2o8 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



successfully as most peoples to place themselves in accord 

 with their natural surroundings ; but, as in the West, though 

 in a less degree, the forces of their social surroundings have 

 proved too strong for them. In a case like this, force 

 majeure is needed to break through the bonds of custom, 

 and I verily believe that, when our troops were masters of 

 Pekin, had we had the courage to usurp the dragon throne, 

 and had issued an edict prohibiting henceforth the mutilation 

 of the children's feet, the command would have been obeyed, 

 sullenly perhaps at first, but afterwards thankfully. Such 

 a proceeding, though possibly not warrantable on other 

 grounds, would, in the cause of humanity, have been per- 

 fectly justifiable, and precedent for such despotic edicts 

 exists in more than one instance in Chinese history. The 

 Manchus, as is well known, not only introduced the pigtail, 

 but enforced the use of narrow sleeves, with the cuffs cut like 

 horses' hoofs, on a reluctant people ; and at this day the flow- 

 ing dress of the Mings is seen nowhere but on the stage 

 and in the dress of the Buddhist priesthood. Wu san-koei, 

 the conqueror of Yunan under the first emperor of the 

 present dynasty, found there was such an unintelligible mass 

 of outlandish dialects, that he ordered the people, on pain of 

 death, to learn Pekingese ; and to this day travellers in this 

 remote province are struck with wonder at the purity of the 

 language spoken there. The Chinese are a law-abiding 

 people, eminently respectful to constituted authority, and 

 patient acceptors of accomplished facts. Their rebellions, 

 really less frequent than they seem when viewed through 

 the perspective of their long history, seem invariably to 

 have been the outcome of local oppressions or of unrelieved 

 famines, and never simply pure uprisings against an alien 

 dynasty. The club-feet question is one on which it is 

 impossible for any person who has lived amongst the 



