National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1871-12-01
The Government OF China.

Brooks, j must try to convey TO you my
impressions, or rather guesses, of what
this government is for, after all, such
travellers rs ! am run on, hap hazard,
and only guess. No American out OF
China, however, has had higher or bet
ter sources of conversational informa-
ton than have had The British and
French, rs well M the Russian Lega-
tons have been MS kind rs possible to
me with their attaches and interpreters.
One American DIR. Williams, too, think,
is better informed than any other man
in China, though he looks at all things
with n Christian missionary eye, and
through Puritan spectacles, n little
speckled with Chinese attachments. The
government, rs have limited, seems to
be a democratic Despotism, and hence,
perhaps, the secret of its old age and
long preservation. Confucius was n
sort of Thomas Jefferson, or Ben Frank
lin. He laid down great practical demo-
cratic principles, and they have ruled
emperors and mandarins hundreds and
hundreds of years. Confucius created
a public opinion and u system of prece-
dents that no despotism could ever safely
ignore. Then, the common people,
through their instructed mandarins,
guide and overawc, if they do not
over-sway the Emperor. He is afraid
of the people, and the mandarins are
afraid Of the people, too. There is as
much public opinion to be respected
here us in Great Britain or the United
States. No hereditary aristocracy of
any kind exists. No mandarin can
transfer even his buttons, to say nothing
Of his post, to his children When these
mandarins are made governors of the
absolute but the Emperor is omnipo-
tent, of course, over them. The provin-
ces are like our States, with certain pro-
vincial rights that mandarins must res
pect when sent there. Hence, the Gov
eminent is nowhere absolutely absolute
that is, with safety to itself Intelli-
gent mandarins would like to build rail
roads and telegraphs, it is thought, but
they dare not, it is believed, as yet. No
mandarin feels potent enough to advise
the Emperor to run a railroad over the
graves and through the graveyards of
Chinese revered and worshipped ances-
WI IC lOtlblt III tltCtluR ttlcSIdDu
poles is, that superstitious Chinaman
believes land all are more or less super
stitious) that these poles will interfere
with Fung- Muey, "wind and water"
species of geomancy, or a belief in
the good or i'll luck attached to par
ticular local situations, that the poles
may have struck. Geomancy is an oc-
cult science here, and professors study
it, and tell you the plan for house or
a grave, where the Fung-lShuey will
bless it. TO such an extent is this SUI
perstition existing in Pekin, that when
the Catholics built their cathedral higher
than the imperial wall, the wall was
raised higher than the cathedral, to
ward off the Catholic F,mg .Shuey.
Riding over such sllperstitions, rough
shod, is what even an intelligent man
DARN does not like to do. Hence, cir
and events must control the
erection of telegraphs, SO indispensable
for the unity of great empire like this,
and not force. An event has occurred
which will hasten the erection of tele-
graphs. The grand Pekin Council of
have just awarded two compe-
titive prizes to two Cantonese scholars,
the highest honors of the empire. The
news was sent from Shanghai by sea
telegraph to Hong Kong, and reached |
Canton days before the news could come
overland. The Cantonese were aston
ished, and discredited the intelligence
until the long-looked- Pekin Official
came overland and confirmed it, |
Then there was wonder and marvel over
that intelligence, and all China, from
North to South, is asking if it will do to
give foreigners the means of more rapid |
intercourse with the exterior of our en-
pire than we ourselves have Interest,
heir trade and commerce, | think, will |
soon dispose of that F'ung- Shuey, and
give China the telegraph The
graves of our ancestors" scattered over
every little field in China, will be more
lifficult and dangerous to be dealt with
than this Fung- Muey; but ''the graves of
our ancestors" will have to go at last.
ALI these opinions, even superstitions,
in .freejsA sort of country like this,
have, however, to be respected, even by
emperors and mandarins We have
opened their great river, one of the
greatest rivers in the world, and by
steam, we Americans do nearly all the
'oasting trade there, with Shanghai
Iandarins now prefer our boats to their
inks to travel in. Europe and America
lave taught Cinnamon how to cast can
ION and to make rifles. Their factories,
lnder our auspices, are almost equal to
'urs. Their rifle is as good as our
springfield rifle. Their ships of war
re now putting on formidable fronts.
f England again comes into conflict /
With China, it will not be so easy con-
Iuest as in her two last Chinese wars.