The times., 1898-01-05

cause, therefore, their preponderanee
in future domination over the indus
trial forces and production of the world
is threatened. In that domination
great deal of the control over th64uture
cosmic commerce is involved, and,
when conceded to America, it is consid-
cred that our possession of the Hawaii
an Islands, and of an interoceanic canal
under exclusive American protection,
would give us control of the world $
trade, if we We're clever enough to exer-
else it, there is no difficulty in under
standing what our great commercial
rival has been at during all the years
in which she has sbeen attempting to
thwart us in Central America, to wreck
our prosperity through the imposition
of the single gold standard and to tie
us to the wheels of her chariot through
a hypocritical and atrocious general ar
bitration treaty.
Notwithstanding all these things. if
We are good and pure and forgiving,
we must feel Tor the position in which
our transatlantic relatives are placed
by the situation on the western shore
of the vast Pacific. And it would be
unpharisaical in us not to sympathize
with the miserable feeling with which
Albion witnesses the actions of other
powers in China, the same being cor
rect limitations of her own in past times.
when she was strong enough to rob one
part of the world and defy all the rest
From this point of view it easily will
be understood that the course of Rus
sia, in destroying the paramount in
fiuence of England i'm China, must be. a
source of grief and alarm 20 the for
mer; that the occupation of any Chi
nese territory by Continental govern
ment must raise the question whether
Christian civilization is not a delusion
and a discarded chrome in primary
colors. To be sure. England has done
the same things habitually, necessarily
and fiagrantly. but how different that
is, Whatever England does is with
the best intentions. and nobody else
ever had any. England gobbled Hong
Kong. but that does not modify British
opinion that IL is wicked for the Kaiser
10 occupy kiao chou. or for the Rus
slams TO winter their naval fleet at Port
Arthur.
If we may believe the Manchester
Guardian, which is very close Ia
! Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain,
practically an ultimatum has been is
sued by the Salisbury government TO
the effect that no nation but Great
| Britain is to enjoy exclusive privileges
on Chinese soil. Hong Kong is all
right. but the other things are all
wrong. II Germany is to have land on
the Shan Tung Peninsula, so must Eng
land. If Port Arthur is 10 harbor Rus
sian vessels, IL also must provide sea
room for a larger number of British
warships-and so on to the end of the
chapter. Verify, the English chickens
| of territorial piracy at the expense of
weaker nations. have come home TO
roost.
| But suppose that the ultimatum
should not happen to work, Then
what? Will Great Britain fight ?
We wot not. But bullying Albion has
! gotten herself into a deep hole. from
! which war is about the only thing
thinkable that will give her a chance
to restore her lost and almost forgotten
prestige, Her people are brave. if
thick headed, and we have hopes. The
| return game in wiping out the mercan-
tile marine of a grand commercial
nation-the first having been played on
us by our cousins between 1861 and
1S65-might become possibility, and
there is not doubt that we should re-
gard it with sentiments of extreme
| complacency.