THE
CONTEMPORARY
REVIEW
VOLUME XXXVI. SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 1879
[Illustration]
STRAHAN AND COMPANY LIMITED
34 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
1879
Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE AND HANSON, EDINBURGH
CHANDOS STREET, LONDON
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXXVI.
SEPTEMBER, 1879.
PAGE
The Future of China. By Sir Walter H. Medhurst 1
Animals and Plants. By Professor St. George Mivart 13
The Artistic Dualism of the Renaissance. By Vernon Lee 44
The Social Philosophy and Religion of Comte. By Professor Edward
Caird. IV. 66
The Problem of the Great Pyramid. By Richard A. Proctor 93
Conspiracies in Russia under the Reigning Czar. By Karl Blind 120
The First Sin, as Recorded in the Bible and in Ancient Oriental
Tradition. By François Lenormant 148
Political and Intellectual Life in Greece. By N. Kasasis 164
Contemporary Books:--
I. Biblical Literature, under the Direction of the Hon.
and Rev. W. H. Fremantle 182
II. Essays, Novels, Poetry, &c. under the Direction of
Matthew Browne 187
OCTOBER, 1879.
India and Afghanistan. By Lieut.-Colonel R. D. Osborn 193
Critical Idealism in France. By Paul Janet 212
On the Moral Limits of Beneficial Commerce. By Francis W. Newman 232
The Myths of the Sea and the River of Death. By C. F. Keary 243
Mr. Macvey Napier and the Edinburgh Reviewers. By Matthew Browne 263
The Supreme God in the Indo-European Mythology. By James
Darmesteter 274
Lazarus Appeals to Dives. By Henry J. Miller 290
The Forms and Colours of Living Creatures. By Professor St.
George Mivart 313
Contemporary Life and Thought in Turkey. By an Eastern Statesman 334
Contemporary Books:--
I. History and Literature of the East, under the Direction
of Professor E. H. Palmer 350
II. Classical Literature, under the Direction of Rev.
Prebendary J. Davies 359
III. Essays, Novels, Poetry, &c.under the Direction of
Matthew Browne 366
NOVEMBER, 1879.
On Freedom. By Professor Max Müller 369
Mr. Gladstone: Two Studies suggested by his "Gleanings of Past
Years." I. By a Liberal.--II. By a Conservative 398
The Ancien Régime and the Revolution in France. By Professor
von Sybel 432
What is the Actual Condition of Ireland? By Edward Stanley
Robertson 451
The Deluge: Its Traditions in Ancient Nations. By François
Lenormant 465
Suspended Animation. By Richard A. Proctor 501
John Stuart Mill's Philosophy Tested. IV.--Utilitarianism.
By Professor W. Stanley Jevons 521
DECEMBER, 1879.
The Lord's Prayer and the Church: Letters Addressed to the Clergy.
By John Ruskin, D.C.L. 539
India under Lord Lytton. By Lieut.-Colonel R. D. Osborn 553
On the Utility to Flowers of their Beauty. By the Hon.
Justice Fry 574
Where are we in Art? By Lady Verney 588
Life in Constantinople Fifty Years Ago. By an Eastern Statesman 601
Miracles, Prayer, and Law. By J. Boyd Kinnear 617
What is Rent? By Professor Bonamy Price 630
Buddhism and Jainism. By Professor Monier Williams 644
Lord Beaconsfield:-- 665
I. Why we Follow Him. By a Tory.
II. Why we Disbelieve in Him. By a Whig.
Contemporary Life and Thought in France. By Gabriel Monod 697
THE FUTURE OF CHINA.
The late reconquest by China of some of her former possessions in
Central Asia, and the firm tone in which she is urging her demands upon
Russia, in respect of the _Kuldja_ territory, are giving her a
prominence as a factor in Asiatic politics which she can scarcely be
said to have claimed before. These signs of tenacity of purpose, if not
of actual vitality, acquire an additional interest when viewed in
connection with the recently modified policy of her Government towards
Western States; a policy which, whether induced by an honest intention
to forego the traditional exclusiveness of past ages, or by a shrewd
determination to cope, if possible, with more advanced nations upon the
advantageous footing secured by the cultivation of the progressive Arts
and Sciences, has had the effect of bringing China into diplomatic
relations with the principal Powers of Europe and America, and
introducing her as a recognised element into the political calculations
of the civilized world. The issue of the _Kuldja_ controversy has a
special interest for England, as the mistress of adjacent territory in
India; but a far greater importance attaches to the result of the larger
efforts which China is making to take up a position amongst the nations,
and upon the success of which all her political future must depend. It
is of that future, and of its bearing upon the interests of China's two
great rivals in Asiatic dominion, Russia and Great Britain, that this
paper proposes to treat.
