THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. BITS OF CHINA. OLD AND NEW.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 42, 18 October 1900, Page 4

THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. BITS OF CHINA. OLD AND NEW.

A CHINESE JESUIT,

A distinguished member of the Society of Jesus is Pere Laurent Li. a native Chinese, who, besides being "master of his own native language and literature, is an accomplished Latin and French scholar. He is editor-in-chief of i.ll Chinese publications of the Order — papers, magazines aud books.

TIIK MAIN CAUSE OK THE TIiOUULK.

Since the beginning of the troubles with China (says the Cnthnltr 7 im> i) it has become the fashion in certain quarters to lay the blame for the hatred displayed towards foreigner by the people of the Celestial Kingdom on the Khouldern of the devoted men who :ire spending their lives in preaching the Gospel among the Chinese. There may, and no one need doubt it, have been imprudence on the part of one missionary or the other. This is to be expected, for no one need hold that all missionaries are wise men. But it is not at all clear to our mind that the Chinese hatred of foreigners springs from the efforts of missionaries to establish the Christian creed in their midst. We incline to think the argument lies the other way about ; that hatred of foreigners leads the Chinese to entertain hatred towards the missionaries. The Chinese have for centuries been peace-loving people, isolated, almost insulated from all communication with the outside world. They wish, rightly or wrongly, to have nothing to do with Europe, or with European manners and commerce. Yet Europe has forced them to open their ports to foreign trade, has forced them to allow the sale of opium, that curse of China, among their people, has cut up their territory in slices, and has shown them that they will one day be devoured when Europe consideres itself healthy enough to digest them. All this makes the Chinese hate foreigners, and amongst the foreigners come the missionaries.

A TBUE ESTIMATE OF THE BOXER MOVEMENT.

Monsignor Favier, the Catholic Bishop of Pekin, who appears, from the Blue-book just issued, to have been the only foreigner to estimate aright the true inwardness of the Boxer movement, has lived in northern China for a generation past, although he has only •worn the mitre for a short time. At his episcopal consecration iru the Cathedral of St. Saviour, there were pre&eut 12 foreign repr^ spntatives, several members of the Imperial family, the THung-llf Yamert, the Viceroy, most of the European residents, and 3000 native converts. The Emperor decorated the new Bishop with the lied Order, first class, in acknowledgement of the .ervicea rendered by Monsignor Faviur for many years in the north of the Empire.

MURDER Or FRANCISCANS.

Word was recently received at the Franciscan Monastery at Brooklyn, near Washington, of the murder of four misnionarieH of the Franciscan order in China The missionaries killed were Mgr. Anthony Fantonati, titular l>i-hop of Antren and Vicar Apostolic of southern Hu-An, and his three associates, all of them Franciscans. One of these asmstants went toChiua as late as last November. The massacre took place on July 4, at Pen-Sien-Fu, where Bishop Fantosati resided. The bishop had been fearful of trouble for some time, and had placed 200 of the native converts under arms to guard the cathedral at l'en-ftien-Fu. Wulll tho mi;^:cr..iric" n"<J th»ir converts were holding services in the cathedral, a mob of Boxers, reenforeed by Chinese troops, huiiuujutUJ the building, and after cutting off all escape for those in the cathedral, set fire to the edifice and massacred the converts. Mgr. Fantosati was led to the viceroy's yamen, after which he was decapitated and his head suspended before the yamen.

Hu-An, in which the massacre took place, is one of nine vicarates which are in charge of the Franciscan friars, the bishop of each being a member of that Order.

THE OPIUM CURSE.

It will be within the memory of persons yet alive (says a Home paper) that Great Britain actually forced the Chinese to allow the Bale of this pernicious drug, and forced them to do so by war. The mandarins objected to have their subjects demoralised by the opium traffic, and rather than allow its importation, stopped all foreign trade. Captain Elliot, the superintendent of trade, agreed that all opium in the hands of Englishmen should be delivered up and that no more should be introduced. On April 3, 1839, 20,283 chests of the vile drug were handed over to the Chinese authorities, who destroyed every one of them — no weak evidence of their detestation of the opium curse and of their honest desire to free their people from it. Yet England went to war in 18i0 in defence of the traffic, and only made peace in 1842 on terms which engaged China to cede Hongkong and open several ports to foreign trade and pay an indemnity of 2 1,000, 00 J dollars. Opium is still introduced. Opium is grown in China in competition with the foreign drug. Thousands of Chinese are victims to the terrible opium habit, and thousands of Englishmen are ashamed of their country's acts in selling opium to the Chinese. No wonder the Chinese people sell anti-opium pills labelled ' Cure for the Foreign Poison.'

