New-York tribune., 1870-05-31
PPEACHERS IND POPPIES.

English travellers among us have long found
it comfort to their souls to style Jonathan a
| step-child of Old England. 1t explained with
out loss to their cOmplacency his few COM
| mendable traits, and enabled them to treat him
as they would any other unlocked cub of a
school-boy; to gibe and tweak him for his
awkwardness, his uncOuth accent and brag. If
asked for the moral character of the young
heir they talked about spittOons, or for his
religion they described the English and Nor
wegian polygamists in Utah. We hope, how
ever, that under constant scourging we are i'm
proving. We manifest a willingness to accept
our manners as well as our literature at second
hand from the mother country. A nod or frown
from The Saturday RerieW is the irrevocable fiat
for which our publishers wait breathless;
our novelists take the soporific gossip of
TrollOpe as their model; our would-be fine
gentleman tries to force his natural Yankee
shrewdness or Southern impetuosity into the
narrow mold of the insolent cOnceit of John
Bull as seen abroad. But Jonathan, big g-bOncd,
honest, and downright, must forever fall short
of his well-bred progenltor in the one point of
cool stOicism, which she has attained. He may
be hard to rouse, but when a great wrong.
such as slavery, comes fairly to his knOwl-
edge, the stupid lout has a habit of going at
it headlong, without counting the cost. If it
be his right arm that Offends him, he cuts it
off, though his life-blood follow the blow. In
the civil war the whole nation was ready to
commit hari-kari to right its wounded honor.
Whether it be point of religion, politics, OF
social wrong that comes to light, we all take
it to heart, and grow fierce and excited until it
is adjusted according to our own notions fright.
England, on the contrary, sits cool and unim-
passioned viewing every subject with the same
speculative eye of expedency. She is too well
bred to violate her own neutrality, either to
serve God or her fellow man. Unless, indeed, it
serves herself.
The most admirable example of this lofty
calm comes to us in our last dispatches. We
commend it to impulsive Jonathan. The
Church and London Missionary Societies have
applied to the Government for aid in China
not in the shape of military support, but inter
cesson on their behalf with the Emperor and
local authorities. All they ask is the prestige
of the British name. Through Mr.. Burlingame,
China extended welcome, willing enough if
not exactly cordial, to Christianity. The treaty
OF Tien-tsin recites that the Christian religion
as professed by Protestants and Catholics in
culcates the practice of virtue, and teaches
man to do as he would be done by, and pro-
vides that persons protesting it shall not be
persecuted by the Chinese authorities. France
has long extended her protection over her
missionaries, and the English ministers not
unreasOnably ask for the same moral support
| from their own Government. Now comes in
the high-bred passivity so Characteristic of
Mrs. Britannia. She is not at all certain that
it would be civil to Pagan nations to commit
| herself to Christianity 80 far as to request q
hearing for the missionaries. Lord Clarendon
assures them that if they will venture on bust
ness so troublesome and under-bred as Gospel
preaching it must be at their own risk. Sir
Rutherford Alcock, in behalf of the Govern
ment, washes its hands finally of all connec-
ton with Christianity, adding that it is his
opinion that the Chinese are opposed to any
European Innovations including religion, and
he regards it as unmannerly To persist in in
Producing it to their notice.
Just as Christianity had received its polite
dismissal Sir Wilfred Lawson, well-known
h0bby-rider, dragged opium on the field before
the House OF Commons. 1t was grisly,
ghastly subject enough he could have brought
no more unhandsome or unwelcOme corpse be-
| fore the wind and their nobility. On the one
hand, the culture Of the poppy and its sale
in China were the great source of revenue to
Englishmen in India; on the other, it was
murder TO both soul and body of the Chinese.
The Chinese Government was violently op-
posed to its importation; members could not
shut their eyes TO that. They had an uneasy
remembrance that it had been first forced on
the Cinnamon by Englishmen ut the cannons