It cannot be predicated of the Government of China, at any rate at
present, that it is greedy of territory. On the contrary, its
responsibilities are already as serious as it must feel at all competent
to fulfil with credit to itself and satisfaction to its people. But, on
the other hand, it is remarkably tenacious of parting with a single rood
of ground, to which it may claim the right of traditional possession or
more recent conquest. When portions of its territory have been torn
from its grasp by successful rebellion, it has for the moment yielded to
the inevitable. But the earliest opportunity possible has been seized
for reentering upon possession, either by force or craft. The late
recovery of the province of Yunnan in China proper, and of Chinese
Turkestan in Central Asia, after crushing defeats and years of
alienation, affords notable instances of this tenacity of purpose. But
such successful reentries upon lost dominion have only been effected
where the usurping power has partaken of the same or a similar Asiatic
character with that of the Chinese themselves. Where circumstances have
brought the Government into collision with the more energetic and
enterprising people of the West, it has had no alternative but to make
material concessions, and to confirm these by treaties of perpetual
amity and commerce. Russia and England are the only Western Powers that
have thus benefited themselves at the expense of China: Russia, with a
view to the enlargement or rectification of her frontier, which from the
mouth of the Amour to the foot of the _Tien Shan_ is conterminous with
that of China; and England, for the protection and promotion of her
trade, which must have languished, if not perished, under the
constraints of the old _Co-hong_ system.
Whether the resubjugation of entire provinces by the Imperial Government
may be regarded as a blessing or a curse to the populations concerned,
it is difficult to decide. For them it is unhappily a mere choice
between being at the mercy of unscrupulous adventurers, elated with a
series of successes, and rendered ferocious by a life of rapine, but
utterly unprepared to introduce any serious system of reform; or being
restored to a rule which, although worn out and feeble, has the
advantage of an old-established organization, and can prove, by its
general policy at any rate, that it has the welfare of the governed
seriously at heart. On the whole, setting aside the wholesale cruelty
which has unhappily too often distinguished such governmental triumphs
on the part of the Chinese, and to which, indeed, the unlucky people
seem liable whichever party may happen to gain the ascendency, the
preferable conclusion would seem to be that resubmission to native
authority is perhaps the mildest fate that can be desired for those
subjects of China whose country has unfortunately been the scene of
civil war. But an entirely different result may be looked for when
foreign dominion--that is to say, European--has taken the place of
Chinese. In the case of England, there can be little fear but that, in
spite of the notable mistakes which have at times marked her colonial
administration of Asiatic peoples, the primary object to which she has
always set herself has been the welfare of the governed, and the
development of the resources of the country which they occupy. And even
as regards Russia, however irresponsible her system of government,
selfish and unscrupulous her foreign policy, and corrupt her executive,
may be regarded from an English point of view, still there can be
little question that her assumption of authority over any tract of Asian
territory must be considered preferable in the interests of philanthropy
and general expediency to its restoration to an intrinsically weak and
unpractical Government like that of the Chinese.
Assuming that the above proposition is a reasonable one, it follows as a
fair inference, that the sooner China or any part of it is brought under
the sway of some strong and progressive Power the better. And really,
looking at the matter from a purely philanthropic and utilitarian point
of view, that is about the best fate that can befall its inhabitants, as
well in their own interest as in that of the world at large. Many things
conspire to show that the days of the ruling dynasty are numbered; and
who can say, when the catastrophe does come, whether the huge but
crumbling fabric will ever be reconstructed? or, if so, whose will be
the head and hand that will accomplish the task? The probability is that
the empire will, in spite of the marvellous homogeneity which
characterizes its people, at once lose its cohesion, and break up into a
number of petty chiefdoms; and one may well imagine the grievous and
protracted misery that must follow upon such a dissolution. It would be
ridiculous, nay wicked, to suggest that this contingency might be
anticipated, and an endeavour made to avert it by the timely absorption
of a portion or of the whole of the Chinese territory. But we are
entitled to express the hope that the course of mundane affairs may so
shape itself as that such a calamity may be indefinitely delayed; or, if
it be inevitable, that it may fall to the lot of some nation to take up
the reins which shall have the will as well as the power to use the
opportunity to the best advantage of the millions concerned.
The speculation seems here to suggest itself, whether there is a Western
Power at all likely to find itself placed in this position, or which may
be considered a suitable instrument for carrying out the work of
reconstruction. The sphere of selection is limited. England and Russia,
as far as can at present be foreseen, appear to be the only two Powers
whose mission or interest seems likely to impel their influence
Eastwards. Any idea that England will ever deliberately enter upon the
possession of even a part of Chinese territory may at once be dismissed
as unworthy to be entertained. Although her vast trade and world-wide
associations are perpetually landing her in perplexing complications
with Eastern tribes, complications, too, which at times, in despite of
herself, end in conquest or annexation, still her modern policy is
anything but aggressive; and if there be one collision which the English
people would be less inclined to tolerate than another, it would be that
of a little war entered upon for the mere purpose of territorial
acquisition or philanthropic reform. China, moreover, is no mere petty
principality like Abyssinia, Ashantee, or Afghanistan, that she had need
be liable to the risk of annihilation or annexation, even should she
again unhappily venture to take up arms against England on account of a
mere trade dispute. But with Russia the case is materially different.
