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And here is Mrs. Protheroe's account of her experience in the interval. —

"After I was separated from Mrs. Boden a perfect stranger took me to where he said the other foreigners were, namely, to the Makowsze, when I was refused admittance. I got in and was turned out. The mob got me back in front of our premises, which were now on fire, and told me they were going to kill me, and tried to pull the baby out of my arms. They pulled my hair and slapped my face, and asked me where the men (the missionaries) were. I told them at Hankow and Ki-chiao. One man said, 'Don't kill her ;' the others said, 'If we don't kill her we will beat her.' Then they dragged me through the street. A soldier in plain clothes, under pretence of robbing me of my ring, got me gradually to the Fu's Yamên. I was a long time before I was let in. While waiting I was being beaten; but the man who had dragged me through the street to the Yamên then told the mob to desist from beating me. Fân, meanwhile, was being badly beaten, and somehow lost the baby, which the Amah found with a native woman, who gave it to her."

But, if one official disgraced himself by driving away the women and children from his door, another, the Lung Pingsze, did his utmost with the means at his command to check the riot. It was he who tried to dissuade the mob from their purpose at the outset. He appealed vainly to the Prefect for help when they persisted, and was badly hurt in trying to save the lives of those who were killed. There is something pathetic in his message to the British Consul at Hankow that "he did his best, but that he is only a smal! Mandarin, and has but a few men; that he had urged the Prefect twice to send men to quell the riot, but the latter refused." Yet this man was removed from office; and, though he is said to have been since reinstated through the intervention of the foreign Ministers, the action cannot but create a most unfavorable impression. Still worse was the case at Ichang where Hunan braves are said to have been actual rioters, and the officials stood by powerless or unwilling to interfere.

More than enough has now been said to show the general character of the riots. The stories vary in detail; but the variation is chiefly in the behavior of the magistrates and in the violence shown by the mobs. Two questions will probably suggest themselves after a perusal of this retrospect. Can the Chinese believe the

accusations by which the excitement is wrought up? Is it true, as has been alleged, that insurrectionary motives are at the bottom of the trouble, and that political secret societies are promoting the turmoil in the hope of facilitating their own designs ?

As regards the first, we must conquer a tendency, in which Englishmen are not singular, to consider everything from our present standpoint. Absurd as those charges sound to us, no foreigner in China seeins to suspect that they are too outrageous for the Chinese. Dr. Daly, who is surgeon in a mission hospital at Ningpo, affirms that it is a popular belief all over China that foreigners extract the eyes and other organs from the dead, to make medicine of."

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He has been himself accused of it; and " for months the belief was prevalent, over a large district, that he had extracted the liver and other organs from a patient who had died in hospital, healing up the flesh with miraculous medicine so as to leave no marks of the incision.' Besides, are we ourselves so very far removed from a similar stage of folly? A glance at Mr. Lecky's chapter on magic and witchcraft will convince us that it is not so long since beliefs equally absurd ranked as religious tenets, to question which was heresy and was denounced as "infidelity," in Western Europe. Even in the spacious times of great Elizabeth, Bishop Jewell, preaching before the Queen, could seriously affirm affirm that "witches and sorcerers within these few years are marvellously increased within your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine away even unto the death; their color fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft." To believe that people could be done to death by sticking pins into a wax figure, and that old women could ride up chimneys on broomsticks, was surely as absurd as to believe that medicine can be made of children's eyes, or that certain powders could weaken men's intellects, or that paper men were cutting off the queues of the Emperor's lieges.*

It must be remembered, too, that kidnapping children is, to the Chinese, a

* These rumors were propagated at Soochow in 1876, and drove the people wild with terror. They were attributed to a secret society called Pah-sien-chiao," and were ascribed to a wish to create political turmoil.

familiar crime; the stolen children finding, it is alleged, a ready market with brothel-keepers and play-actors. It is, therefore, not extraordinary that ear should be given to charges of child-stealing when preferred against missionaries whose proceedings are, to the Celestial, in many ways peculiar. We have only to remember that the education of children is one of the most powerful means of proselytism in the Roman repertory, and that, in China as in Europe, that Church has established orphanages in which waifs and strays are collected, in order to realize the connection of the two ideas. And the excessive mortality in these institutions, which is said to result in some degree from a willingness to save a little soul by baptism, how frail soever the hold on its earthly tenement, may possibly encourage the superstition. The suggestion has been thrown out that the practice of extreme unction and our habit of closing the eyes of the dead may have furnished the notion of extracting the eyes and brain; but it would probably be more exact to say that this slander also is an adaptation of a conception already present in the Chinese mind, for it is, I believe, a fact that such crimes were alleged to exist before a missionary had set foot in the country; while the surgical practice of post-mortems may have suggested the charges of mutilation. Neither is it unlikely that the propensity of the Romish Church for surrounding its premises with high walls tends to encourage the supposition of mystery. Extreme openness is characteristic of Chinese life. The temples and monasteries are open from day. light to dark; you can wander into every nook and corner. Official Yamêns are open not only courts of justice, but the halls of audience. Can it surprise us if, to a people so accustomed, the practice of enclosure and seclusion seems suspicious?

