308 PROBLEMS IN CHINA 



that they could do the same throughout the empire, for it should be 

 remembered that there are still great districts, inhabited by millions 

 of people, into which missionaries have never gone and through which 

 foreign travelers rarely, if ever, pass. At present I am convinced 

 that the great mass of the peojjle throughout China are ignorant of 

 what has taken place at Pekin and Tientsin ; the}^ are indifferent as 

 to Avho rules over them, provided they are left in peace to till their 

 fields and reap their harvests. 



Does the western world need China, and, reciprocally, does China 

 need intercourse with the Christian nations ? Man}' persons (jues- 

 tion seriously whether we ought to force, as it were, our civilization, 

 our commerce and manufactures, our modes of government, our 

 literature and religion, upon an unwilling ])eople, the mass of whom 

 are probably as well off materially as the mass of the i)eople of P^urope. 

 They are probably better off than the Russian peasants. The accounts 

 of some travelers lead one to believe that in some parts of the prov- 

 ince of Szechuen the inhabitants surpass all other peoples in their 

 apparent prosperity and contentment. Why should we come and 

 disturb this })eace? In answer it is only necessary to say that the 

 commercial and religious invasion of China by the western nations 

 is a part of the progress of the world. China is no longer at a dis- 

 tance from us, but is the near neighbor of Russia, England, France, 

 and the United States. She is one of the great nations of the world, 

 and mutual intercourse between her and them is inevitable. Its ad- 

 vantages, even from the lowest material point of view, are not all on 

 one side. Her foreign commerce, amounting to nearly 8300,000,000 

 annually, not only pays a third part of the expenses of tiie central 

 government, but enriches her merchants, tea cultivators, and the 

 raisers of silk as much as it does our manufacturers of cottons. And 

 this commerce is l)Ut a small fraction of what it will be when her 

 vast virgin tields of coal and iron are exi)loited and the whole empire 

 is thrown open without restriction to all who desire to enter. 