An acquisitive policy has been traditional with her ever since Peter the
Great, with prophetic foresight, laid down the lines by which her future
conduct was to be guided; and political interest has none the less urged
her on to extend her possessions Asia-wards, and to secure as much
seaboard in any direction as will suit her ambitious designs. Conquests
in Asia, moreover, provide a convenient safety-valve for adventurous,
discontented, or unscrupulous spirits, who might occasion mischief at
home, and who cannot otherwise be readily disposed of; whilst they at
the same time have the effect of furnishing that outlet for a through
trade which has always been the Russian merchant's dream. Russia has
already, as is well known, rectified her frontier on the north and west
of China, seriously to the diminution of the area not so long ago
comprised by the latter, and, by a well-directed combination of courage
and craft, she has within the last twenty years succeeded in conquering
or annexing extensive and fertile tracts of country in Central Asia.
What more likely, therefore, than that, octopus-like, she should
continue to stretch out her huge tentacles further and further, until
they embrace some of the broad and fair provinces of China within their
omnivorous grasp? The advantage of such an acquisition to Russia cannot
be over-estimated. The Russian press, it is true, deprecates the
acquisition of new territory, as being calculated to hinder the
economical development of the people, and seriously to increase the
present difficulties of the empire; and there can be little doubt that
the dominions of the Czar are far too disproportioned to the numerical
sum of his subjects to admit of their having realized, as they might
have done, the immense natural riches of the empire. But with the
acquisition of almost any part of China proper, Russia would gain
territory already thickly peopled to her hand, and possessed of rich
resources of every kind; and, could she approach the sea in any
direction, she would acquire--what is so important to her maritime and
commercial development--a coast-line that would go far towards giving
her the commanding position as a naval Power which has always been one
of her most cherished ambitions.
And what a glorious field would thereby be afforded her for developing
her political designs! Instead of beating her wings to her own
discomfiture against the bars which England must always throw about her
as long as she persists in her attempts to absorb Turkey, or exercise a
covert influence over the tribes on our Indian frontier, she would, if
she pressed China-wards in preference, find unlimited opportunities for
increasing her resources, enlarging her territory, and extending her
sway, no nation caring, or being called upon, to say her nay. That she
would prove the most suitable Power to be entrusted with so tremendous a
responsibility, is an assertion that few would care to hazard without
large qualification. The pitiless despotism which characterizes the
Russian rule at home, the unrelenting harshness with which she has
treated her Polish subjects, even to the studious stamping out of the
nationalism of the people, and the license which has distinguished the
grasp by Russian officials of civil power in Central Asia, scarcely tend
to render the prospect of the extension of her sway to China very
encouraging. But, as has been already advanced, a Russian administration
is not without its advantages, as compared to a Chinese, and, unless a
radical reform can be looked for in the existing system of government in
China itself, a prospect at best problematical, it may safely be said
that her people might fare worse than pass under the domination of the
Czar.
For the Chinese concerned, as has been suggested, the loss might be
almost, if not altogether, construed into a gain. They would acquire an
autocratic and despotic Government very similar to their own, only more
powerful and practical in its operation and results; and, if only one
could hope that the rights and prejudices of the people could be
respected, and their general interests consulted, the change would on
the whole prove an advantageous one for the annexed territories
generally. In one respect, at any rate, such a substitution might
certainly be expected to bring about a material amelioration of the
present condition and prospects of the country at large; and that is the
improvement of general communication throughout the empire. Railways
would undoubtedly be forthwith introduced, telegraphs laid down, river
channels cleared and deepened, canals restored and maintained, and the
many obstacles which now clog a might-be flourishing trade permanently
removed. China, in fact, only needs a lion-hearted, capable, and
progressive Government in order to encourage the enterprise of her
people, bring out their many excellent characteristics, and develop the
prolific natural resources which she undoubtedly possesses, in her own
interest and that of the world in general; and, provided always such a
result can be attained, combined with a discreet and paternal care for
the people themselves, no one had need deprecate the substitution of a
foreign for a native yoke.
It might be objected, Why should not such a thorough reconstruction and
subsequent healthy development be attainable under the present dynasty,
or, at any rate, under a purely native rule? To this we reply that it is
not in the nature of the Chinese to initiate reform or carry it honestly
and steadily out. Neither the rulers nor the ruled appreciate its
necessity; and, could they be enlightened sufficiently to perceive it,
they do not possess the strength of character and fixity of purpose to
follow out implicitly the course pointed out. A curious example of this
lack of interest and resolve was to be observed as regards the
foreign-drilled levies raised at the instance of their foreign advisers
after the treaty of Tientsin. Men and money were readily provided to the
extent suggested, and the men easily learnt the drill. But the foreign
instructors had always to superintend the paying of wages in order to
prevent peculation by the native officers, and, the moment their
vigilant eyes were removed, drill and discipline were voted a nuisance
by officers and men alike, arms and accoutrements ceased to be kept in
order, and the force rapidly assumed its purely Chinese character.
