THE FLOWERY KINGDOM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 44, 1 November 1900, Page 4

THE FLOWERY KINGDOM.

BITS OF CHINA, OLD AND NEW,

THK sIKUE OF THK LEGATIONS

Several of the English and American papers are very anxious to get exclusive accounts of the sie-jre of the Legation*. More than a dozen telegrams have b^en sent to different diplomatists to ask the price for publication ot tueir re< oiieouuus duiuig iLe f-icge. Mr. Conner, the Minister of the United States, has been asked by three separate agencies what, is his price for a three muulln' lecturing tour. Amongst; the persons to who'u cablegrams have beeu sent arc M. l'ichon, the Minister of France ; Lady Claule Macdonald, wife of the Engli-h Mmi-t'r ; Dr Marri-on. c >r respondent of the Tim ft ; Sir Robert Hart, [n«pe;'or-(Jeneral oi the Chinese Customs ; and Miss Conger, daughter of the American Minister. M. Pichon has received two offers, Lady Macdonald three, Dr. Morrison four Sir Robert Hart two, and Miss Conger one.

THE FRENCH MISSIONS IN CHINA.

Lex Missions Cathnh/jurx has just published several letters from French missionaries in China. Among theße is one from the Rev. P. Picoli. Procurator of the Franciscans at Hang-Kiou, and addressed to Mgr. Potron. It is dated July 20. The writer states that on the first intimation of the danger to which Christiana were exposed at Heng-Chow-Tou, Pere Quirin wrote at once to Mgr. Fantosati, who was absent from the mission. This prelate, warned by the letter, took with him Frere Joseph who was in the neighborhood, and they both proceeded to Hener-Chow-Tou. Their object was to help their confreres and the Christians, but the consequences were the opposite of what was hoped. Arriving in a boat under the walla of the town, Mgr. Fantosati sent a messenger to the Taotai, asking for his protection. An excited crowd immediately assembled on the river bank. The boat was seized, and the Bishop and his companion had their eyes forced out. They were then ao savagely beaten with bamboo canea and otherwise ma'treated that Frere Joseph died two hours afterwards and the Bishop a little later. There is also a letter from Pere Louat, a Lazarist, dated Oven, Chou, July 21, in which we read : — ' In the last three weeks the whole district of Oven Chou has been given up to fire and blood, and our Christians are in the most frightful distress. A large church, two residences, 1." chapels, and a thousand Christian dwtllings have been reduced to ashes. I cannot say what haa become of our Chme-te priests. Two Christians have been murdered and several mutilated or wounled. The others were able to flee to the mountains, where they are hunted like wild beasts. A hundred of these fugitives were able to o«cape, and they have arrived here one after the other in a lamentable state. Their clothea are so torn as to b-trely cover their nake mess, and the greater number have eat >n nothing for several days.

AN" INTERVIEW WiTH DX MOKKISON

Mr Arthur 11. Adams, foruvrly on the staff of the Wellington I'l-'tunii Pint, and now sp«oul correspondent of the Otw/o Daily Tune* m China, writing on September l<> Imm Pekm, gives an account of an int-rview hr> hal with Dr. Morrison, the London 'Jimts' representative in the Chiuese capital. ' Since my arrival in China,' Mud Mr. Adams, ' I have frequently heard the work of the missionaries deprecated. Is that attitude a fair or a general one ?' Dr. Morrinon looked surprised. ' The mi^dionary work in China.' he said emphatically •is of the highest value, and individually the converts were of sterling worth. During the siege they behaved excellently. I wont out with a party that collected si)o native Christians, and took them to shelter in the Legation. My servants are all Christians '

' And your servants stuck to you right through ?'

•Well,' and Dr. Morrison uinilei, 'I stuck to them. If the Christians had not stood up tor v-> during that terrible time we would not ha"c pulled through the siege." ' Now, coming to the root of the trouble,' I said 'can you tell me the reason fir the action of the Chinese Imperial party, and what was the reason for the failure of that action ? If the Dowager Empress deliberately meant to exterminate the foreigners, why did she not go on ami do so ? She had a plethora of troops at her command. It beems as if she would have overwhelmed the Legations.' ' The plot,' said the Doctor, after a pause to digest my string of questions, l was a deliberate one, carried out by the Chinese Government. The intention was to ma-nacre all foreigners. The Boxer outbreak was directly encouraged and fostered by the Chinese Government.' ' Hut it failed ' ' Yen ; because tho Chinese troops utterly failed to take the Legations. The defence was exceptionally tine. But there can be no question that the attack was deliberately planned and carried out with th- utmost determination. There was no half-heanednesa in the way they shelled tha Legations. I went through the siege, and I assure you I have no doubt as to the reality and continuity of the attack.' ' Rut,' I objected, ' the Empress sent in fruit or food to the Legations.' Dr Morrison laughed. 'Twenty melons, one bag of flour, which no one touched for fear of poison, and 24 blocks of ice. That was all. And then they had the cheek to telegraph to all the Governments that they were Bupplyiug the garrison with provisions.' ' But the Chinese soldier is a brave man V The Doctor assented. ' A brave man and well led by his officers. Look at the fortifications they constructed about the Legations. No European engineer could have done better work.'

CHINESE LOVE OF LEARNING.

It is not long since the noMes of our most civilised Western lands (says the Xarth American Ilerit ie) counted it a vioe to write well, and slept on rushes in their torch-lit wooden hulls. Their ideals were war and hunting, with bows and arrows for the most part, with legalized plundering of the agricultural population to renew their supplies of breid. In thone days China was far more civilized than any European country, and in the life of the Chinese Empire that period is only as yesterday. The two things which have done most to change the relative positions of East and West are gunpowder and printing ; yet doth ot these have been known in China for ages. So that any inherent superiority on the part of the West is rather a pleasing notion ; much might be said in the contrary sense. Yet it ia none the loss true that China has been overshadowed and left behind by the Western nations, and the recognition of thia fact is the starting point of the Emperor's policy. He conceives the remedy to be an infusion of new life into the education of the people ; a superoession of the wonderful system of intellectual training perfected centuries ago, which forma all minds alike on the great Chinese Classics, ' the best that has been thought and said ' in the Celestial Land. It is the battle of utility against culture fought out once more on Chinese lines. Chemistry and physics. engineering and military science are to take the place of essays and poems exquisitely fashioned after anoient models, now the sole teat of talent throughout the Empire, and perfection in which is the royal road to fame and fortune. It is hard to tell which we would rao«t admire, the genuine enthusiasm of China for literary culture, for familiarity with the highest thoughts and noble words of the sages, or the marvellous ingenuity and precision with which this knowledge is tested by a system of examinations hardly equalled, and never surpassed, by any nation in the world— the vast halls, with their cloister-like divisions for ten thousand candidates ; the seals set on the doors before the papers are given out ; the counted sheets of stamped paper with name and number for the esf-ays ami poems of each candidate ; the army of clerks copying the themes in red ink, lest any personal sign or mark should lead the examiner to recognise the favored pupil ; the enthusiastic crowds gathering at the doors ; the cannons and music which greet the candidates first to come forth ; the literary chancellor ceremoniously presiding , the lists of the successful eagerly bought up in the streets ; the chosen c-aayn and poems sent to Court for the delectation of the Emperor , the gold-buttoned capß and silk gowns of the graduates ; and, lastly, the almost pathetic provision that whoever continues without success to try for any degree until his eightieth year shall receive it free, from the Emperor himself, us a reward for faithful love of learning.