Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-02-16
CHINA.
Hostility to Missionaries t.sarsitsc

".iu VIC departure Tor nome OF the
BRUSH ministry, Sir Rutherford Alcock,
and his defense OF Missionaries in times
past says:
From the two instances above referred to
1t might be imagined that Sir Rutherford
is partial to mlssionari es, but such is not
the case. Whether, from the Eecessity he
was under OF interfering on their behalf on
those and other occasions, he imbibed a
preJudlce against them as Troublesome
class OF subjects, or whether he holds the
theory that Great Britain has no interests
| but those OF trade, he 1ecently sent to his
Government a dispatch on the subject of
missions, which has had the effect of ca l.
ing forth an able vindication from the
English missionaries resident at Pekin. -
The existence of the dispatch became
known by its being quoted by the Earl of
| Clarendon in the House of Lords, who
gave the opinion of Sir R. Alcock s'as the
result of his great experience in China.
The missionaries promptly asked Sir Ruth
erford for copy of the document He
courteously furnished it, and they as court
eously proceeded to subject it to the test of
a destructive analysis. To take up all the
points of the controversy would weary your
readers, but one or two may be mentioned
as of universal interest.
| Commerce, says the dispatch, cts
free development and extension, was the
first great object of the treaty of Tien-
| tsin."
The missionaries reply:
Commerce is thus put forward as the
one sole object of Great Britain in China
1t is impossible to refrain from asking what
is the nature Of that commerce which we
! have forced upon the Chinese? Has it
! been such as to benefit the people or to de-
| rnoraliza thcp ba yao;,, bro,. oh of D,;4
ish commerce in China is opium, an article
which the Chinese believe to have been the
cause OF our first war with China, and
which, however eagerly they seek it, they
regard as injurious to them, mentally,
morally and physically. It cannot surely,
be subject tor congratulatioq that there
| Is very little difference annually between
the total value of the opium imported from
India into China and that of all the tea and
silks exported from China to England and
other countries. In 1867 he total amount
of India opium imported into China
was 8S 148 piculs, CHESTS of 133 pounds
each, of which the value in silver was
5, ,071, 357 taels-S60 900, 900. The total
value of the tea and silk imported in the
same year was 49, 478 389 taels, exceeding
the value OF the one article of opium i'm
ported from India, chiefly by British mer-
chants, by only four and half millions of
taels. Since the opening of tha Yangtse-
Kiang, the native drug in the interior has
become one-half cheaper, and the number
of smokers has been trebled. The culti-
vation of the poppy, said one of the CEN
sors in memorial recently addressed to
the Emperor on this subject, has been sub
stituted for that Of the cereal grains over
vast tracts of the Western and Northwest
eHn provinces, SO as IN some parts to occa-
sion a rise in the price of food ! For this
and all other injuries entailed by opium
British commerce Is responsible; and yet it
Is in the interest of British commerce that
Protestant missionaries are to be restrained
from penetrating into the interior Honor
able commerce has nothing to fear from
Protestant missionaries, but everything to
gain.
The risk incurred, and the evil conse.
quences to be anticipated from persistent
efforts in this direetion"-i. e., in pene-
trating to the interior of the country. is
another objection alleged in the dispatch.
1.-The hostility of the Chinese" the mis-
sionaries reply. is not directed against the
missionaries as such-but as foreigners.
lie causes of that hostility are the hatred
OF other races which the Chinese have
always had; the repeated defeats inflicted
OF the Chinese Government by England,
and the evils connected with the opium
trade missionary was not long ago
driven out of large city in Honon by a
mob led on by the native gentry, the cause
of whose hatred was given in these words,
shouted after him as he left the city: You
burned our palace you killed our Emperor
you sell poison to the people; and now
you come protesting to teach US virtue !
A third point in the dispatch is the inef-
q = e IL ~ fhnE EhkI
human instruments brought to bear upon
the Chinese for their conversion are SEEM
ingly ill-adopted to secure the end pro-
posed" The missionaries reply to this by
sho wing that all the Chinese dictionaries in
the English language are the work of mis-
sionaries; and that really all the important
works on China that have been published
of late years are from the pens of mission
aries; while no other class has done any
thing worth speaking of in the way OF
translat ting into the language of China the
scientific and literary productions OF the
West
To me the defence appears to be amply
sufficient On this last point. however, 1t
may be worth while to quote the testimony
of Chinese mandarin, who net Chrs-
tian, but man of intelligence and sclentl-
tic tastes. In an article on 'Forelgn Inter-
course" published last year in Chinese III
one of the secular newspapers IN Shanghae
he says, after reviewing the character OF
the foreign trade:
s"rhe advantages of such q commerce are
scarcely sufficient to atcne for its evils. But
the benefits derived from the instructions
of missionaries are more than we can emu
merate"
He then gave long list of works on var
ious branches of science that have been
prepared by missionaries, both Roman
Catholic and Protestant.
Fortunately, our American Ministers
have no occasion for wishing to exclude
missionaries from the interior of China, In
the interest of American trade. Says Hon.
VIM. B. Reed, in explaining the provisions
Of the treaty which he negotiated in 1858.
and referring particularly to the mission
airy article"
II have no enthusiasm on the subject, but
[ am bound to say that l consider the mis-
sionary element in China as great con-
servative and protecting principle 1t Is
the only barrier between the unhesltating
advance of commercial enterprise and the
not incongruous element of Chinese imDe-
cile corruption"
He adds that the Chinese offered freely to
admit into the interior of their country a
certain number OF missionaries provided
with passports. But "to such a proposition
he could not aecede." He was opposed to
the passport system, but ''there was @
stronger objection. The ''distinction as
to rights between merchants and missiona-
ries" was one which he could by no means
admit. In the light of this fact it is not
difficult to perceive whether MISSIONS OBJ
struct trade, or whether trade hinders mis-
nd he Sy,l1 baS n
tional illustration in the case of missionary
who one month ago was forcibiy prevented
from occupying house which he had rent
ed in city not far from Pekin. The place
is noted as centre of the tobacco trade,
and it was in vain the missionary protested
that he had no other objects than to preach
the Gospel and to do good. The tobaccon-
lists ieagued against him, and, believing that
his real aim was to monopolize their traffic,