EDITOR'S TABLE. 



125 



in the world for a long time. But 

 the moment they come in contact 

 with peoples not become degenerate 

 through the sustention of the unfit 

 at the expense of the fit, they will 

 repeat the history of the conflict be- 

 tween the Spaniards on the one hand 

 and the Mexicans and Peruvians on 

 the other, and, like a house of cards, 

 collapse almost \Nathout a struggle. 

 Had Mr. Spencer postponed the writ- 

 ing of the chapter in which this 

 prophecy appears, he could have cited 

 as a fulfillment the cowardly and 

 contemptible submission of the Chi- 

 nese to the militant barbarians from 

 Europe. Enervated by institutions 

 that gi'ew out of militant pursuits, 

 they find themselves unable to resist 

 their more vigorous and progressive 

 assailants. 



It is but a commonplace to say 

 that China has the most powerful, 

 conservative, and corrupt bureau- 

 cratic system in the world. As may 

 be easily shown, this system, like all 

 other bureaucratic systems, is the 

 natural and invariable product of 

 militant activities. Although it has 

 outlived them many centuries, it has 

 not ceased in any considerable de- 

 gree, if at all, to exert the restrain- 

 ing and paralyzing influences that 

 come from a crystallization of so- 

 ciety. To it is due very largely the 

 extraordinary difficulty now experi- 

 enced in introducing into China new 

 ideas and new industrial methods. 

 An abandonment of old ideas and 

 old methods would mean a disturb- 

 ance of its privileges, and a disturb- 

 ance of its privileges would mean a 

 diminution or abolition of the sources 

 of plunder that it has enjoyed time 

 out of mind. Hence it has opposed 

 the introduction of Western culture. 

 Western modes of production and 

 Western means of communication 

 and transportation. Hence China 

 is what she is to-day— a great, un- 

 wieldy mass of ignorance and super- 



stition, destitute of the power of ini- 

 tiative and incapable of lifting a 

 hand against the unscrupulous greed 

 that has all at once encompassed her 

 on every side. 



Not less grossly inaccurate than 

 the prevalent theory of China's help- 

 lessness is the theory advanced to 

 account for the sudden desire of her 

 assailants to appropriate her terri- 

 tory. It is supposed that the inhab- 

 itants of France and Gei-many, 

 crowded to suffocation at home, are 

 anxious to find an outlet for their 

 energies, and, like the emigrants that 

 have poured out of the harbors of 

 Great Britain during the last three 

 centuries, wish to establish another 

 patrie or fatherland beyond the seas. 

 But there is not the slightest founda- 

 tion for this enchanting suijposition. 

 One of the most melancholy com- 

 plaints heard in France for many 

 years is that the births do not equal 

 the deaths. Another complaint is 

 that the French people show no de- 

 sire to leave their country and take 

 up with the life of a pioneer in the 

 new territory acquired in northern 

 and central Afi'ica and in southern 

 China. They prefer to I'emain at 

 home and live upon the slender in- 

 comes they get from a government 

 office in the city or some strip of land 

 in the country. The .same is more or 

 less true of the Germans. Although 

 they emigrate in lai'ger numbers than 

 the French, they do not leave their 

 country to establish another father- 

 land in the colonial empire that Ger- 

 man statesmen have attempted to 

 establish in the wilds of Africa. 

 Anxious to escape the intolerable 

 despotism of their own Government, 

 they go to new countries already 

 peopled, chiefly the Argentine Re- 

 public and the United States, to swear 

 allegiance to aiiother flag than the 

 one they have lived under all their 

 lives. 



What, then, is the explanation of 