But when missionaries are accused not only of scooping out eyes and brains and other mutilations, but of the grossest immorality, we are driven to assume the

* Clause 7 of the Hunan proclamation of

1866 runs thus:-"When a member of this religion is on his death-bed, several of his co-religionists come and exclude his relatives, while they offer prayers for his salvation. The fact is, while the breath is still in his body they scoop out his eyes and cut out his heart, which they use in their country in the manufacture of false silver. . . .'

working of the authors' own imagination. Celibacy, both of men and women, is, to the Chinese, a familiar idea: monks and nuns are common among the Northern Buddhists. But they hold the former in small esteem, and the reputation of the nunneries is scarcely better than that which many such institutions had earned for themselves in Europe at the time of the Reformation. There might be no great difficulty, therefore, in believing that the people were willing to judge celibate foreigners by the native standard. But when we are told, as one familiar with the subject has affirmed, that "the language of their placards is often too vile for translation into any living tongue;" that the foreigner "is denounced as a perpetrator of the most unnatural crimes-crimes that I never heard of till I came to China,". we are staggered as well as revolted by the malignancy of the charge; though we can readily believe that here is one serious cause of whatever "hatred exists to the foreigner among the masses of the Chinese people.” *

Yet even those atrocious charges, like everything else in that stereotyped empire, seem of long descent; having been formulated apparently for the purpose of previous persecutions, and reproduced upon occasion by the literati of successive generations. Shortly after the massacre of Tientsin, certain American missionaries at a town in Shantung obtained possession of a Chinese book, entitled Death Blow to Corrupt Doctrine, that brought forward all the accusations against missionaries which had been the alleged motive of that outbreak. The book was believed to have been written in 1862 by Tang Tzeshing, one of the highest officials in the province of Hupeh, and is believed to have been founded, in its turn, on a similar book written by one Yang Kwang sien which, Du Halde tells us, was the exciting cause of the persecution of Christians in A.D. 1624. Nor is the series at an end : similar charges are to be found in a standard collection of important official documents which was lately republished with the imprimatur of distinguished scholars

and ex-officials.

Given those two forces-the malignity of the literati and the credulity of the

*Letter by Dr. Griffith John, in North-China Herald of August 7, 1891.

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populace it is difficult to limit the results that may be worked out. When," writes a Chinaman,* who has come forward lately in the Shanghai press as an exponent of the opinion of his class,"when the educated Chinese sees a mass of impenetrable darkness being thrust upon the people, with all the arrogant and aggressive pretentiousness of the missionaries on the one hand, and by the threat of gunboats on the part of foreign governments on the other, it makes him hate the foreigners with a hatred which only those can feel who see that all they hold as the highest and most sacred as belonging to them as a race and a nation their light, their culture and their literary refinement are in danger of being irreparably defaced and destroyed.'

The more conservative resent with horror the attacks on Confucianism and the Worship of Ancestors; while the more enlightened resent being lectured on the folly of pandering to popular belief that eclipses are caused by a celestial dog eating the moon, in the same breath that they are asked to believe that the sun stood still at the bidding of Joshua. However, the hatred, like the credulity, seems to be collective rather than personal, and to be directed against the system rather than against the individual. The missionaries themselves are often respected and liked by the Chinese, officials as well as people, with whom they come into contact; and a tablet has even in recog. nition of their good deeds during a recent famine been set up in Shantung. Perhaps if we attempt to picture the reception that Buddhist or Mohammedan missionaries would have met with under the Commnonwealth, in England, and the degree of credit that would have attached to any absurd accusations that might have been brought against them, in a society of which Sir Matthew Hale and Sir Thomas Brownet were representatives, we may be

* A letter headed "Defensio Populi ad Populos," published in the North-China Herald of July 24, which has attracted much attention and controversy.

Two women were hanged in Suffolk in 1664 for witchcraft, by sentence of Sir Matthew Hale, who declared that the reality of witchcraft was unquestionable; and Sir Thomas Browne, who was a great physician, as well as a great writer, swore at the trial that he was of opinion that the persons in NEW SERIES.-VOL, LIV., No. 6.

able to realize, in some degree, the feeling with which European missionaries are regarded by Chinese.