THE MISSIONS Or PEKIN

M. Marcel Monnier in his delightful book Le Tour <V Atu\ L' Empire dv M/lieu, writes as follows of tho Lazarist missions at Pekin :—

'At the missions the welcome was indeed a cordial one. The road thither is easily found. Hours pass swiftly by in conversing with the men who for so many years have passed their whole lives in the midst of these strange Chinese races ; men who have adopted their language, their habits and customs, who have studied their literature, their art, and their annals, and who possess the gift, so rare and scarce, of evoking in their conversation, by a few ornate and vividly descriptive touches, men and matters of the present and the past ; men who though garbed as Chinese yet still possess the true French soul : with minds alert, not given, however, to the fostering of illusions, convinced that they are laboring on ungrateful soil ; still tenacious, possessed of a joyous ardor, wholly happy iv the enormous difficulties of their selfimposed tasks.

' It would be a mistake to look upon these missions simply from the one point of view of religious propagandism Their activity is manifest in many different ways. Their missions in Pekin are far removed one from the other, situate at the four cardinal points, an their names indicate : Pei-tang. Nan-tang, Ton-tang, and Si-Tang — ■ the Church of the north, of the south, of the east, of the west. Around these churches are grouped not only the re=idences of the Fathers, the seminaries of the novitiates, but also the schools, the workshops, where the young people are taught wood and metal work. Then there is the printing office, where the young native compositors are equally skilled in the setting up of the Chinese and Latin characters.

' Near the Church of the East, Ton-tang, is the hospital where the Sisters of Chanty of St. Vincent de Paul, assisted by the medical staff of the Frenoh Legation, are ever assiduous in their care and nursing of the most repulsively afflicted patients. This Buffering class of humanity exhibit afflictions, sores and complaints and such like pathological phenomena Beldom to be met with in European clinical institutions. This institution ia the only one of its kind in all Pekin. Needless to say it is ever crowded. On certain days there are to be seen hundreds of stricken patients awaiting the arrival of the doctor. Those who are unable to find room in the hospital make their way to the dispensary. There their ailments are seen to, wounds washed, and a large bowl of rice given to each. In the neighborhood of this mission — the most ancient Catholic settlement extant in Pekin, one founded by the Portuguese Jesuits over 200 years ago — there is a never ceasing influx and exodus of spectral figures, diaease-stricken and fever-marked sufferers.

' The headquarters of the mission is the Pei-tang Chnrch of the North. It ia situated in the yellow-quarter of the city, close to the Imperial Palace. There are two small pavilions flanking the entrance surmounted by a dragon ; affixed to the wall are marble Blabs on which are inscribed the Imperial Ordinances, setting forth the terms upon which the concession of the land was made to France some 100 years ago. But a few years back the Emperor, wishing to enlarge the grounds of his palace, took the site previously held by the French Fathers and gave them the present Bite in exchange, and built the present cathedral, episcopal residence, and all the many dependencies at his own expense — a cost estimated at over £30,000. A huge tablet suspended over the

facade of the Cathedral records this fact. Pei-tang ia the residence of the Vicar- Apostolic, a man whose name in widely known, who is much beloved by all those whose privilege it has been to know and meet him, Mgr. Favier.

' A mile or so outside the walls, near to the old French cemetery, in the village of Cha-la-eul, is the wonderful school established and directed by the Marist Brothers. There are about 100 native students attending tho classes, most of whom write and speak French fluently. This institution enjoys a deservedly high reputation. Many of the youngsters who have made their studies in thii school are now holding good posts in the Civil Service and Custom House offices — ouo of the recent members of +>i«? r'hinfise Kmbauy at Paris, the Minister Tsing, waß a student of Cha-la-eul. 1