Relics of these levies exist at this moment, but the most unremitting
patience and effort have been needed on the part of the foreign officers
to maintain them in a state of anything like respectable discipline or
effectiveness. A recent writer[1] calls attention to the stupendous
efforts which the Chinese Government has of late been making towards a
reorganization of its naval and military resources upon Western
principles, and to the remarkable success which has in consequence
attended its campaigns in Western China and Central Asia. But these
measures have all owed their conception and execution to foreign energy,
enterprise, and ability; and, as will be presently shown, wherever the
salutary influence of these is weakened or removed, disorganization and
relapse are sure to be the result. Something has, no doubt, been
accomplished within the last twenty years towards opening the eyes of
the Chinese Government to the wisdom of assuming a recognised place in
the comity of nations, and inducing it to introduce various domestic
measures of a useful and progressive nature. But, after all, pressure
from without, and that of the most painstaking and persistent character,
has been needed to effect what little has been done. Let this influence
be removed; let the able customs organization now in vogue be taken out
of alien hands; let foreign Ministers cease to impress upon the State
departments the imperative importance of waking up to international and
domestic responsibilities; let arsenals be deprived of foreign
superintendence; let steamers throw overboard their foreign masters,
mates, and engineers; in a word, let China try to keep afloat without
corks, and what will be the consequence? Corruption would inevitably
fatten on and extinguish foreign trade; foreign representatives would
find Pekin too hot to hold them; arsenals would gradually languish and
cease to work; native-owned steamers would leave off plying the waters;
and the whole country would eventually fall back into a condition of
even more rapid decadence than that in which it was found when England
first interfered to prop it up. What is perhaps more melancholy to
contemplate, there would be few, if any, of her most ardent patriots but
would congratulate themselves on the miserable change.
China may, perhaps, be saved from an eventual collapse, or from falling
under the sway of all-grasping Russia; but it can only be by a universal
development of the existing system of extraneous aid. What has been done
for her customs revenue must be extended to all departments of the
State, and the employment of foreign heads and hands must be rendered so
general as even to permeate the ramifications of the executive in the
eighteen provinces. But then the difficulty suggests itself. Where is
the _personnel_ needful for such a mighty organization to be found, with
the talent and probity equal to the charge? England has proved it
possible, in the case of India, to produce a corps of administrators who
possess a character for ability, uprightness, and high-minded devotion
to duty, to which the world can show no equal. But, as experience has so
far proved, political balance at Pekin demands that the prizes open to
competition in the Chinese service should be distributed equally amongst
subjects of all nationalities in treaty relations with China; and in
such a huge army of _employés_ as the exigency would require, and most
of whom would probably owe their selection to patronage rather than to
merit, it could not be but that many would find a place who might prove
even greater curses to the governed than the worst type of the Chinese
mandarins themselves. Moreover, such an innovation would practically
amount to placing the entire nation under foreign authority, and it may
be queried whether it would not be more advantageous for the people to
have one uniform foreign rule universally substituted for the native,
than to be at the mercy of an executive formed of such heterogeneous
materials as those we have described.
It may not be out of place to consider here a suggestion, which has been
thrown out by more than one representative of the English press, as to
the identity of British interests with those of China in resisting the
insidious advances of Russia eastwards, and the expediency of giving the
former our sympathy, if not material support, in her endeavour to
recover _Kuldja_ from Russian cupidity. What British interests comprise
in that quarter of the globe may be summed up in a few words.
Rectification and consolidation of certain portions of the frontier of
British India, the maintenance as far as possible of neutral and
independent Khanates to act as "buffers" between her territories and
those of Russia, and the development of a free and active trade between
the Indian and Central Asian markets. It seems scarcely worth the
trouble of refuting any arguments that could be brought forward to prove
that the concession of a covert or direct support to China in the
_Kuldja_ controversy would be likely to advantage England in any one of
these respects. On the contrary, her interference would more probably
imperil her interests under each head, and would most certainly have the
effect of greatly incensing a Power which, with all its ill-will, has
already shown its desire to conciliate, by withdrawing at our request
the influence which it had been tempted in view of certain contingencies
to use to our disadvantage in Afghanistan; a Power, too, which must and
will pursue its career of acquisition in Central Asia, whatever we may
say or do to the contrary; and with which, in view of its probable
future there, it is manifestly to our interest as holders of India to
live on neighbourly terms. To quote a recent writer on the subject,[2]
"Our object now should be rather to initiate a frank understanding with
Russia as to the aims of our respective policies, to secure her
agreement to definite boundaries to the spheres of influence of both
Powers, and to form, so far as is possible, a union of interests with
her in the future development of Asia."
