CHINESE IMMIGRATION. 



723 



and have been followed by similar actions. Dissatisfaction with ex- 

 isting conditions has encouraged the spirit of rebellion ; oppression 

 has been followed by revolt ; the employment of force in the support 

 of injustice has been followed by force in the maintenance of justice. 

 Everywhere appears the spirit of discontent with existing conditions, 

 and constant effort for their improvement. 



The difference in the characters of the Chinese and European peo- 

 ples is older than their histories, as it is the same when their histories 

 commence. It is fundamental, and as immutable as are the physical 

 characteristics of the races subject to but slight change in long pe- 

 riods of time. The Chinese are constant in their adherence to old- 

 established customs and ideas. The genius of the Western nations is 

 that of change and progress. As the Chinese mandarin confers honors 

 by his rank upon his father, and the European transmits his titles to 

 his son, so in all things the former receives his highest inspiration 

 from the past, the latter from the future. 



The cause of this contrast is that underlying the vital question of 

 Chinese immigration ; it exists in the different races of the people com- 

 posing the different societies, and finds its explanation in the operation 

 of the same laws which govern the evolution of all races and species 

 of the animal kingdom. 



Considering, then, the Chinese as a race, let us notice some of the 

 laws of development of races and species, for they hold equally well 

 with man as with other members of the animal kingdom. The trans- 

 mission of race-characters by inheritance is not only strongly persistent 

 and subject to but slight change in long periods of time, but also the 

 development of certain characters is often continued long after they 

 have passed the condition of usefulness. A character, which from selec- 

 tion may have become fixed in a species or race, may also continue in 

 its development from the strengthening tendency of heredity as the 

 race increases in age, and by the development from use of all those 

 parts which give it nourishment. 



In the classification of species or races, physical characters alone 

 have usually been employed ; but those mental traits which are made 

 manifest in habits and customs, though less easy of observation, are 

 equally constant, and therefore suitable. 



The distinguishing characteristics of genera, species, race, or tribe, 

 physical and mental alike, are constant in. the order named. As their 

 development is in an inverse order as slight variation must precede 

 great change and tribes develop before races, races before species, and 

 species before genera the degree of constancy in all is controlled by 

 the general law that the inheritance of characters is persistent in 

 proportion to the length of time they have been inherited. The char- 

 acters which mark a species are more constant and uniform than those 

 which distinguish races, tribes, or families. 



If the Chinese are a different race from the nations of the West, 



