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CHINA. * i ¦
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nected with his studies . This seemed so strange , that the uncle was thoroughly determined to penetrate its reason , and , with the greatest difficulty , extracted the confession that the boy had been forced to bind himself under the most solemn oath that during the holidays he would not touch a book that could in the slightest degree contribute to his success in examination . Thus , the pupils had made , at their own good pleasure , a law of idleness to prevent the ambitious or the industrious from gaining a march aipon the indolent . We have heard again , only very recently , that a system of persecution is caried on against those who choose to study , as it is called , out of hours . An espr it-de-corps , and a bad and false one , is thus founded and maintained by ill-conditioned . / a ^ Wwte and red-tapists in embryo , and the credit o % the establishment is thusin some measureat their mercy and
, , discretion . All this probably is , and certainly ought to be , known to the authorities of the college ; but there is no limit to the acquiescence , in many Cases , of such authorities in foolish codes ordained by those who ought to know of nothing but submission . Indeed , those who have been brought up at a place , and imbibed its spirit , have often a foolish pride in maintaining its silliest habits and morale , instead of making use of their knowledge and experience to correct it . We do not know whether this is the case at I Woolwich . Certainly , not many years Jigo , a disgraceful system of persecuting any professor , ludicrous
grossly , who was remarkable for any peculiarity , ana not specially endowed with moral courage , was . shamefully rife at our civil and military colleges . The system must'have been known to the heads of these establishments , and implied a most thoroughly contemptible want of discipline . 3 $ o public schoolmaster in England would have tolerated for one . moment such mischievous nonsense , but would have expelled the offenders by dozens , rather than have permitted its continuance , and any man with a particle of independent spirit would do so at Woolwich , or no matter where , and no matter how closely the offenders might happen to be connected with governors , directors , et hoc
genus omne . irrespective of any sprt of persecution , probably in no country in . the world is the progress of boys and young men so much impeded as in England by false feeling as to the discreditableness of iiidvistry . It has been the cause of more unsuccessful careers than dissipation to which it has oftenled , and there is scarcely any description of youthful folly to which the public school or uiriversity man , when arrived at the age of thirty , looks back with more regret and . self contempt than at his own former contempt of industry , and affectation of accomplishing everything by the mere force of talent , with the roost trifling" amount of application . It is the very pest of some of our highest places of education , in England , and though it may rarely crush a first-rate man , it often damages him , whilst it almost and often quite ruins the second-rates by hundreds . This ambition of Idleness seems to be a national disease , and must
tell unfavourably on the progress of the nation . Certainly , we do not want its malign , influence to be aided and increased -by any deliberate persecution of the industrious , ah extra ., and b y forces even more formidable than that of foolish and infectious opinion . And now a , few more words with regard to . examinations , whether at Woolwich or elsewhere . In these ( examinations those who stand at the heacl , or ne ^ r it ,, however much they may have been indebted to their schools , or to their instructors ; we do not wish to underrate the debt ' ¦ •¦ have probably been far more indebted to themselves . Iivthe secrets of the examinations were known it would : not greatly surprise us to find that some of the very worst , as well as the very lest examiners , occasionally were the products of the very same
establishment . A thoroughly hard worker ( where there is no special and unfair cramming ) will take a place of honour , even though not brought up at a school with a shilling name , and two or three names at the head of the list would scarcely necessarily prove that a school is a good one . It jnay seem a hard demand , but the places qf education ofthe fast and worst qf the candidates , though not necessairily ; theirown names , plight to b $ made public , and we shall make sure of nothing 1 till this is done . / A certain number of good matrks are generally required on each subject ; it occasionally happens that the lower candidates scarcely obtain one . The nursery gardens where these particular or the
plants are produced , whether called co ^ ge mere little plots of expensive private tutors , require a board to warn parents ott ' the premises . . It is certain that our various kinds of army education in the present days of science ought- to he very careful , if we do not want to fall altogether into the rear . Amongst other absurdities , an ordinary Cambridge or Oxford education is allowed to be sufficient qualificationfor some appointment in : the English army ; itJs difficult to conceive anything more ridiculous , but the Times , which has of late industriously afleeted to take the ' ? upper-class" view of things , apologised for the practice some months ago , in a leader if we mistake not , on the ground that young men in the higher ranks often took a hidden turn in the choice of a profession , and that too much time ought not to he lost in accommodating matters .
