THE BOMBAY QUARTERLY REVIEW. APRIL, 1856. ART. I. THE CHINESE EMPIRE IN ITS FOREIGN RELATIONS. 1. The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China, and the Situation thereof. Compiled by the Padre JUAN GONSALEZ DE MENDOZA, and now reprinted from the early translation of R. PARKE. Edited by SIR GEORGE STAUNTON, Bart. Printed for the Hakluyt Society. 2 vols. 8vo. 2. Notes on the Condition and Government of the Chinese Empire in 1849. By THOMAS FRANCIS WADE, Acting Chinese 3. Secretary. The Army of the Chinese Empire; their Organization, 4. The Chinese Miscellany, No. I.-A Glance at the Interior of China, obtained during a Journey through the Silk and Green Tea Districts. Printed at the Mission Press, Shanghae. 5. The Notions of the Chinese concerning God and Spirits. By the Rev. JAMES LEGGE, D.D., of the London Missionary Society. 6. Inquiry into the proper mode of rendering the word "God" in Chinese. By the Rev. W. MEDHURST, of the London Missionary Society. VOL. III-NO. II. 29 7. Reply to the Essay of Dr. BOONE (American Episcopal Church) on the same subject. 8. Copies of Correspondence between the State Department and the late Commissioner in China. Papers laid before the House of Representatives, Washington. 1854. 9. Correspondence respecting the Attack on the Foreign Selllements at Shanghae. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. 1854. 10. Correspondence upon the subject of Emigration from China. Presented to the House of Lords by command of Her Majesty. 1855. IN a former article on the Chinese Empire and its Destinics, we had under consideration chiefly, though not exclusively, the development and progress of the nation from within, and had not much regard to external elements of influence. For the completion of any satisfactory view, however, of the present condition of China, and its future destiny in the career of nations, it is desirable that the process should be reversed, and that we should endeavour to determine what is the degree and kind of influence exercised by the foreign relations into which China has, more or less, compulsorily entered,—how far, among the more occult causes of the vital movement and upheaving of the old foundations of society and government observable at the present day in China, the infiltration of European ideas may be rightly classed as one. That there has been an interchange of opinions, as well as of goods, cannot be doubted; and even the political relations of ostensible amity, but virtual antagonism and ill-disguised hostility, can scarcely have been altogether without influence, when these have been marked by a war such as the Chinese had to encounter in 1842-3, and the continued presence and control of foreign representatives at five of their principal ports, as the immediate fruit of the concessions wrung from them at Nanking. The introduction into the life of any nation of a new order of ideas, social, political, and religious, however slow the process of percolation or absorption, unless very partial, must of necessity produce some effect; and all past history points to a certain analogy with what takes place in the living frame when new matter is carried into the circulation,-namely, that it leads more or less rapidly, but very surely, to general disturbance of the whole system, and often to a violent Infiltration of European ideas. 223 fever and crisis, in which the existence of the patient is exposed to great danger. So invariable is this physiological law, and so close the apparent analogy of the moral law which governs the life and health of nations,-man collective as well as individual,—that we do not think it can be deemed fanciful if for a moment we make the one apply to the other. Certainly, if it were permitted to carry the idea out to its ultimate development, we should still see History and Physiology read the same lesson. It is not always safe to transfuse the blood of a healthy and vigorous man into the veins of a delicate and sickly subject, though it has sometimes saved life by supplying a deficient element of vitality; but it is always, we believe, attended with more or less of danger; while the transfusion of the blood of one race or species into the system of another, is generally fatal if persevered in. The blood globules of one kind will not circulate in the finer capillaries of another species, and a general obstruction, or catastrophe of some kind, is the final result. Such too often seems to be the history of the bestintended efforts to mingle the life-elements of different nations. Man's efforts at civilisation invariably-when the race to be so benefited is inferior and weaker, intellectually and physically, than the nation civilising,-have had but one result: the weaker has gone down before the stronger, and more quickly or slowly, according to circumstances, they have faded and been destroyed. It is customary to attribute this fact-too plainly written in history to admit of discussion-to the evil designs which have generally been the moving power for the transmigration of nations, either bodily or mentally, that is, either by colonisation or propagandism; and that the destruction of the original possessors of the land, as it was the real object, so was it the necessary consequence of the effort expended. And the history of colonisation is written in lines too dark, and blotted over with crime, whichever be the nation that is summoned to the bar, for anything to be said in regard to the instrumentality employed. Both the executors and the victims-for in that relation only have they ever been-stand out in proportions and characters too plainly marked. Yet we have a strong