Still to admit that the hatred exists is different from admitting that it is universal and ever-active; to admit that the accusations are believed is different from admitting that the people would formulate them if left alone. Flax will not buin unless fire be applied. The riots would not have occurred without instigation; and, when we come to ask whence the instigation came, there is abundant evidence of political intrigue.

In an interview with the Taotai of Hankow, shortly after the Wusüeh outrage, H.B.M. Consul (Mr. Gardner) asked point-blank whether there was any truth in the reports that these riots were caused by a Secret Society whose object is not so much hostility to Europeans as hostility to the Imperial Government, which it wished to embroil with foreign powers. The Mandarins admitted that "there is a great deal of truth in it; but the actual rioters are generally local people, who are stirred up by these" agitators. Similarly, the present Chinese Minister in London, during a recent interview with Sir Philip Curric, said that "there had not for years been such an anti foreign outbreak; that he did not attribute it to any widespread feeling against foreigners, but to the machination of Secret Societies existing among the disbanded soldiery, the object of which was to stir up trouble against the Government." The Viceroy of Nanking has lately memorialized the Throne in the same sense, and asked for increased powers to punish the culprits.

It is literally true that China is honeycombed by Secret Societies. They valy alike in their objects and their origins; but they are all viewed askance, because their organization is prone at any moment. to be directed against the governing powers. A few words of explanation may perhaps afford a key to the nature of the forces at work. First and foremost in all machinations against foreigners must be noted the literati. It is one of the evils of the Chinese system that every educated man aspires to take a degree, but that no career except the Government service exists for him after he has taken it. We

question had been bewitched.-Lecky's Hislory of Rationalism, vol. i., chap. i.

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On the most momentous questions that can occupy the human mind, men and women bound to each other by the closest ties have not a thought in cominon. That unions should prove satisfactory, and mariage, in spite of drawbacks so formidable, should be regarded as the anchor of a Frenchinan's career, may require elucidation.

In no other country is so high a premium set upon the married state. A prudent alliance is regarded by our neighbors as nothing short of worldly salvation. Honor, dignities, social advancement wait upon the wedding ring. Wedlock is a

bribe.

view, namely, the intensification of maternal affection, a necessary result of the mariage de convenance, I have ever regarded Daudet's novel, L'Immortel, as the French novel of the day, as much of a "roman nécessaire' as Madame Bovary. No other pen has so well depicted the consequences of marriage for marriage' sake, that blind idolatry of the one child of the house, of which the product is too often a Paul Astier.

Madame Astier, to whom her husband was something less than a beast of burden, who could stint the conjugal board of bare necessaries, lic, plot, and deceive, even stoop to immorality--this is hinted at for the sake of ministering to her son's vices-Madame Astier is living flesh and blood, no less so than the atrocious Emma of Gustave Flaubert. She has something, too, in common with most French mothers. A Frenchwoman inakes it her boast that as soon as a child is born to her, the wife is merged in the mother, she ceases to become épouse, and is only

Daudet's masterly touch-" the first thrill of real passion in Madame Astier's soul was awakened by her sense of maternity"-comes home with painful force to all who know French life intimately.*

Yet, as statistics show us, marriage is growing more and more unpopular in France. Marriage, to quote Mr. Hamerton, is a lifelong conversation, and, under existing circumstances, educated Frenchmen find it a trifle dull. Domestic peace certainly is often attained at the price of mutual concessions. Good manners, amiable temper, worldly interests, and the tie of children bring about a good understand-mère. ing, but from the marriage day till final separation husband and wife too often remain entire strangers to each other, their standards of life and conduct, their ideals, hopes, and connections being diametrically opposed. The result of this state of things is threefold. Men of sterling worth are thrown back upon friendship, women find refuge in maternal affection, the lawless of both sexes in illicit amours. Let us take the exhilarating subject of friendship first. The intellectual and spiritual stimulus wedlock cannot bring is found here. A delightful feature of French life is the close, brotherly intimacy of men lasting from early boyhood throughout life. The "thee" and "thou" of schoolboy days are resumed after years of absence. A Frenchman will make sacrifices for his friend as alertly as an Englishman for his betrothed.

