Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-04-04


the past, had the average school boy beer
asked, which are the lowest, vilest crea.
lures of the human race, his reply
doubtless, would not have been the flat
headed Indians of the Pacific states, who
with sharpened sticks dig angle worms,
roasting them on stones before the fire fol
breakfast; nor yet the worse than bruta
cannibal; but the vile rat.eaters. the
"heathen Chinee.
They it is who have been held as the
very offsccuring of the earth, and have
been despised and hated without measure.
Gradually, however, change has been
wrought. AS China, the land and the
people, have become better known,
preudiced reluctant nations have been
compelled to yield her respect, and despised
China is rapidly coming to be acknowl-
edged one of the great nations Of the
earth. This rank must inevitably be taken
because she actually possesses SO much OF
what constitutes great nation.
Look at China from the standpoint oi
her natural resources. With the possible
exception of the United States. she stands
superior to any nation on the face of the
globe. L1y the United States, including
Alaska, upon China and room remains
around the margin for half dozen king
doms the size of Great Britain and Ireland.
1t is one-third larger than all Europe.
The inexhaustibe fertility of her soil has
been tested by centuries of abundant
harvests. With over 5000 miles of coast,
washed by the ceaseless surge of the
ocean, with lofty mountains, extensive
plains, rich valleys and noble rivers,
supplemented by canals, equaing in extent
all the rest in the world, and affording
means for communication and transporta
ton in all parts OF the empire; with coal
and iron deposits. far exceeding those Of
all Europe, the greatness of China, as a
country, is manifest, and commands not
only respect but admiration.
This admiration is heightened when we
pass from the country to the people.
From the standpoint of history this nation
takes prominence. Rev. DR.. Humphrey
says,-"2000 years before Christ she had
an elective monarchy, and the names and
dates of ffty-eight monarchs before
Romulus founded Rome are extant. Its
authentic annals reach back beyond
Abraham. 1t was substantially what it is
now-and what it had been for 5000 years
when the shores of Britain vvhued the
first war cry of our barbaric fathers"
China's language, arts and civilization are
1000 years old Her present laws were
codifed 20O0 years ago. Her government
while theoretically despotic is yet practi
cllly democratic. For 208l years all the
offices of the government. except the very
highest have been open to all the people
throush system of competitive examina-
tion--a system the United States is strug-
Cling hard to rise high enough to adopt.
Her literary history is fully as marvellous
as her political. Says Rev. j. T. Gracy,
Two centuries before Abraham left Ur
of the Chaldoes, Chinese astronomers had
recorded observations, which have been
verified by modern scientists. A hundred
years before thenorth wind rippled over the
harp of the son Of jesse, Wung Wang, an
emperor of China, composed classics which
are committed to memory at this day by
every advance scholar of the empire. She
had 100 years ago lexicon of the
language which is still reckoned among
her standards" In many important
inventions she has led the world, in
gunpowder aud the use of firearms, in the
manufacture of paper, in the art Of printing
and in the knowledge of the magnet.
Another test of China's greatness is the
number and character of her people, The
fact alone that the emperor of China rules
one-third ofthe people of the globe renders
her great nation, but the character as
we'll as the number Of the people attest
her greatness. In activity, superior to all
races but the Anglo Saxon; in ability,
astute; as merchants, sharp. enterprising;
as statesmen AMI diplomatists, inferior to
none. Mr.. G. f. Seward, formerly
American consul at Shanghai says,-"I
found among tho people an absence of
shiftlessness, a practical sense, self
devotion to the calls arising in the
practical relations of life, an enduring idea
Of right and wrong; among the gentry
scholarly instincts and desire for
advancement; and among the rulers
sense of dignity and breadth of view,
considering their information and patriotic
feeling
DR.. Humphrey says of the character of
the people,-"In the same person stand
side by side gentleness, thrift, contentment,
cheerfulness, dutfulness TO parents, and
reverence for the aged, with lying. hattery,
fraud, cruelty, ingratilude, avarice, treach
cry. abominabe vices, poly gamy, infanti
eide. They are either utter atheists or
abiect slaves of superstition
Rev. John Ross said -"Industry and
industry guided by great intelligence, is
the characteristic of the nalion."
In spite OF the Chinaman's antipathy to
loioiSuciS, anu III Splto vi SluNlSu,
idolatrous, ancestral worship, which binds
them to The past, they are taking on the
Improvements of western civilization
They are fast replacing their old navy
with the most improved modern one. They
are learning mining and engineering to
develop their vast coal and iron deposits.
They have formed x,enslve combinations
in commercial transactions and are prov.
ing themselves successful original compet-
itors, not imitators, of western traders.
Chinese banks, insurance companies and
boards of trade are to be found in all the
leading ports. Their commercial agencies
are in all the principal business centers of
Western Europe, Siam and Australia.
They have appl opriated the sugar trade of