The New York herald., 1874-10-26
Fallacies as to tho East.

In view of the possible, we cannot yet think
probable, conflict of the only two remotely
Eastern communities with which we of the
United States have any relations, it is not
wholly amiss to disabuse ourselves Of two fall
lacies which are widely prevalent. One is
that the commercial interests of the United
States and the world generally, as between
China and japan, bear any the least COM
parison; and the other, that while everything
in Japan is improving and what is termed
progression" all in China is decrepitude
and decay. Fifteen years ago, when France
and England had the old Empire by the
throat, and Canton was captured, and the
sanctity of Pekin violated, and the EN-
peror's palace burned, Mr.. Meigson Cooke,
barrister-at-law and special correspondent OF
the London Times, gravely and positively an
nounced the coming doom of institutions
which in their present form had lasted for
twenty centuries. He said the Empire was
o mere eggshell, to be crushed by the first
hard blow from without. Poor old Mr..
Seward, because he saw dirt and bad roads
and ruined temples on his antipodean ramble,
Cdluc W tuc btA0 COuCLublOus Leu IL
is very obvious that blows from
without rather benefit than weaken
her, and as political insti tuition
China stands as firmly as in the days Of Bel
shazzar, holding for her specialties the whole
world tributary, and stronger in her adapta-
bility than ever she was. China will not i'm
port sewing machines and Yankee clocks like
Japan, but she has docks on which huge
men-of-war can be repaired, and war steam
ers, manned by Chinese, and all the improve
ments of modern artillery. As far back as 1859
the French sixty-gun frigate LAudacieuse
was docked at Shanghai Oh ways devised
and built by Chinese, and safely relaunched.
China, then, is not decaying nor likely to de-
cay. Whether the progress Of Japan is to
the same extent fallacy this is not the place
to discuss The whole Japan affair has
always seemed to us more Of toy than any
thing else. As to the relative interest of the
commercial world in them, it is simply absurd
to talk about it. Look at the map and Soc
the little Japanese patches alongside of
China's enormous territory. And even of
Japan, small as it is, we have not penetrated
beyond the outer surface. Jeddo is close to
the coast relatively to the superfces
of the main land, while at Hankow and
further, five hundred miles up the great
river of China, are foreign factories and ex-
tensive trade. To make this contrast clearer
look at the relative foreign trade of the two
countries and to make 1t still more apparent
we take their larger customer, Great Britain,
as the standard. In 1873, the latest year of
which we have returns, China imported from
England and her colonies 1927, 900, 600, and
Japan about $13, 600, ,0OO In the same year
China's exports to Great Britain were
Sill, 600, 900 and Japan's about 81, 500, 600.
Our own imports from China were $26, 900, 600,
and from Japan about $4,000, 900. The ex-
ports from the United States to Japan were
relatively larger, but an examination of their
details shows that it is commercial inter-
course that must be temporary. OF course,
such o comparison proves nothing conclu-
sively as to the result of any conflict into
which these unfortunate communication
war is an especial misfortune to them-may
be plunged. The islander may be too much
in such contest for the continental. Such
things have happened before. We enter into
no such speculation, but merely note an ac-
tual state OF facts on which it may be worth
while to mediate Japan is worth less to us
than China, and China-all VACCINATIONS to
the contrary notwithstanding-is, in this
sense, not ''going to the dogs
/
! The SHREVEPORT ARRESTS. seems there