Macon beacon., 1873-04-19
The Chinese.

ago, they reached a higher plane of
| civilization than most of the European
nations attained until a much later
period. The Western states have since
risen above that plane The whole
world is anxiously inquiring whether
China is to retrieve the advantages she
has lost, and if she is to come within
the family of modern civilized states.
Mr.. Burlingame's sanguine tempera-
ment and charitable disposition led
him to form too favorable an opinion of
the present condition of China. In his
anxiety to secure a more liberal policy
on the part of the Western nations to-
ward the ancient empire, he gave us to
understand, especially in his speeches,
that, while China has much to learn
from the Western states, she is not
without some peculiar institutions
which they may advantageously adopt.
This is not quite true Although China
is far from being barbarous state. vet
every system and institution there is
inferior to its corresponding one in the
West Whether it be the abstract
sciences, such as philosophy and psy-
! chology, or whether it be the practical
forms of natural science, astronomy,
geology, geography, natural history,
and chemistry, or the concrete ideas of
government and laws, morals and man
ners whether it be in the aesthetic
arts or mechanics-every thing in China
is effete. Chinese education rejects
science; Chinese industry prosclibes
invention; Chinese morals appeal not
to conscience, but to convenience;
Chinese architecture and navigation es-
chew all improvements Chinese gov
ernment maintains itself by extortion
and terror Chinese religion is mater
ialistic-not even mystic, much less
spiritual. If we ask how this inferior
ity has come about among a people
who have achieved so much in the past,
and have capacities for greater achieve
ment in the future, we must conclude
that, owing to some error in their an
cient social system, the faculty of in
vention has been arrested in its exercise
and impaired.
China first became known to the
Western world by the discoveries of
Marco Polo in the thirteenth century.
At that period, and until after the ex-
| plorations of VascO de Cana, China
appears to have been not comparatively
great, prosperous, AMI enlightened, but
absolutely 50. An empire extending
from the SHOWS of Siberia to the trop-
les, and from the Pacific to the noun
sources Of the great rivers of Continent
nj Asia, its population constituted one
fourth of the human race. Diversified
climate and soil afforded all the re-
sources Of public and private wealth.
Science and art developed those re-
sources. Thus, when European nations
came upon the shores of China, in the
sixteenth century, they found the en-
pire Independent and self-sustaining.
The Mantchoos on the north had in
vaded the empire and substituted a
Tartar dynasty at Marking, but the
conquerors and the conquered were still
Chinese, and the change was a revolu-
ton and not a subiugation. China,
having thus attained all the objects of
national life, came to indulge a senti-
ment Of supercilious pride, under the
influence Of which she isolated herself
from all other nations. Her govern
ment from its earliest period was in the
hands of scholastic and pedantic
class, class which elsewhere has been
found incapable of practical rule.
Since the isolation took place. that
class has effectively exercised all the
powers of the state, in repressinq in
quiry and sitting invention, through
fear that change in any direction
would result in their own overthrow.
The long isolation of the empire, and
the extirpation Of native invention, have
ended in reversing the position of
China. From being self-sustaining and
independent, as she was when found by
the European states, she has become
imbecile, dependent, and helpless
Without military science and art, she is
at the mercy Of Western nations. With
ont the science of political economy.
the government is incapable of main
tanning an adequate system of revenue
and, without the science OF Western
laws and morals, it is equally incapable
OF maintaining an impartial and effec.
tive administration of justice. Having
refused to adopt Western arts and
sciences, the government is incapable
OF establishing and maintaining bens-
fetal domestic administration. Insur.
rections and revolutions are therefore
unavoidable, nor can the government
repress them without the aid Of the
Western powers. She pays the Eu-
ropean nations for making her clothing
for her people, and the arms with which
they must defend themselves. She i'm.
ports not only the precious metals. but
coal and iron, instead Of allowing her
own mines to be opened. She forHils
the employment Of steam and animal
power in mechanics. and SO largely ex.
cludes her fabrics from foreign markets.
--SewGrdS Travels
E Theories Of Poetry.