"not reassuring the suspicious 'stupid people' as "had been arranged, and warned the Consul that "grave trouble was to be expected. A day or two "afterwards the mob revisited the orphanage, the "Consul flourished a pistol, and was knocked down "and killed; and the Chinese, now wildly excited, "murdered the Sisters of Mercy and some other "persons, native and foreign, to the number of forty, "and, after letting the children in the orphanage go, "sacked the institution. The inquiry into the affair "was conducted by Li Hung Chang, who executed "sixteen persons, banished several others, and secured "the deposition of a prefect and a magistrate. A "mission of apology was also sent to Paris, and a "payment of 400,000 taels made to the French Govern"ment" (Robertson Scott, The People of China, p. 43).

"AN OLD KENT ROAD PARALLEL. In all the "circumstances of the case one could well imagine an "intelligent Chinaman, in asking that a lenient view "should be taken of some of the riots to which the prejudices of his countrymen have driven them, "calling attention to four facts :—

66

"1. That two centuries have not elapsed since a "woman was executed in the United Kingdom for "witchcraft (a faith in which has sent, since the issue "of Pope Innocent VIII's Bull, 9,000,000 persons in Europe to their death);

66

"2. That to this day there are frequently murders "of Jews in Western countries due to the belief that "they kill their children at the Passover ;

"3. That our own kith and kin, when they come to "England as Mormon missionaries, are frequently "roughly handled; and

“4. That if an outlandishly attired Chinaman, with "a wife and apparently two concubines, addicted for

"an inexplicable reason to wearing evening dress in "the streets, took a house off the Old Kent Road, "and there practised questionable rites, distributed "tracts subversive of recognised principles, of domestic "as well as religious life, and was believed to look "forward to a time when half Camberwell, if not all "Surrey and Kent, would be secured from a com"placent Foreign Office for a rich, religious, and "commercial colony of compatriots of like demoralis"ing beliefs and practices, all the J.P.s and police"men in South London would hardly guarantee the "strangers against a dangerous mob manifestation " (Ibid., pp. 135-36).

"HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.-It is perhaps well "that it should be borne in mind that not only in "the East, but in the West, pioneering Christians "have been the subject of slanders almost identical "with those which have had such disastrous conse'quences in China. The early Christians of ancient "Rome, we read in Gibbon's Decline and Fall, were regarded as the most wicked of humankind, who "practised in their dark recesses every abomination "that a depraved fancy could suggest, and who "solicited the favour of their unknown God by the "sacrifice of every moral virtue. There were many "who pretended to confess, or to relate the ceremonies "of the abhorred society. It was asserted that a "new-born infant, entirely covered with flour, was "presented, like some mystic symbol of initiation, "to the knife of the proselyte, who unknowingly "inflicted many a secret and mortal wound, and as "as soon as the cruel deed was perpetrated the "sectaries drank up the blood, greedily tore asunder "the quivering members, and pledged themselves to "eternal secrecy by a mutual consciousness of guilt.

"This inhuman sacrifice was succeeded by a suitable "entertainment, in which intemperance served as a "provocation to brutal lust; till, at the appointed moment, the lights were suddenly extinguished, "shame was banished, nature was forgotten, and—” (Ibid., p. 136).

U

EUROPEANS IN CHINA

FROM this special consideration of the conduct of the missionaries, we must go on to consider the behaviour of Christians generally in China. It is not merely the foolish and antiquated dogmas of the Churches, but also the conduct of the followers of the Churches, which excite a disdain for Christianity in the minds of the educated Chinese. The missionaries come with their Sermon on the Mount and their boast that the morality of Christ is purer and more elevated than the morality of Confucius. They proclaim that their gospels have lifted Europe to the pinnacle of greatness, and will lift China to a similar position. Yet what do the Chinese see of the influence of Christ's teaching on the Europeans with whom they have come in contact?

It is not too much to say that the conduct of European Christians in China has been one long and flagrant exhibition of selfishness, cupidity, injustice, and violence. There is hardly a great Power in Europe that has not, in the sight and at the expense of the Chinese, violated nearly every principle of the moral code. Christian diplomatists have dealt with the helpless people on the most flagrant application of the maxim that "might is right," and Christian soldiers have looted and outraged as they have not been permitted to do in Europe for some hundreds of years. Their Christian pastors have, moreover, not merely acquiesced in these outrages by their silence, but have been the direct occasion of them, profited

by them, and actually shared the loot. This abominable conduct of Europe in Asia is so notorious that we need do no more than quote two or three authoritative writers. First let us hear Mr. Chester Holcombe, the former Acting Minister of the United States at Pekin. In his Real Chinese Question he says:

In January, 1875, the Chinese Cabinet laid before "the diplomatic body at Pekin a voluminous docu"ment containing, in substance, two grievances. "The principal one was the opium traffic. The other "embodied complaints against Roman Catholic "missionaries. They were charged with interference "with local officials in the discharge of their duties, "when a convert was accused of crime and violation of "some of the important sumptuary laws of the empire. "Thus it was asserted that some of the priests and "bishops adopted the official costume, and even wore "garments of the imperial yellow, which colour none "but the Emperor might use" (pp. 166-67).

"It was not the foreigner against whom the empire "was shut, but the Western foreigner. And in "taking this line of policy China acted as would other "nations under like circumstances. She judged the many whom she had never seen by the few whom "she saw. She condemned all Western nations, "because of the few unwholesome specimens who "came clamouring and ravaging to her shores. "Their appearance, manners, dress, conduct-everything about them confirmed Chinese vanity, arrogance, and every other absurd and exalted notion of "themselves, and excited contempt, fear, and hate of "these straggling monstrosities, as they seemed to "native eyes, from the remote parts of the earth. "Hence came Chinese seclusion" (p. 231).

66