Even were China to pledge herself to grant us all the advantages which
we should have to bargain for as a consideration for committing
ourselves to the serious step of affording her aid, it may be doubted
whether she is sufficiently strong to maintain her ground, not merely
against Russia, but against any adventurer like Yakoob Beg or rebels
like the Panthays, who may suddenly rise up and wrest her territory from
her. Then, again, it must be remembered what an alliance with such a
Government as that of China is likely to involve. Her civil
administration, based although it may be on a system excellently well
suited to a people like the Chinese, is so weakened, save in a few
isolated instances, by the incapacity, and so debased by the venality of
its executive, that it has long since forfeited the confidence and
good-will of the masses, and rebellion has only to raise its head to
find a fruitful soil for its speedy growth and development. Her army is
numerically large, and can be recruited without difficulty, and she has
constantly at command any quantity of the most approved war material, so
long as there are foreigners to sell and she has the money to buy; to
say nothing of what she can now to a certain extent manufacture for
herself. But of strategy and the general science of war her officers are
entirely ignorant, and beyond the capability of hurling huge masses of
men at the enemy, irrespective of all consequences, she is in no way
formidable as a military Power in the European sense of the term, nor
could her troops permanently hope to hold their own against those of any
Western State. Even the Japanese, in the little affair with China which
threatened the peaceful relations of the two countries not long ago,
showed themselves quite equal to the occasion, and their sailors and
soldiers pined to exhibit their prowess, and prove the value of their
recent acquirements in the art of war, as against the conservative and
unpractical Chinese. If the rules of civilized warfare are to the
Chinese a sealed book, still less can they be said to appreciate its
humane side. Their officers fail to value the necessity, and indeed do
not seem to possess the power, of protecting their own countrymen from
the general license which marks the march of soldiery through, or the
military occupation of, any peaceable district; and in the wholesale
barbarities which invariably distinguish their triumphs over a conquered
foe, they are scarcely to be surpassed by savages of the lowest type.
Little more can be said in favour of the Chinese in respect of their
relations with England and other Western nations. They have treaties of
peace and commerce with the leading Powers, it is true, and they do not
fail to act up to the strict letter of these engagements as construed by
themselves. But the whole history of their foreign intercourse since
1842 has shown that the Chinese Government has borne with ill grace the
restrictions thus imposed upon it, and has embraced every opportunity to
evade them in spirit, whilst professing to carry them out in the
letter. Trade has been everywhere hampered by vexatious imposts
cunningly introduced on all kinds of pretexts, and as pertinaciously
persisted in, in spite of pointed remonstrances on the part of foreign
representatives. Outrages of a glaring kind have been passed over
without redress, or perhaps with a show of redress so ingeniously
conceded as to evince distinct sympathy with the perpetrators of the
deeds complained of; and the case must be rare, if not unheard of, in
which the initiative has been voluntarily taken by a Chinese official in
righting a wrong suffered by a foreigner at the hands of a Chinese.
Amicable relations prevail between the various foreign communities and
the native population by whom they are surrounded; but these may be
traced rather to the innate good-nature of the people, and the
forbearing conduct of the "strangers from afar," than to any direct
effort on the part of the native authorities to encourage and develop
friendly feeling. The Chinese Court still affects to regard the Emperor
as the Supreme Ruler of all People under Heaven; its recognition of
foreign Ministers accredited to it seems never to have advanced beyond
the not very flattering ceremonial which accorded them a so-called
audience in a body a few years ago; and the relations between the
representatives and the high officials at Pekin cannot as yet be said to
have entered upon a phase which may strictly be styled cordial; and all
this, notwithstanding that Chinese representatives to Western Courts
have been treated with all the ceremony and consideration due to their
official position, and have been received into the highest society of
foreign capitals, not only without demur, but with a warmth and
hospitality which, whilst on the spot, they have themselves been the
first to acknowledge.[3] Under these circumstances, with a civil
administration so effete and corrupt, a military Power so unpractical,
a style of warfare so barbarous, and a Government so wanting in the
honest desire to conciliate, can it be thought politic to go out of our
way in order to further its pretensions, and that to the prejudice of a
Power which, with all its faults, is progressive in its tendencies, and
prepared to acknowledge our international rights, and which more nearly
approaches us in recognising the duty of consulting the material
interests of the people subjected to its sway? The little experience at
any rate which we have had of the results of co-operation with the
Chinese Government has not been such as to encourage us in a repetition
of the experiment. Take, for example, the important aid given by England
in clearing the province of Kiangsu of rebels in 1862-63, and thereby