conviction that the effect was, nevertheless, in strict accordance with, and in obedience to a law which man has no power to arrest in execution, when once the elements are in contact. New elements, whether of matter or of mind, can never by any sudden process be received into the human system without disturbance and danger. So it has ever been with political institutions. Cursory constitutions from the philosophic laboratory of the most wise and benevolent of theorisers have had butone fate. Where have they ever taken root? -or, if obstinately propped up by some external power, where have they failed to produce revolutions and bloodshed? Look to the South American Republics! Will they ever cease fighting,making pronunciamentos,-patching new constitutions, and then baptising them in blood? France, the foremost in European civilisation, did not find in '92 that a Roman Republic could be grafted on her national constitution; and she had a long and desperate crisis as the penalty of the insane attempt. Has she, indeed, yet been restored to any permanent or healthy state? She has, alas! been in the hands of many doctors, some sad quacks, and ignorant withal, as well as dishonest, it is to be feared; she has gone through many and very different courses of treatment. God send our good ally well through! and may she live to develope by the formative principle of vitality that is within every nation and body not sinking to its extinction, a vigorous and indigenous growth, instead of wasting her strength in the vain attempt to naturalise that which is exotic, and only fitted for other climes and social conditions. We are attempting to transfuse some Western life-blood into the sick man in Turkey, and many stalwart arms are upholding the patient while the process is going on,—but shall we succeed? We have no faith in such experiments. They are, we firmly believe, made in the teeth of a natural and moral law which governs the life, and growth, and decay of nations, as clearly as it does the life of man; and all experience since the world began gives an emphatic negative to expectations of success founded on such premises. But it is of China,-the other extremity of the great eastern world, and cradle of the human race,-and not of Turkey, we would speak; although tempted for a moment to deviate from our proper theme by many points of analogy, and some not less striking diversities. The Turks have never advanced so far in civilisation as the Chinese, and they have descended much lower in the graduated scale of national failure and decay. They, too, have the fortune, whether good or evil, of being hemmed in and surrounded by friend and foe of colossal proportions, each one able to strangle in his bed the old sick man; while the Chinese nation, girt round by the sea and the desert, is so far distant from all the centres of Western civilisation, and the arena of their rivalries and contests, that they may doubtless be permitted to settle their own domestic affairs, and wrangle Antagonism of Europe and China. 225 or butcher each other until the Greek kalends, so far as the active national interference of other States and Powers is concerned. But to China and to Turkey the same thing has happened: they have been inoculated with a certain virus of Western origin, ill-adapted, we fear, to the natural constitution and present state of their frame; and the only difference between them may chance to be, that China being a larger body, and the dose less overpowering or perseveringly administered, may linger longer in her agonies; whereas a sharp struggle and a brief death-rattle is what Turkey, as the weaker and smaller of the two, has been for some time menaced with as the closing chapter and natural finale of the Turkish history and nation. It is true, worthy and excellent men, scattered through both Europe and America, flatter themselves that efforts at once costly and persevering, to Christianise the Chinese nation, will convey to this vast population elements of new life and strength,elements that they can receive, not only without injury or danger, but assimilate as wholesome and renovating food,-a spiritual and health-bestowing aliment, not a disguised poison. As between Chinese and foreigners, the whole question is there; and it is but fair to start by saying that judgment has long been given in this matter by the Chinese rulers, if not by the people. So far as the former are concerned, their opinions and their convictions cannot admit of doubt. We are certain we do not err in the conclusion that it has for many generations been the firm persuasion of all in authority in China, and latterly an engrossing fear, that our principles, both political and religious, are fraught with dire mischief to the nation and existing Government, and are to be dreaded precisely in the proportion in which they are likely to find acceptance among the millions of the "black-haired race." Hence suspicions and fears, and a foreign policy of restriction as nearly approaching to absolute exclusion as they dare to attempt, or believe to be practicable. Nor are these the only sources of antagonism and hostility, unfortunately, between two such large sections of the human family as the European and Mongolian races comprise there are antipathies and dislikes, quite as influential in the intercourse between them, arising from other causes. The manners, customs, social and moral characteristics of the two races, have little in common, and for the most part are strangely, absurdly opposite, and in conflict. In language, modes of thought, and principles of action, they are at each other's antipodes, in a way so invariable, and |