270 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



England by citing the case of Governor 

 Eyre. He says : " Moral phenomena of 

 the same kind marked the controversy 

 arising out of the Jamaica massacre; 

 the enthusiastic supporters of Governor 

 Eyre perfectly recognized in him an 

 organ of the sanguinary vengeance of 

 the dominant race, even if they did not 

 believe that he had committed a foul 

 judicial murder." 



But still the question is, Upon whom 

 is this savagery chargeable ? Professor 

 Smith says it is a result of the present 

 predominance of evolution supplanting 

 Christian moi*ality. He utters " the 

 thing that is not." Who was it that 

 held up Governor Eyre to reprobation, 

 prosecuted him, and demanded his pun- 

 ishment ? And who was it that excused 

 his conduct and organized to defend 

 him? It was Carlyle, the great apostle 

 of the brute-force philosophy, who was 

 very properly chairman of the commit- 

 tee of defense ; and he was backed up 

 solidly by the Christian lord-bishops. 

 But no one, except under the desperate 

 necessity of making out a case, will 

 charge that either Carlyle or the bish- 

 ops were animated by evolutionary sen- 

 timents. On the other hand, John Stu- 

 art Mill, the agnostic, was chairman of 

 the committee that prosecuted Govern- 

 or Eyre, and on that committee, and 

 among the most earnest and vigorous 

 in its work of resisting the control of 

 brute force, were the eminent evolu- 

 tionists, Charles Darwin, Professor Hux- 

 ley, and Herbert Spencer. Professor 

 Smith ought to have more respect for 

 the facts of his case. 



MORALITY AMONG THE CHINESE. 

 Early in his article in the " Atlan- 

 tic," Professor Goldwin Smith says: 

 " Be the significance of the fact what it 

 may, a fact it seems to be, that only men 

 with a religions belief and a sanction 

 for morality which they believe to be 

 divine, have been able to live under a 

 government of law." Yet a few pages 



further on he remarks : " China is 

 without any real religion ; she is thor- 

 oughly positive." 



Professor Smith will reconcile these 

 propositions as best he can with the 

 fact that China is the oldest govern- 

 ment and the largest nation in the 

 world. She has a recorded history of 

 more than four thousand years, and 

 gives law to one third of the human 

 race. It will be instructive to glance 

 briefly at the state of morality among 

 these " positivists," that we may see 

 how it compares with that of confess- 

 edly religious countries. 



It will be remembered that our in- 

 formation concerning the Chinese is 

 largely from prejudiced sources — from 

 missionaries who went there to get 

 them out of their heathenism, and the 

 official representatives of foreign gov- 

 ernments bound to open this dark re- 

 gion to the light of civilization. These 

 witnesses will, at any rate, not be biased 

 in favor of the Chinese. 



In the last edition of the " Encyclo- 

 poadia Britannica " it is said, " Educa- 

 tion is probably more widely spread 

 among the male population in China 

 than in any other country." The 

 British Governor, Sir John Davis, in 

 his able work on this country,* says : 

 " It is deserving of remark that the 

 general prosperity and peace of China 

 have been very much promoted by the 

 diffusion of intelligence and education 

 through the lower classes. Among the 

 countless millions that constitute the 

 empire, almost every man can read and 

 write sufficiently for the ordinary pur- 

 poses of life, and a respectable show of 

 these acquirements goes low down in 

 the scale of society." S. Wells Wil- 

 liams, missionary, interpreter, and sec- 

 retary to the British Legation in China, 

 in his " Middle Kingdom " says, " Edu- 

 cation has always been highly esteemed 

 and exerted a dominant influence on 

 the manners and tastes of the people." 



* Davis's "China," addressed to Lord Palm- 

 erston, vol. i., p. 25T. 