bringing about the eventual extermination of the Taepings. Such a
service, it might be presumed, would have earned the lasting gratitude
of the nation, and induced a cordiality of sentiment towards their
benefactors which would have exhibited itself in an endeavour on the
part of the Chinese Government to relax the restrictions and remove the
vexations by which mutual relations had up to that time been beset. But
nothing of the kind transpired. No special and national recognition of
the service rendered was ever accorded; and, so far from any improvement
being observable, as a consequence, in British relations with China,
these were marked in the sequel by some of the most trying and difficult
crises with which we have had to deal. More than this, the very moment
of triumph was disgraced by an act of treachery in the deliberate murder
of the surrendered rebel chiefs at Soochow, which must have induced in
the mind of Colonel Gordon, R.E., the keenest regret that he had ever
embarked his honour and expended his labours in the cause of such
allies. The only other instance in which British influence was brought
to bear towards rescuing the Chinese Government from an awkward dilemma
was when the Japanese threatened reprisals for outrages committed
against their subjects, and went the length of sending a considerable
force to occupy the island of Formosa. Hostilities had commenced, and
the war might have proved a protracted if not hazardous one for the
Chinese, had not H.B.M.'s Minister volunteered his services as mediator,
and succeeded in arranging matters to the satisfaction of both parties,
and with as little loss of prestige to the Chinese as they had any
right to expect. Here, again, if any gratitude was felt, there was no
public recognition of the service rendered, and the obligation certainly
left no appreciable trace upon the subsequent policy of the Government;
for, in the very next difficulty with China which occurred not long
after--namely, the official murder of Margary--it needed the pressure of
our demands to the very verge of war, in order to procure the vaguest
attempt at redress, and then we had to rest contented with commercial
concessions as a makeweight for the substantial justice which could not,
or would not, be granted.
To conclude, China, nationally considered, is in a state of decline. The
very efforts which the more enlightened amongst her statesmen are now
making towards rescuing her from the collapse which threatens show how
desperate they consider her case, and how anxious they are to prevent or
even delay the catastrophe. Her history, it is true, shows that although
she has passed through a series of such periodical lapses, she has ever
exhibited a wonderful power of recuperation more or less effective in
its nature and extent. But these changes have been experienced at times
when she was comparatively isolated from the rest of the world. Her
political crises were never before complicated by the interposition of a
foreign element, such as must be the case in any revolution through
which she may hereafter pass. Mr. Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of
Customs, Joseph-like, has done China good service in reorganizing the
maritime revenue department, and advocating reform generally in the
policy and practice of the State; and did China know her own interest
she would largely develop and extend the advantages of a foreign
admixture in her whole system of executive. But Mr. Hart's efforts must
have a limited result at best, and they can only serve to put off the
evil day. He cannot reform the nature of the Chinese mandarin; and until
there is a radical change in this respect there can be little hope of
reconstruction and progress under purely native guidance. The process
becomes the more embarrassing and futile with aggressive foreign Powers
pressing on all sides with their irresistible influence and exacting
pretensions. China must in time, and as at present constituted, yield to
one or the other, and Russia promises to be the one whose ambition and
interests will probably lead her to turn the opportunity to advantage.
It may not be the best fate that can befall any part of China to be
Russianized, but it will be a better alternative for her people to be
subjected to the sway of a civilized and civilizing Power than to become
the prey to interminable civil wars. It will be better, moreover, for
England and other nations, whose interest in the question is mainly
commercial, that China's millions should be brought under a vigorous and
progressive Government, able and willing to develop the vast trade
resources at their disposal, than that they should decimate themselves
and ruin their country by perpetual internecine strife. Whether it will
be to the interest of England in a political point of view that Russia
should attain the commanding position which the possession of any part
of China would undoubtedly secure her, is an entirely different
question. If it be a danger, it is a danger which she must look in the
face, for everything seems to point to the possibility of such a
consummation. But no consideration of political expediency or
self-preservation can certainly warrant her in interfering as yet; and
it is to be hoped that the time may never come when she shall be called
upon to thwart the ambitious designs of her great rival in Asian
dominion in the extreme East, as she has so long and so successfully
endeavoured to do in countries more directly affecting her political
power and prestige in Europe and India.
WALTER H. MEDHURST.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Captain C. A. G. Bridge, R.N.: "The Revival of the Warlike Power of
China," _Fraser's Magazine_, June, 1879.
[2] See _Blackwood's Magazine_, July, 1879, pp. 120, 121.
