Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

ancestor worship. To destroy it means the uprooting of the ethical and moral foundations of the Chinese race. It is certain that the vast majority of the Chinese people have not the faintest idea of the changes which the Republican system would introduce, and that the notion of a Middle Kingdom without the Dragon Throne is entirely beyond the range of their imagination. The policy to which England and the United States have for years been committed in the Far East, the policy of "maintaining the independence and integrity of China can only possess certain remnants of practicability if the country retains as a sheet-anchor the monarchical principle of government-that fundamental structure without which the Chinese nation is inevitably doomed to rapid decay. The process of disintegration has been accelerated in recent years, and high is the price already paid for national unrest and inefficiency: Formosa, the Liaotung, Korea, all gone since 1895; Manchuria and Mongolia practically kst; Fokhien and Shantung earmarked with reversionary claims. Manchu misrule alone cannot be held accountable for these humiliations. The individualism, inefficiency and self-seeking of the Chinese upper classes, old and new, are equally to blame. To-day their lack of cohesion, of intelligent leadership and constructive policy, threatens China with anarchy and the world with endless sources of conflict, whilst the body of the people remains unfitted by instinct or education for the vast changes which are asked of them. Under such conditions, foreign intervention, for the restoration of law and order, must sooner or later, become imperative. Given time, and a government well chosen and supported for the necessary work of education and reform, the Chinese people may yet work out their own salvation, but law and order must first be restored, and Young China is assuredly unequal to the task.

Foreign intervention and the maintenance of the Throne present grave difficulties, no doubt, but they are less than those which threaten China from persistence in this Republican madness. The Manchus were impossible as autocratic rulers : so be it. But the Chinese "intelligents," if firmly handled, would be quite content to accept a constitutional and limited monarchy, and a Sovereign could easily be chosen, either from the descendants of the Mings or those of Confucius. The

personality of the Sovereign seems comparatively unimportant, but the maintenance of the Throne is essential. In the interests of humanity, if not for the protection of their own vested interests and trade, the Powers cannot look with indifference on the untold horrors of a decade of anarchy in China. As matters stand, it would not require more than the united and firm warning of the leading Powers, to restrain Young China from its perilous courses. As a matter of fact, intervention of a kind has already taken place. Foreign troops are in charge of a section of the northern railway; others are protecting the lives and property of foreigners at Hankow, Canton, and other centres of disturbance. To extend this interference in China's internal affairs to the point of protecting her own patient, peace-loving people from the calamities which threaten them, would seem to be the first duty of civilisation, and to determine the best means of performing that duty should not be beyond the resources of diplomacy.

It is impossible to contemplate, unmoved, the pitiful condition to which the vast helpless masses of the Chinese people are certain to be reduced by this strife of politicians and parties. Historically and humanly considered, there exists no people more deserving, by their splended qualities, of good and honest government; yet, during the past fifty years they have suffered almost continuously from plague, pestilence and famine, from battle and murder and from sudden death. They seem, indeed, as a race, to have become so inured to suffering, so callous under calamities, as to be incapable of devising effective measures of self-defence, all their sudden tempests of indignation spending themselves in futility. Nevertheless, those who have lived among them know them for a very lovable people, rightly deserving of better destinies. It is frequently said that every people gets the government it deserves. In a sense this is true; but it is also true that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, and the Chinese people of the present day seem to me to be paying for the forgotten sins of many generations of ancestors. And even as we sympathise with the children of undesirable parents, so must we sympathise with these unfortunate sons of Han, these old-world children, suddenly confronted after long centuries of isolation with all the troubles

and terrors of our restless modernity-these wise and kindly children, whose chief sin is their helplessness.

But when I remember the unperturbed and brooding spirit at dwells in China's philosophy, when I think of the qualities that dignify the lives of her common people, I take comfort in the words of Montaigne, that "all that shaketh doth not -the contexture of so vast a frame holdeth by more than one nail. It holds by its antiquity, as old buildings, which age bath robbed of foundation, nevertheless live and subsist by their own weight."

J. O. P. BLAND

THE EIGHTH DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE*

FEW books afford better reading than political memoirs events we can all recall. These historical studies are savoure with the zest of experience. One presumes a decent interval time to allow the bitterness to elapse, that bitterness which an essential in all contemporary politics, nor without a certai virtue of its own. It implies, at any rate, a keen interest in th affairs of State and affords to an inarticulate race like the Englis a convenient way of giving that interest expressional relief. A good wine has to ferment before it becomes drinkable, so i politics a certain mental fermentation seems a necessary prelim nary before we can stomach any important political developmen

There is a curious fact about this controversial vehemenc One finds it most acute among those furthest removed from t actual contest. It has a certain family resemblance to the fer cious patriotism of the Fleet Street journalist. Those actuall engaged in the fray, apart from platforms, are reasonable enoug It is even possible to discuss a topic of the day with such, a opponents, but it requires a brave man indeed to run a simila risk with a country squire in his own village, or a small retaile in a Nonconformist town-one might as well argue with suffragette.

The reason may perhaps be physical; in the old days whe people played games instead of golf muscular effort after long rest involved a certain amount of suffering. So with peopl whose mental exercise is intermittent-suddenly confronted wit a proposition they dislike; they rush headlong to the attack, t be brought up short with the necessity for reason. The poor brai does its best but suffers like an athlete running a race untrained.

* The Life of the Duke of Devonshire. By Bernard Holland. Two volume Longmans. 32s. net.

It is just as well for the most zealous party man, even on ce's own side, to be reminded occasionally there is another. A historical study of political struggles in the midst of which we Lave lived is an admirable corrective. We are no longer face to face with the foe-the personal opposition upon which party pit so much depends is gone and we may all feel our Toryism our Liberalism, as the case may be, somewhat abated. One gets the picture with the mellow varnish of time.

The life of the Duke of Devonshire adequately fulfils the requirements of political biography. If the style is a trifle pontifal, with an occasional tendency to fatuity in footnotes, the author has done his work well. In dealing with controversial ptics he tries very hard to be impartial, and although at times Le seems to feel the strain, succeeds as well as can be expected of a human soaring biographer.

It is a remarkable fact that the Duke, who displayed all life those qualities which are held by most of his country, en to justify our public school system, was educated at me. He had the advantage, not merely of a very remarkale father, but a father who devoted much of his time to the education of his son. His biographer suggests that this e training may have developed a certain innate tendency wards shyness and silence and an indisposition for exchange ideas with his fellows. This may be so, but these qualities were the essence of the man and the outward and visible sign of personality belonging to a type always attuned to his country-an Englishman has a certain distrust of a talker and hates ting like talk for talk's sake; as a means of promulgating the concedes a reluctant tolerance, but dislikes abstract ght almost as much as a phrase. Also Heredity had a good ai to say.

The

To the Cavendishes as a family might be applied the wellown description of the English as a people by Emerson: putation for taciturnity they have enjoyed for six or seven -ired years; and a kind of pride in bad public speaking is ed in the House of Commons, as if they were willing to show at they did not live by their tongue or thought they spoke well enough if they had the tone of gentlemen."

In a letter written to the Queen, Lord Beaconsfield says of

« PreviousContinue »