AMONG THE CHINESE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 188, 3 November 1876, Page 14

AMONG THE CHINESE.

— <-+ — The Albany ' Weekly Times * quotes from the evidence taken by the Chinese Investigating Committee of the California Senate, to prove that Protestant missionary labor among the Chinese, both in, China and here, is entirely thrown away. To gain information on. this point the committee examined missionaries, city officials, citizens, sailors, foreign residents of China, and even Chinamen themselves. The Eev. Otis G-ibson, for ten years stationed in China aa a missionary, and for ten years more among the thirty thousand Chinese in San Francisco, swore that he did not believe there were more than a hundred Christians among the number in that city. His Chinese friend, Lee Ming Hown, who teaches for Mr. Gibson, and is president of the Sam-yup company, is not so sanguine, and thinks that the number of that gentleman's converts does not exceed ten or twenty. Leung Cook, president of the Tung-Ling-Chung company, numbering 40,000 members, knew but one of hia countrymen who was a Christian. Captain Joy, of the British merchant marine, who has been much in China, testified that the missionaries met -with no success except such as they bought. "If you pay the Chinamen," he said, "they will believe anything you desire so long as the money lasts." Mr. J. P. M. Fraser, for fifteen years in the British consular service, six years of which were spent in Canton, replied to the question, " What is your opinion of the,, labor of American and English missionaries in China ?" in these words : "It has-been anything but successful. Ido not think there are any strides being made toward the advancement of Christianity. The Chinese will take any advantage they can of the free gifts of the white race, such as medicine, &c., and pretend to do such as you want so long as they are kept supplied." That we take it is a a very fair epitome of Protestant missionary history in any quarter of the globe. There was one bit of testimony supplied, however, which, says the ' Times/ was altogether exceptional. Mr. Samuel H. Cohen testified : "In travelling in the north of China I have seen a great many Catholic Chinamen. The Catholics there seem to have done more towards Christianising the Chinese than all the rest. A Catholic priest told me that their mission had converted 60,000 in two years." The latter statement, as the ' Times ' observes, is based on hearsay evidence, but it is noteworthy that M. Cohen, an eye-witness to the existence of " many Catholic Chinamen," appears not to have thought it an exaggeration. What sort of Christians the priests make of these mercenary Orientals the telegrams told us the other day. Three hundred of them saw their houses burnt over their heads a fevr weeks ago, and many of the number lost at the same time, rather than deny their faith, not only their goods but their lives at the hands of their pagan brethren. We have settlements in China where the people have been Christians for generations, and every traveller bears testimony that they rank far above their heathen countrymen in morals and in manners. But our success in no way touches the question of the failure of " the American and English missionaries." Some day, when American dioceses begin to be more alive to the calls of the Propagation of the Faith, and a missionary spirit rewards their growing charity, there will be, please God, a better tale to tell of American missionary labor among the Chinese. At present, like most other good works on the grand scale, the Christianising |of China is left to France — the country which, makes Frenchmen of all nationalities which she conquers, but which fails to make colonies because of the homesickness of her children. And yet it is France that civilizes and Christianiseß and teaches her own speech to-day in Asia and in Africa. And doubtless none of her sons love her better than they -who find courage to tear themselves from her only because they carry Him with them who is the true home of Christian souls, and -whose household they live only to extend,— c Catholic Beview.' "