[3] Apropos of these remarks it is worth while quoting here a memorial
by the ex-Ambassador Kwo Sung-t'ao, published in the _London and China
Telegraph_ of 7th July, 1879, as the first presented to the Throne on
his return to China, and in which the best that he can say of England,
notwithstanding his cordial reception and marvellous experiences, seems
to be that he was "excessively cast down in a strange country," where,
"had he been put into a ditch, there would have been nobody to cover him
with earth." The very name of the place to which he was accredited
appears to have been beneath mention to his august master. The _Peking
Gazette_ of the 3rd moon, 3rd day, contains the following memorial from
Kwo Sung-t'ao, late Ambassador at the Court of St. James's, to the
Emperor:--"Your servant," he writes, "has suffered from many bodily
infirmities. Relying upon the heavenly (_i.e._, your Majesty's) grace, I
was appointed to go abroad on service of heavy responsibility. I am now
feeble with age, having served at so great a distance; I also deplore my
stupidity, and am extremely apprehensive of my inability in performing
the functions devolving upon me. Since the sixth or seventh moon of the
year before last I have suffered from insomnia. A year ago my spirits
became daily more _abattu_. In the second month of last year I suddenly
experienced phlegm rising in my mouth, and vomited fresh red blood,
without being able to stop it, so that in a trice a basin would get
quite full. I consider that my life has been marked by increasing
afflictions; my respiration is impeded; I am agitated and nervous;
already I have contracted an asthma, and this I certainly had not
formerly. Excessively cast down, in a strange country several tens of
thousands of li away, I thought that if I were put in a ditch there
would be nobody to cover me with earth. Fortunately, by virtue of the
heavenly (_i.e._, Imperial) compassion, having been graciously permitted
to give up my office, all that remains of me, protractedly wearing out
my failing breath, is due to the overflowing grace of the Holy Lord (the
Emperor). During the two years I have been abroad I have passed under
the hands of foreign doctors not a few, who felt my pulse and
administered medicine in a manner very different from native
practitioners. In relieving my indigestion and removing the torpor [of
my liver] they occasionally produced some little effect; but my
constitution became weaker every day, and there was no restoring it.
After casting about this way and that, there seemed but one resource
left to me--to take advantage of a steamer bound for Fu (_i.e._,
Shanghai), and then to return by way of the Yangtsze River to my native
place and put myself under medical advice. Prostrate I implore the
Heavenly Compassion to grant me three months' leave of absence, in order
to establish a complete cure, so that perhaps I may not contract disease
that will prove incurable. After your servant has got home it will be
his duty to report early the day of his arrival, and he earnestly
desires that he may be restored to health. Then I will return to the
capital to resume my functions, and implore that some trifling post may
be given me that I may testify my gratitude by strenuous exertions, like
a dog or a horse. Wherefore I, your humble servant, now beg for leave of
absence on account of my ill-health, and respectfully present the
petition in which my request is lucidly set forth, entreating with
reverence that the sacred glance may rest upon it."
ANIMALS AND PLANTS.
In the first of the present series of Essays it was pointed out[4] that
the number of kinds of living creatures is so prodigious that it would
be a hopeless task for any man to attempt to grasp the leading facts of
their natural history, save with the help of a well-arranged system of
classification. Such a system enables the student to consider the
subjects of his study collectively in masses--masses arranged in a
series of groups, which are successively smaller and more and more
subordinate. By "subordinate groups" are meant groups which are
successively contained one within the other. As an example of such
subordinate grouping we may take the group of familiar objects denoted
by the word "money." This group contains within it the large subordinate
groups, "paper money" and "metallic money;" the latter group again
contains the more subordinate and smaller groups, "gold money," "silver
money," and "copper money," and these respectively contain still more
subordinate and smaller groups. Thus, the group "silver money" contains
the subordinate groups--(1) crowns, (2) half-crowns, (3) florins, (4)
shillings, (5) sixpences, &c.; and any one of these (_e.g._, shillings)
is further divisible into groups of "shillings" of the coinage of
different reigns.
Reversing the process we may, as another illustration, select the group
of articles of furniture called "chairs," which (with other
_co-ordinate_ groups, such as "tables" and "sofas") is contained within,
and is subordinate to, the larger group of objects, "wooden furniture."
This latter and larger group is again classifiable (together with its
co-ordinate group, "metal furniture") in the yet higher and larger group
of "furniture made of hard material," to which the wooden and metal
groups are both subordinate. Co-ordinate with the group of "hard
material" we have another group (carpets, curtains, &c.) of "furniture
of soft material," and these two groups are again subordinate to the
largest group of all "furniture."
It was also pointed out in the introductory Essay[5] that there are two
kinds of classification, one artificial, the other natural--the latter
(the kind aimed at in this Essay) being such a system of classification
as leads to the association together in groups, of creatures which are
_really_ alike and which will be found to present a greater and greater
number of common characters the more thoroughly they are examined.
The system of classification which zoologists and botanists adopt is a
system founded upon the form, structure, number, and relations of the
parts of which each living being consists. It is, therefore, a
morphological system, and rests rather upon the appearances of parts and
organs than upon the offices which such parts and organs fulfil. It
rests, that is to say upon their forms, not upon their functions.