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THE author of " aCruise in Japanoso Waters " has composed , another littlo book , equall y usoful and . skilful , on the subject of the , Chinese flnd thoir relations with Britain , past and future . Ho has been moved to this principally by the lack pf sound information evinced in the late debates upon China . It is , ho tells us , an
incontestable fact that the opinions of the majority were based not upon historical and commercial data , but simply upon the statements of certain special interests or factions . The main difference , however , appears to lie in an essential contradiction between the ideas of the Chinese and the European . The Eastern is in all senses the opposite of the Western mind . In their books they read from opposite sides , and begin , at opposite ends ; and in manners it is the same . We are not , therefore , surprised at being told of the divergence that exists between the intellectual and logical processes of John Chinaman and John Bull . Whatever the latter may think , the former
will be sure to think differently . This is the uniform experience of Captain Osborn , and the source of all the difficulties between the two empires . He never remembers , he tells us , any European who took an European and rational view of China , who was in the end right . Nor is this strange ; for the world is content to be governed with tin-reason in China , as elsewhere . She has her traditions , too , which are , or ought to be obsolete , but which she still indulges herself in thinking to be living forces . She , too , has her dead which are not yet buried , as they ought to be , out of sight . Verily , we might see our own sometimes in the un-reason of China ; let it suffice that the Chinese see it well enough , and know how to take
advantage of it ; Captain Osborii gives a rather amusing- resume of our misunderstanding with the Chinese ; and draws also an amusing picture of the Chinese habit of misunderstanding . It is not only in diplomacy , foreign policy , and public points that we are ever thus at variance with Chinamen ; but he firmly believes that in all matters , however trival , we and these people ever differ . He can hardly remember an instance of his going to a C hinaman , and expressing an opinion that the reply of the latter did not commence with the % yords , " My no thinkee so ! " and then , in his way , he generally told you that exactly the contrary would be the case . If the question were a Chinese one , he was generally right , unless force were resorted to . " In short , " concludes Gapt . Osborn , " the European in China appears to me to be ever singing a song about the Flowery Land and its people , to which the native , standing by , strikes in with a chorus of'My no thinkee so !'" ; . .
Captain Osborn argues for the necessity of force as the ^ onl y cure for their obstinate ignorance . European diplomacy in China amounts to a just appreciation of what is right , Ayhat isto the interest of European civilisation , and then a skilful application of force , not reason : Of-the servile state of their minds , one instance may suffice . While sailing up the Peiho River , our author counted at One time no fewer than twenty-five villages in sight from the masthead , and of ten ten or fifteen were visible ; they were none of them ruined in condition , and all appeared full of inhabitants , stalwart naked laborers , and hosts of noisy healthy children ; women were not seen until afterwards , but of them there was no lack . The first arrival of the gunboats and Europeans was a-startling' event to these poor villagers ; but a strange sight for the former was to see the whole male population of a village ranged along the bank , on their
hands and knees , and performing " kotow , " as their gunboats passed . Besides this form , of respect and fear for the Fanqui , they each offered a token of peace aiid amity in the shape of a fowl , and here and there some , more ifrightened than the rest , shouted to the interpreter , Mr . H . JN , Lay , " Hail , great king ! Oh , pray be pleased to disembark and reign pyer us !'' One man , at a village , supposed to be a Christian convert , improved upon the proceedings by placing himself on his knees , in the position of adoration , and continued so long as H . ' . M . gunboat " Bustard " remained in sight . ' ¦ " He , poor fellow , '' exclaims the captain , " was no doubt anxious to propitiate , the demon that had so suddenly burst upon the quietude of his Chinese village ; but the application of his Christian teaching was as original as that of some Sjandwich Islanders ; whom I heard not manv vears aero singing 1 the o 4 th Psalm to soothe the heathen
goddess who , they believe , presides over their troublesome volcano . Enough is here to indicate what niight he done with China , were England ambitious of dominion . Her footsteps , wherever she has left them , have indeed been faithftu ,. Witness the city of Shanghai , the queen of Central China . Some sixteen years ago , Captain Osborn was one of soxhe half-dozen English boats' crews , under the Commodore , R . B ; Watson , OB . ) and part of the fleet of Admiral Sir W . Parker , G . C . B ., who first burst upon the Chinese quietude of its existence as the pioneers of a new order of things , Not the most sanguine aihong them couUl have anticipated tliat , in so short » space of time , such a magnificent European colony would have been created . " Who could , " ho demands , " have foretold that where no foreign keel had ever before floated , an import arid export trade in European , bottoms , amounting to the value of twenty-six millions seven hundred and soventvtbur odd pounds , would now
exist , arid that , at the same time , the native trade and native craft would show no apparent diminution P X et it is so , Where a low , unhealthy marsh ,, dotted with squalid Chinese abodes only then mot the eye , such » quay or bund is now seen as would put those who live on the banks of Father Thames to the tytash ! handsome houses , gardens , yachts , mail-steamers and steam 4 ugs , a thouwand indications , in short , of the wealth and prosperity of a groat commercial community . Tho naval officer ,. contemplating such a soonc oi prosperity and wealth , replete yfith high promise to uHl the world , Haddonly created on t ] bio' footprints loft ' by Ins profession , may , at any rate , without © gotipm , say that its labouvs have nut been in vain ; and as T turned my back ppon Shanghai towards the first unbvokon ground north of tho -Yangtzo , the hope nwtuvajly arose that our coming labours might be equally prolific in benefits to Groat Britain andOhma /' : Such a vein of reflection naturally directs pur attention to tho ftiturd of China . Wo lmvp much to got over in tho past , not
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* JT / i « JPqit and JFutura of Jtvitlth JtlqlfiUons ( it Ckln » , By Ouptnlu . £ tli «| ' » r 4 Onborn , Q < B ,, RoyuH Xuvy . Win . Blnokwooilnwl Soiih . ,
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784 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Sept . 8 , 1860
China. * I ¦
CHINA . *
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1860, page 784, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2364/page/8/
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