The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-10-06

Z
ike macerating the waves. You may
cut and slash and stab, the pillows
serry up and roll. 1t is war upon an
lmpalpable enemy-as il assailing the
air or the clouds. Japan victorious,
and she would have a country she
could neither govern nor hold. Victor
les again and again repeated could eX-
act from China no more than what
China deigned to give-an indemnity,
an island or even the abandonment of
Korea, which would do China no
harm and Japan no good. The ven
delta alone would remain and endure.
MUST COPY THE OTHER NATIONS.
In the meantime, the awakening
Chinese martial spirit is intensified.
China learns from Japan the lesson
that for two generations we have been
trying to blast into her by cannon and
fires-that il she would hold her own
with the Christians she must DO what
Christian nations have done. She
must turn aside from the deliberate
and harmonious legends OF a God or
love and peace, from the Sermon on
the Mount, and those pearly, heaven
suffused beatitudes, and, leaving them
to missionaries and Sunday school
children, accept the gospel that war
alone is the price of a peoples saliva
ton. We have forced China to throw
off the sloth Of peace and drink the
wine of war. Japan will accelerate
the process. Where will 1t end? What
graver menace than nation armed
a nation that could put twenty mil
lions of men in the field and not feel
it as we did the burden of our civil
war? And especially when it Is a ma
ton governed by the defendants OF the
Tartars, who gave US Genghis and
Timur.
SAFETY TO EUROPE IN cHINA's CON
SENTATIVE ATTITUDE.
The history of the efforts to press
China to accept Western ideas in
religion and trade, when we study
their consequences, illustrates my
meaning. We have been impatient
TO have,China AngliciZed-Ame
iZed-one with the Western world.
We have seen what has come Ct that
in our own relations with China. The
late Mr.. Burlingame, Minister to Chi
ma, during the Lincoln administra-
ton, discussed this question with me,
and recited the speech of a wise old
mandarin, who sat in the ministry OF
Prince Kung. Burlingame was urg-
ing-up the Government the wisdom
of China throwing herself at once into
the arms OF the Western powers. He
pointed out, as every American Min
lister has done since the days OF Caleb
Cushing, the inestimable advantages
that would accrue from the policy of
progress. "You Western people," re-
piled the Chinese statesman, fare an
cry with US because we do not go
ahead. You would have US become in
a day as England or the United
states. You overlook the unique con-
ditions of Chinese society, the bur
dens OF many ages, the exigencies of
ancient and venerated customs, the
wants OF teeming population, our
inability to meet the crisis which
sudden change in essential matters
would impose, nc. alone on this popu-
lation, but upon those who are respon-
sible for it's subsistence; the conserva-
tive character of institutions which
have endured beyond the uttermost
limits of your history. You would
have us topple over this past, with
which for centuries we have been
content, unconscious of the blessings
you now bring in open hands. You
would have US enter at once upon the
hurrying channels of Western enter
prise. Now, let me tell you: You
are, as / have said, angry. But If we
were to take your advice you would
be angrier. You complain that we go
too slow. You would soon complain
because we were going too fast"
A CAPTIVATING DREAM.
Had Mr.. Burlingame lived to see
the fulfilment of the work to which
he gave 50 much genius and
enthusiasm, he would have realized,
so far as the United States is con-
cerned, the prescience of the Chinese
II al hn
consequences of that Chinese progress
which was his fondly cherished hope
and dream. We remember with what
acclaim he was received when he
came as the head Of his stately en-
bassy. The country rose to him. He
was TO escort an ancient civilization
into the family of nations. 1t was
fitting, as we all felt in our enthusi-
asm, that the youngest of nations
should give the fraternal hand to the
oldest. Apart from this sentiment,
America saw in the avatar of the
Burlingame embassy the solution of
so many problems. Surely the heavens
were once more on the side of Amer
lea We were starving for labor. This
hardy, tireless, intelligent and indus
trious people-and so cheap, too
would come and Guild our railways.
They would develop our Pacific en-
pire. They would open the FL Dorado
mines and make the fields OF California
glisten and glow. This opening of a
cheap labor supply, at the very time
when the CALIFORNIA; needed il to be
come rich and imperial common
wealths, was accepted AS one of those
timely interpretations of Gods provi-
dence in which we see with what wis
dom He rules the world.
This was the prevailing rhetoric
when the magnanimous Burlingame
no finer American in my time
closed his mission, so far as China was
concerned, and went to Europe. L saw
much of him on the eve of his depart
ure, and recall his pride over the
welding of the two countries into an
alliance which would endure to the
good of both and the welfare of man
Find