The morning call., 1894-03-04
A MISSIONARY ON CHINA.


at the seventh annual dinner of the
Methodist Union. given in New York on
February 20. the Rev. A. B. Leonard, who
has been missionary 10 China, made a
speech in which he said:
The Chinese Empire is going to fall to pieces.
The truth Is that there Is too much CT IL. There
Is superabundance OF everything. China EN-.
braces too many countries, and each country
has too many provinces, and each province has
too many districts, and each district has too
many counties, and each county has too many
cities, and each city has too many families, and
each family has too many children. II Is too
large. That great empire that has stood for
forty centuries must dissolve. They are talking
about It all over China. A revolution is COM
Ing. 1t Is belief that England, Russia and
France have jealous eyes on China. and when
IL does fall 10 pieces believe the American re-
public should have hand in the division.
These statements are not precisely new.
and it is somewhat doubtful whether they
are true. The tendency of the age is
rather toward consolidation than deem
trallZatiOn. Bismarck and Cevour were
applauded for consolidating Germany and
Italy. There is a general desire among
broad minded men to see the establish
ment of a Central American union. Why
should China be an exception? Why
should dissolution be its fate. when the
provinces of all other nations are tending
to draw closer together?
So wide gap separates the Chinese
mind from the mind of Christendom that
our understanding of the Chinese people
is superficial and hay. The missionary
devotes himself TO the duty of conversion :;
tnp mo no Mt livas in q nj nf hiu oup .
that neither of them ever get to under
stand the Chinese any more than John in
Chinatown gets TO understand US. Fol-
lowing the lead of other modern writer's,
Dr.. Leonard says that China is failing to
pieces" Where is the evidence? Chinese
institutions are the same as they were
when COnfucius wrote, and the Govern
ment was administered in his day in the
same loose, shipshod way which we OBJ
serve at present. A Government which
has lasted for forty centuries. almost with
out change, can hardly be described as
transitory. 1t will be time enough to con-
clude that the empire is falling TO pieces
when some province or provinces actually
secede and maintain separate aud hostile
government. AT present there no signs OF
anything of the kind.
China is full of inexplicable contrasts
and an omalies which puzzle people like
DR.. Leonard. The Viceroys and Taotais
appointed at Picking are obeyed in the
provinces, however distant they are from
the capital. An edict Of the Emperor
commands devout respect throughout his
dominions. But there is so little of the
feeling which we call patriotism that Chi
namen willingly supplied the French fleet
with provisions for the attack on the forts
on the Min River. The Emperor is
viewed with such reverential devotion
that the people never dare TO mention
his name. But gang of bandits attacked
his cOrtege the other day in the streets Of
Peking and robbed the imperial suite Of
their clothes. The Emperor g unable to
prevent the banner men at fsking from
levying toll on visitors to the imperial city,
but when the French marched up to the
frontier of QuantuDg the Chinese fought
them year after year at enormous cost of
life and held them ct bay. so that no
Frenchman ever set foot ON Chinese soil,
and In the end France had to abandon the
enterprise. The English expected by this
time to have invaded Southwestern China
from Burmab, as the Russians reckOned
on securing foothold in Mantchuria, but
it is noticed that both undertakings have
been postponed to more convenient OPP
portunity.
Empires go TO pieces when they consist
of incongruous and infusibe elements.
The empire of Alexander the Great com.
prised a dozen races whose normal attitude
toward each other was one of hostility.
When the master hand was withdrawn
the dominion resolved itself into its orig
inal elements. The same cause accounts
for the dlsin tegration of the Roman en-
pire. The several provinces had nothing
in common but natural hate. When Rome
fell they flew apart in obedience TO GEN.
trifugal energy. In the empire of China
there have never been in modern times
but two traces the Mocgols and the Tar
tars. and several centuries of cobabitation
have practically blended the two into one.
There is but one language with many dia-
| lects; the costume is the same; the Gus
toms are the same; the books studied are
the same, from Yunnan to Ching King
The china te varies from the fierce heats of
| the tropics to the bitter cold of the Sibe-
| rian tundras; the men vary in size; the
| products vary with the meridian; but ali
| over the empire the Chinaman is China
man and nothing else. His system of
government strikes the foreign observer
as resembling tottering scaffold, which
will tumble down when the wind blows.
But 1t seems to possess an elasticity which
enables it to recover from foreign war,
pestileDce, famine and mob turbulence
Why should such an empire go to pieces +?
-
| The rubbish of town is no longer rub
Dish. If we may believe in the success of
converting 1t into engine power and trans
| fnr inn mt oil irhk