Year: 1871

That is Chinese justice! What next? We
see her next bristling up and showing her teeth
and adding insult to injury. We (foreign ma
tions) will bear it a while longer, and then we
shall 60 to war with her, whip her soundly, and
finally get another treaty out of her. That is
the way it looks at present. She needs pity
because she is so blind and obstinate; but she
deserves wholesome chastisement neverthe-
less and the sooner she receives it the better
But there is one all-important question to be
settled before anything like national equality
with China can be established. In diplomacy
1t is called the Audience Question" In social
life how impossible to think of friendliness
where one party looks upon the other with con-
tempt. The same is as true with the
nation as with the individual And
yet these semi-civilized, ignorant, effete
Chinese look upon us with positive
contempt. The central" the ''mddle
Kingdom" views the surrounding nations as
in reality but ''outside barbarians." Our
ministers cannot have an audience of her ruler
because our rulers are not his equal! Dis
tinguished men, men of royal blood, cannot
be admitted to his presence. Ministers and
consuls, and other officials, not unfrequently
meet with insult, the Chinese officials refusing
to extend the same courtesies or permit the
same rules of etiquette to be employed that
they would among themselves under similar
circumstances. Let us insist, then, upon
equality in word and in act as basis to future
understanding. Can free Americans, can a
republic, ask less? The good effects of this
line of action will be felt in every direction.
The high Chinese functionaries, the subor-
dinate officials, the petty officers, the people,
will feel the influence of such point gained.
And this must react upon u.s. Such is the
law of nature. In bringing down the ''Brother
of the Sun" and the ''Uncle of the Moon"
peg or two we bring him to reason.


Would we, in the next place, avoid future
wars in that quarter, let us insist at all times
and in every instance on the keeping inviolate
of the letter of our treaties. Let our minis
ters and consuls be not only permitted to press
every point, but be instructed never to yield
our rights, always acting in concert with the
officials of other ''outside"' nationalities.
Moral pressure is doubtless a powerful
weapon, and we would have it used most
perseveringly in our intercourse with China.
We have said that the Chinese were
ignorant and obstinate, and so they are;
but we have seen that they are
possessed Of the art of diplomacy, and we
know that they boast of perfect philosophy
of reason. Doubtless, then, they can under
stand us when we use moral pressure, with
our finger on the letter of the treaty. But we
cannot doubt that they would appreciate the
force of moral pressure more readily were it
backed by an array of ships of war and of
bayonets. Obedience to the law is, however,
always insisted upon, even when obedience is
exacted through fear. There are many among
us, both children and men, who would not
obey but for the fear of punishment; and the
arm Of the law is everywhere monitor, when
properly supported by force! Enlightened
Europe or America will not always listen to
moral pressure, as we know from sad ex-
perience, and so recourse is had 10 the force
Of arms. Can we expect more from semi
civilized China? We surely need not attempt
to show that ignorance is harder to deal with
than reason. And so we shall find in time to
come, as in the past, that a moral pressure
will have often to be backed by show of steel.
And with China, Judging from her very nature,
this will often be enough; but to make sure
work Of it the allied armies of Christandom
should march over her plains to her capital,
and hold ii for a time, in order to teach her,
through her Emperor and his Cabinet, the
needful lessons of modern civilization, cour-
tesy and good faith. Otherwise all our ne
gotiations with her government will be treated
with the same contempt which is felt, from the
Emperor to his basest subjects, for all ''outside
barbarians." The time is close at hand when
President Grant, in his representations to the
Great Powers of Europe, may secure their
cooperation in behalf of new treaty with
China, to be dictated to her from the Imperial
| Palace of Pekin.