THE CHINESE PARADOX 355 



tional inertia of diplomatic conservatism that had existed since 1861 

 was too much for the ministers, and they hesitated, and Cliinese diplo- 

 macy won the last throw and the reactionaries carried the day, fortu- 

 nately, however, to their final rout when the might of the outraged 

 nations was thrown against tiiem. 



As the Powers have hardl}- lost sight of the relative facts of the 

 issues involved, this last outcome of 40 3'ears of futile diplomatic 

 attempt to live up to a vain make-believe will never be repeated. The 

 elaborate superstructure of governmental pretense which had its 

 habitation in the Purple Forbidden City has fallen as a house of cards, 

 and cannot be set up again unless the Powers deliberately wish to 

 undo the good work now under way. Whatever ma}'' be the final 

 geographic adjustments, open or veiled, there must and will be an 

 end of the diplomatic disabilities of the past. To be effective the re- 

 adjustments of the foreign relations of China must be indicated by 

 such a definite, unequivocal, visible demonstration of the actual dom- 

 inance, the actual economic and political superiority of the western 

 Powers, as to make an indelible impression on the imagination of the 

 lay and official classes of China. It is the imagination that controls 

 nations and peojiles, and none have known this better than the ver}' 

 officials who under one jn-etext or another made patent to all Pekin 

 the supposed subservience of the foreign Powers through the studied 

 humiliation of the envoys. The long pupilage of the two boy Em- 

 perors, Tung-chi and Kuangsii, whose reigns are coincident with 

 China's diplomatic contact with the West, ]>layed into the hands of 

 the court, and hence made it difficult for the Powers to save them- 

 selves from a situation which has had its ridiculous as well as its 

 tragic side. The peculiar relations that the nations put up with, it 

 must be remembered, were first establisiied in 1<S(>1, and it was not 

 until 1873, after the envoys had l)een struggling for 3'ears with the 

 newly organized Tsung-li-Yamen, i)urposel3' made an inferior Itoard 

 and assigned to service outside the walls of the Imperial Cit3% that 

 they were granted an audience with Tung-chi, then but 17 years 

 old. At once the court officials raised the preposterous (question of 

 kotouing, tliough they knew full well no European or American 

 minister would submit to such degrading abasement. I'reccdent was 

 also against them, as J.ord Macartney as far Ixick as 17U4 refused to 

 perform the ceremony, and no European in modern times, save the 

 easy-going Dutch in 1004, had yielded this point. No Manchu official 

 expected they would in 187.J, but Ijroachiiig the matter was a part of 



