CONCLUSION 205 



with the Chinese. They have also grave national faults, and 

 this pride and its concomitant conservatism is largely the cause 

 of their present position. Considering themselves the " whole 

 earth," they have persistently and most superciliously ignored 

 the " outer barbarian," as they termed the rest of the world, 

 until disaster upon disaster has shaken the very foundations 

 of their empire. That the scales are falling from their eyes 

 is evident, but as a nation they have yet to grasp the fact that 

 Western knowledge, even though it be of comparative " mush- 

 room growth," cannot be acquired by the study of a few months, 

 and neither can Western institutions be transplanted bodily 

 and in adult form into China. I have met in China hundreds 

 of students intent on acquiring Western knowledge, but scarcely 

 one who in any sense realized the immensity of the task before 

 him. These students persistently refuse instruction in the 

 elementary branches of this knowledge, and are ever clamouring 

 for their instructors to pass at once to the advanced and honours 

 stages. The national defect, pride, is at the bottom of this 

 attitude, and they have yet to appreciate that they must 

 crawl first, then walk before they can safely run. 



The merchant class in China is as honourable as that of 

 any country in the world, and foreign relationship with this 

 body has always been satisfactory and mutually advantageous. 

 The artisan, peasants; and farmers are unsophisticated, and 

 every traveller has a good word for them. They are peace- 

 loving, law-abiding; and very easily governed. It is somewhat 

 otherwise with the gentry, students, and officials, who, as a 

 class, have in the main always been more or less opposed to 

 foreign intercourse, and have been the direct cause of many 

 difficulties. For generations China went in for competitive 

 examinations to supply all official posts, and had, as a result, 

 a body of truly incapable officials. The principles associated 

 with Tammany in the West were rampant in this class. Offices 

 were sought and held for personal profit without any regard 

 for public good. But individuals were less to blame than the 

 system which time and pernicious methods had produced. 

 The salaries attached to the various posts were ridiculously 

 inadequate, and the holders had to peculate in order to exist, 

 if for^ nothing else. Had the Government provided for its 



