EDITOR'S TABLE. 



273 



a hot bombardment. Nothing entitled 

 to be called resistance was ofiered; 

 there was no enemy. Having battered 

 down a sufficient number of dwellings, 

 and got tired of their " glorious " sport, 

 the allies stopped the cannonading. A 

 squad was then sent to demand of the 

 Viceroy Yeh the formal surrender of 

 the town. " We shall surrender no- 

 thing," was the reply, "because we are 

 right, and you are wrong." " Then we 

 will take you prisoner." " You have 

 the power." " Come with us, then." 

 But the Viceroy did not move. There- 

 upon they lifted up the chair in which 

 lie sat, and carried him on board Lord 

 Elgin's ship. As to who were the real 

 victors in this case may be safely left 

 to the future verdict of civilization ; un- 

 less, indeed, General Grant anticipates 

 it in the great work on " The Philoso- 

 phy of the Chinese Policy," which it is 

 to be hoped he will soon publish. 



Mr. Wells Williams remarks,* '' It 

 was about a. d. 600 that Taitsung, of 

 the Tang dynasty, instituted the pres- 

 ent plan of preparing and selecting ci- 

 vilians by means of study and degrees." 

 That is, more than twelve hundred 

 years ago China adopted its present 

 thoroughgoing policy of competitive 

 civil-service examinations to secure 

 honesty and efficiency in the discharge 

 of political duties and trusts. Whatev- 

 er may have been its results, England, 

 within a generation, has adopted a sim- 

 ilar system, confessedly in imitation 

 of the Chinese. We, too, have feebly 

 tried to secure something of the kind ; 

 but such is the degraded condition of 

 American political morality that the 

 effort has been little else than a ridicu- 

 lous farce. Perhaps Goldwin Smith 

 will show us that the beastly condition 

 of our politics is due to " evolution 

 supplanting Christian morality." 



It is said that the Chinese are un- 

 truthful ; but Mrs. Opie, in her classi- 

 cal book on lying, did not have to go to 



* " Middle Kingdom," vol. i., p. 422. 

 VOL. XVI.— 18 



China for her illustrations either of the 

 nice gradations or the great popularity 

 of this practice. She dealt with it en- 

 tirely as the phenomenon of a religious 

 country. Moreover, as we are just fresh 

 from a political campaign, perhaps the 

 less we say about veracity the better, 

 even in comparison with the pagans. 

 An intelligent gentleman, many years 

 a resident of China, and accustomed to 

 large business transactions with their 

 merchants, informs us that among these 

 merchants in the great centers of com- 

 merce the standard of mercantile honor 

 is higher than anywhere else in the 

 world. The tea and silk sent us from 

 China are no doubt often adulterated, 

 which is, of course, very immoral ; but 

 the highest English authority, Dr. Has- 

 sall, declared, in his big book upon the 

 subject, that in his country every article 

 under heaven that can be adulterated is 

 adulterated. 



" But they are such dreadful opium- 

 smokers!" ejaculates the complacent 

 tobacco-chewing deacon, as he seeks 

 the spittoon. Very true ; and we are 

 not bringing forward these godless hea- 

 then as models of all the virtues. But 

 speaking of opium recalls another pas- 

 sage in Chinese history, which throws 

 light on this comparison of Christian 

 and pagan morality. The Chinese 

 Government undertook to suppress the 

 opium-traffic, so as to cut off the for- 

 eign supply and arrest the demoralizing 

 influence of its use among the people. 

 Profoundly impressed by the dreadful 

 evils of this increasing habit, the au- 

 thorities did their utmost to stop the 

 smuggling of the article ; but, when its 

 vigorous measures began to be effective, 

 the great Christian nation which was 

 embarked in the villainous trade, made 

 war upon the country, and forced the 

 accursed drug upon it at the cannon's 

 mouth. The conduct of England in 

 this " opium war " will be infamous 

 through all time ; but its policy was as 

 deliberate as its motives were execra- 

 ble. In the prehminary discussion of 