The mode in which animals have been arranged in zoological grouping
affords an exceptionally good model for classification generally, as has
been noted by the late John Stuart Mill.[6] In fact, the number of
subordinate groups is very great in zoology. Thus, the kingdom of
animals is subdivided into a certain number of very large groups, called
_sub-kingdoms_. Each sub-kingdom is again divided into subordinate
groups termed _classes_. Each class is again divided into still more
subordinate groups called _orders_. Each order is again divisible into
_families_; each family into _genera_, and each genus into _species_,
while a zoological "species" may be provisionally defined as "a group of
animals which differ only by inconstant or sexual characters."
It could be wished that the reader should pursue his further inquiries
into the natural history of animals and plants, with a knowledge of
biological classification already acquired. But this is, unfortunately,
impossible, since biological classification reposes upon anatomical
facts, and cannot, therefore, be really understood until the main facts
of anatomy have been already mastered. Yet something in the way of a
classification, or at least of a definitely arranged catalogue, must be
even now attempted for the following reason:--
In the second of this series of Essays[7] we indicated the lines of
inquiry which must be followed up by any reader who would become
acquainted with the natural history of animals and plants. We saw that
their gross and minute structure, their very varied functions, their
relations to past time, and their geographical relations as well as
their relations to the physical forces and to their fellow organisms,
would all have to be successively considered. Obviously, however, it is
impossible to make known the facts of anatomy, physiology, and
hexicology[8] without constant references to animals and plants which
may be expected to be either altogether unknown, or at least very
incompletely known, to persons as yet unacquainted with zoological and
botanical science.
References to creatures so unknown or so little known would plainly be
of small profit and less interest, unless the reader was already
furnished with some mental images of such creatures and groups of
creatures--images calculated to sustain his attention and excite his
interest in the various kinds of animals and plants, otherwise unknown,
which will have to be again and again referred to. Accordingly, an
attempt must now be made to set before the reader a rough and general
sketch, or catalogue, of what the creatures and groups of creatures are,
the names of which will have so frequently to appear in the pages which
are to follow. In a word, as the preceding Essay[9] was devoted to
explaining what are the special characters of living beings--_i.e._,
what the phrase "animals and plants" _connotes_; so the present Essay is
intended to explain what that phrase _denotes_. It is not by any means
intended at present to place before the reader a definitive and complete
system of classification--that task must be reserved for the conclusion
of the series, as it will be the expression of all the facts and
inferences which will have been in the meantime brought forward.
For the purpose now in view it will be well, perhaps, to follow the
suggestion of the great naturalist, Buffon, and begin with creatures
which are amongst the best known and most familiar, and thence proceed
to speak of less and less familiar forms.
In this Essay assertions will be freely made as to the natural
affinities which the author believes to exist between the creatures to
be enumerated, but no attempt will be made to give the reasons for such
assertions. The justification of such affirmations will, it is believed,
become apparent later, when the organization of living beings shall have
been portrayed as far as the space and the ability at the command of the
writer may enable him to portray them.
As before said the object now in view is to endeavour to present a
general view of living beings--of animals and plants--in the hope of
fixing in the reader's memory the names of species, and of groups of
species, to which names reference will have to be more or less
frequently hereinafter made. At the least, such a catalogue may serve
for reference whenever the reader may come upon the names of animals or
plants, or of groups of animals or plants, the meanings of which names
may have escaped his recollection.
The animals most familiar to us, our domestic cattle and our dogs and
cats, all belong to a group of animals technically termed _mammals_,
from the circumstance that the females have milk-glands (or _mammæ_), by
which they nourish their young. The name "beasts" may be set apart for
the brute animals belonging to this group; but they do not altogether
form it, since man himself--the most individually numerous of all the
large animals--is, structurally considered, also a mammal.
For various reasons, which will appear later, the domestic cat (which is
a member of the genus _Felis_) may serve as an instructive, as it is a
familiar, example of a highly-organized mammal. Allied to the cat, and
formed on so completely the same model as hardly to differ, save in size
and colour, are the lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, pumas, ocelots,
lynxes, and wild-cats of different kinds. What are commonly called
pole-cats are not really cats, but belong to a different "family;" while
civet-cats are not cats in the strict sense of that term. Civet-cats
pertain to a group of beasts called _Viverrines_ (_Viverridæ_), to which
all ichneumons and mongouses (which appear to have been the domestic
cats of the ancient Romans) as well as the bone-eating hyænas also
belong.
The viverrines and the cats, however, together form one great family to
which the scientific name _Felidæ_ has been assigned. The pole-cats,
together with the ermine, ferret, weasel, marten, sable, skunk, badger,
the otter and the bear, raccoon, coati-mondi, with the kinkajoo, panda,
&c., all belong to another family. Of this family the bears are the
largest in size, and constitute a small group or "genus" called _Ursus_,
whence the whole family bears the designation _Ursidæ_.