One

comrade may have succeeded in the race of life, the other may have failed. The fraternal bonds remain unbroken. Heart still speaks to heart as in that careless time when the pair sat side by side in the class room. The closeness of the marriage tie among ourselves interferes with this kind of friendship. In France it frequently happens that to his friend, and his friend only, a man can freely unburden himself. From the second point of

L'Immortel is merciless: so is the maternal instinct of the Madame Astiers in France. You will even hear women belonging to good society, themselves devout Catholics, models of correct behavior, jest concerning the intrigues of their beardless sons. Mothers will welcome confidences from mere lads which to other ears sound simply appalling. Of course, neither Madame Astier nor her vile son should te taken as average specimens-sad for the future of France were it so! But how different is the view held of wifely and motherly duty on opposite sides of the Channel the following instances will show.

That English wives of officers on foreign service remain with them, as a matter of course, their children being sent home for education, is regarded by Frenchwomen with sentiments they hardly like to put into words. The child is a fetich; the husband and father holds a second place in his own house. A woman who

* Balzac's heroine, in Le Lys de la Vallée, describes herself as "enivrée de maternité"intoxicated with the sense of motherhood.

considers her first duty owed to her husband appears to Frenchwomen little short of a monster.

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as

Again, take the case of the educated Parisian lady who a few years ago deliberately shot a wretched man because he had libelled her. The offender died after suffering horrible agonies, but his assassin was allowed to go unpunished, even unblamed. As this woman was a mother, and alleged as a motive for murder affection for her child, Frenchwomen condone the deed; I have never yet found one who did not entirely approve of her conduct. On similar grounds, Ohnet's heroine, the bakeress in Serge Panine, is acquitted of all criminality although, as deliberately, she shoots her worthless son-in-law, dead. As I have said before, the French child is a fetich; fathers, husbands, and brothers mere terre-à terre humanity. In middle class families, whose pedigree is a generation or two removed from peasant stock only, the infant son is called "Monsieur Jean," or Monsieur Charles, the case may be. Even his wet-nurse is not allowed to call her charge in swaddling clothes by the endearing term of “ Bébé.' I have seen a household turned topsy-turvy because a baby had to dine at five instead of seven o'clock with its parents. The one maid-of-all-work was compelled to leave her work, formally lay the cloth, prepare soup, fish, beefsteak, vegetables, cheese, and dessert for a mite of two and a half! Many and many a time have I blushed for my sex on fast days and Fridays, when hard worked heads of the house have been compelled to breakfast and dine off eggs and potatoes, while the most Catholic of Catholic mothers, under some pretext or other, was providing a choice beefsteak or ragout for the pampered gourmand of eight or nine. With us the discipline of life begins in the nursery; with our neighbors, in the lycée, or during the enforced military service. Is it to be wondered at that suicide increases enormously in France? A child whose whims have been systematically humored from the cradle upward, naturally brooks no restraint upon his wishes. A girl refuses him; he is disappointed in his career; he has ill-luck at cards; he straightway purchases a pistol, and there is an end of the matter. The chronicle of the daily newspapers is sufficiently appalling; statistics still more so. In Paris one out

of twenty deaths of adult males is selfsought.*

Of course, other causes contribute to this mania of self-destruction. I am convinced that artificial bringing up is one of the most potent. A French child is a hothouse plant, on a sudden transplanted to a cold, out-of door world, an exotic exposed to chilling frost.

The

If maternal affection, in the cases mentioned above, obscures the discernment of right from wrong, no less does conventual bringing up impede the judgment in dealing with cause and effect. As we have seen, the vast majority of Frenchwomen persistently set their faces against the first Government that has taken in hand their social and intellectual advancement. words of Gambetta-"Let our youths and maidens be united by the understanding before they are joined by the heart”—are, indeed, now acted upon, and enormous strides are yearly made in female education. No more gifted creature lives than our sister on the other side of La Manche. Only solid instruction, a sense of moral responsibility and wider interests, are necessary to develop her rare endowments of heart and brain. Fortunately, in the first lady of France the sex is now admirably represented. The wife of the honored President of the Republic, by her public spirit, her dignified initiative, her unsparing devotion to duty, will do more for the advancement of her country women than all that has yet been effected in the way of practical reform.

A thorough revision of the Civil Code is sorely needed. A Frenchwoman cannot witness a deed, act as trustee, or fulfil the office of executrix the law still classes her with idicts and minors. Like the Roman ladies of old, she remains throughout life under male tutelage. A newlymade widow becomes a stranger in her husband's house from the moment he ceases to breathe. The second wife of any man who dies intestate, no matter if he possesses millions, does not receive a centime from the law. Her position is often so intolerable that many would doubtless prefer the suttee, and have done with it. with it. Napoleon and his legists, when drawing up the Civil Code, seemed to think that the privilege of bearing chil

*See La France Economique, by A. de Foville, Chef du Bureau de Statistique du Ministère de Finance, Paris, 1890.

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