
the interference of naval force, either on thell
representation, or on the part OF naval Officers
acting on their own estimation of facts before
Them will alone receive the approval OF Hel
Majesty's Government under very exceptional
circumstances; ana, Iurtner, InlG OONcrH'
ment cannot leave with consuls and nava
officers to determine for themselves
what redress or reparation for wrong
done to British subjects is due, or by Wha
means it should be enforced. Nor can they
be allowed tos determine whether coercion is tC
be applied by blockades, by reprsals, by landing
armed parties, or by acts of more hostile char
acter;" in fine, that the Government cannot
delegate to her Majesty's servants in foreign coun
tries the power of involving their own country
in war" In other words Consul Medhurst, Sil
r. Alcooll and the naval authorities have beer
snubbed, and their inconvenient zeal unmistaka
bly censured. nasmuch as, one and all, they
have done those very things which the Govern
ment declines to sanction or approve. This is 81
far satisfactory, is the whole tone OF tho
debate in the Lords 1t is some satisfaction tC
know that we have barely escaped great peril
but it is no satisfaction to know what a con
temptible and trumpery incident 1t was which
to use Lord Shaftesbury's phrase, has caused al
this fuss.
The ideal of a missionary is very noble, ant
this ideal has been often and fully realized in tn
annals of the propagation OF the Christian ialth
A missionary advances into the bowling wilder
ness with his life in his hand; goods he has none
or such as he has, he cheerfully submits to thei
spelling for his Masters sake. lie bears tn
cross and with the cross its burdens. lie ask
not an eve for an eye, and certainly not, as thi
Inland Mission did, hard cash Tor an eye, br
turns the left cheek to him who smltes the rlgh
He does not demand an indemnify lor MS II
Wished coat like Director Taylor, but cheerlull
surrenders his cloak also. To the simplicity
the dove he adds the prudence OF the Serpeh
and when persecuted in one city, he scarcel
asks the assistance OF an iron-cEd al
Armstrong guns to relnstate hln' ouc
were the Bonlfaces. the Xayiers, and even u
Swartzes of history. Such was the rinat Linps,