io Mr. A. M'Monagle on Bits of Old China. 



ancestors, and they must not violate any of his laws of etiquette. 

 In his opinion time was made only for slaves and Westerners, and 

 not for Chinamen ; they made time themselves. Their ancestors 

 were practically their gods, and they worshipped them, and they 

 would rather have one honour paid to their ancestors than a dozen 

 to themselves. While they might have much to teach the Chinese 

 in the matter of religion and morals, they might learn much from 

 the Chinese in the matter of politeness and patience. The 

 Chinaman was never rude, never impolite, never in a hurry. He 

 had a code of etiquette for all his public actions and movements? 

 and he lived up to it. He might cheat, but he would do it in 

 such a nice, polite, and innocent way that he would make them 

 feel that he was the one who had been cheated. He had 

 intellectual and ethical codes, which in their own way and in their 

 own sphere were as good as any they had in the West. It was 

 true he did not always live up to his codes or his ideals, but who 

 of them in the West could throw stones at him ? The Chinaman 

 was not generally learned himself, but he respects learning. 

 There was one thing which must be said about the Chinaman : 

 While in one grade of him he might cheat at cards or anything 

 else, gamble, or make a beast of himself with opium, the Chinese 

 merchant was the very cream of creation, so far as honour or 

 honesty was concerned. His word was his bond. If he bought 

 goods he would pay for them, and would not invent excuses to 

 get out of his obligations if the market went against him. Such a 

 thing as a written contract was almost unknown in China among 

 the large merchants. Let them do John Chinaman justice, as 

 they would do John Bull, and in this particular John Chinaman 

 was the equal of John Bull at his best, and in saying that he was 

 crediting him with being the superior of all the rest of the world 

 in commercial honour and honesty. It might be asked, Would 

 China Westernise itself, or pour its people in hordes on the West ? 

 He did not think so, at least for generations. China was too 

 proud, too conservative, too self-contained and self-satisfied to 

 trouble itself much about the West. 



