Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-10-19

expect to see China yield to Lord Sails
bury's demands, soon or late, with good
or i'll grace The pity of it will be to have
50 noteworthy a figure as Chang Chin
Tung disappear from Chinese public life.
His great rival and bitter enemy, Ii Hung
Chang. is better known abroad, but the
Viceroy of Nankin is really the more
striking character of the two. In one
respect the latter is indeed well nigh
unique in the of1icialdom of China. He
is honest. He has not made, but has
actually spent fortune-and large one
in the public service. If that can be
said of any other Chinese functionary of
comparable rank. the world would like to
know it. He is honest in speech, too, as
well as in pecuniary affairs. He hates all
foreigners, and never hesitates to say so.
There is no hypocrisy nor treachery in his
makeup. The "ways that are dark and
tricks that are vain are not included in
his code.
There is touch of pathos, too, in his
attitude toward the outside world. He
hates it, but he appreciates it. He
would like to see China abreast of Eng
land and America in civilization. But
he would not allow Englishmen or Ameri-
cans to come in and teach her. He led
the movement six years ago for the con-
Struction of a great trunk railroad from
Peking to the heart of the empire. He
insisted, however. that it must he built
10y Chinese engineers and with Chinese
material. He had his way and was COM
mssioned to superintend the whole work.
He went at it manfully, built huge fac
tories to turn out steel rails and the rest
of the equipment, and managed the whole
according to his own ideas. The result
was ruin. He spent all the public money
he could get and all his private means,
and then had to leave the work untn-
ished In like manner he favored the war
with .Tapan-war to the knife, and the
knife to the hilt He would have fought
like mailman as long as single China
man remained alive to uphold the Dragon
Flag. He was furious at the treaty of
Simunoseki, which he regarded as a be
travail of his country. He instigatcd the
resistance to japanese rule in Formosa.
Doubtless he would today unhesitatingly
go to war with all the European powers
| at once. That his defiance of Admiral
Butler clearly shows.
He is, indeed, the last great Chinaman,
the last conspicuous representative of
the oldtIme Chinese spirit, with all its
pride, its Ignorance, Its fanaticism, and
its indomitable valor. Perhaps he is not
the best of advisers nor the safest Of guides
for the Picking government He is not
polite, nor inclined to adapt himself to
circumstances nor able to learn from cx-
reriencc. He Is Chinese Bourbon Yet
by his sterling integrity the fierce old
heather commands, or deserves, far mora
| respect than the willy, mask wearing, self
seeking Lii Hung Chang Probably he
has about reached the end of his public
career for he has squarely joined issues
with England, and SO unequal contest
can have but one end. He will not bend.
so he must be broken. But, as we have
| said, it is pity for China thus to lose
the man who, of all her public men. is
greatest in the very particular which is of
most Importance to her. The empire has
been called morally bankrupt, and truly.
If it loses Chang Cbih Tung, it will
lose its last remaining moral asset.