



COLONIALS AND THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 327 



Here then, clearly, the sentiment was that of attachment 

 to the " old country, " and not to family or friends, for 

 they came as strangers to a strange land. 



No one who has had any considerable acquaintance 

 with our Colonial Empire can entertain much doubt 

 on this head. The axiom " Ubi bene, ibi patria" is 

 therefore only conditionally true; some races indeed 

 may be said to carry this " home sickness" even to a 

 fault, and never make good colonists in consequence. 

 To avoid exciting European susceptibilities, however, 

 let us select the Chinese, -as a striking instance in 

 point. No matter where John Chinaman may go, he is 

 merely a migratory bird of passage; notwithstanding 

 the grinding tyranny of his Mandarins, and however 

 well off he may find himself abroad, he almost always 

 looks forward to the day, when having acquired a 

 sufficient fortune to maintain the level of his aspirations 

 at home, he can carry back his savings to China. 



His attachment to China does not even cease with 

 his death, for it is part of his religious belief that 

 wherever he may happen to die, his bones at least 

 must go back for final interment in China. This 

 fanatical longing for home, pushes almost to an 

 absurdity the beautiful sentiment of the ancient classic : 

 " Coelum non animam, mutant, qui trans mare 

 currunt" * or again, as it has been as strikingly said, 

 in somewhat different terms, by a celebrated French 

 writer, " C'est lorsque nous sommes eloignes de notre 

 pays, que nous sentons I' instinct qui nous y attache. " f 



Returning, however, to the question of the local 

 colourings of landscapes, it is curious to observe how 



* Horace " Eptstolas" i ii 27. 

 j Chateaubriand. 





