It has been said by them of old time that when a man is found acting injuriously to his own family but benevolently to strangers his behaviour is unnatural, and there is something hidden under the cloak of outward kindness.
We have from time to time printed translations from various foreign newspapers on the subject of the relations between the Chinese Government and the Pope. Some days ago we reproduced an article on the same subject from the 'Temps,' a French newspaper of the highest authority. These articles all indicate that the French Government is greatly troubled at the prospect of losing what is called the right to protect Christians in China. This is a question which has not hitherto been much considered by Chinese statesmen. Those of them who have been in Europe, or who have studied political affairs there, know something of the importance of the issues which are covered up in that apparently harmless word "protection"; but it is hardly to be expected that the Ministers and statesmen who have scarcely travelled beyond the walls of Peking can realise the full significance of the phrase. Nothing is better calculated to quicken the apprehension of the Government on this point than the extraordinary excitement of the French Government, which insists on protecting the Christians in China whether they desire this protection or not. For now that the French have so plainly shown their secret designs, it would be impossible for China to acquiesce, by word or deed, in the pretensions which France sets up. It is rather suspicious that the French Government, the greatest enemy of Christianity, which is constantly oppressing the priests and confiscating their property in France, should be so intensely desirous of protecting Christians in China, where this protection is not required. A leading French statesman, Gambetta, who died a few years ago, left as a legacy to his followers the doctrine that the Church should be suppressed in France but supported in all foreign countries. Gambetta was a man who had no reverence for Heaven, and no religion, and seems to have regarded Christianity as a disease which he wished his own country to be rid of, but was not sorry to see it spreading elsewhere. It is necessary to keep these ideas in mind in order to understand the action of the French Government to-day.
It would be out of place here to discuss what Christianity is. Like Buddhism, it had a very pure origin, and the living principles of both are mercy, benevolence, and peace. But both religions have in course of ages been overlaid with doctrines and practices which have obscured the simplicity of their origin, and even changed their character. But the greatest misfortune to Christianity is that it has been made use of by princes as a pretext for wars of aggression. In fact, nearly all the wars of Europe for the last thousand years have been in some way connected with religion. This is sometimes made a reproach against Christianity, which professes to be founded on peace and self-sacrifice, but the reproach is scarcely just. Rather it is the peaceful character of Christianity which has induced ambitious statesmen to make use of it to work out their own designs, just as in private life unscrupulous men are sometimes enabled to carry out questionable plans by using the names of men of blameless character. We are only now concerned with the political aspect of Christianity, not its merits as a religion. The modern history of Turkey affords the best illustration of the danger of allowing foreign Powers to interfere in matters of religion. During the last hundred years Russia has several times made war on Turkey, always on the pretext of protecting Christians, and it is this which is fast breaking up the Turkish empire. It is interesting to observe that Russia and France follow the same policy in this matter. When the French Legation withdrew from Peking on the 2nd day of the 7th moon of the 10th year of Kwanghsu (22nd August 1884), the affairs of the Christians were transferred to the Russian Legation. The Ministers of the Tsungli-Yamên remember very well how eagerly the Russian Minister assumed the office of protector of Christians, going to even greater lengths in the way of protection than the French themselves had done. The reason for this is plain. Russia, although she has none now, expects to have by-and-by many Christians in Mongolia and Manchuria who may be extremely useful to her in her aggressive designs on China. Therefore the Russian officials, always looking very far ahead, were most anxious to establish a right of interference for the protection of Christians. And they could do this without reproach when they were acting not for themselves but for France during war-time; well knowing that, whatever position she succeeded in establishing for France, Russia could claim for herself when the proper time came. But the more anxious Russia and France are to assert the right of interfering with Chinese Christians, the more resolute China should be in resisting all such interference. The only safety for China is to treat Christians, whether Chinese or foreign, exactly as all other people are treated—to make no distinctions. Foreign missionaries have the right to travel and reside in the interior; they can exercise this right without getting passports from the French Minister. The Catholic missions are composed of men of all nations, but they all have Ministers in Peking to whom they can apply for passports. Let the Germans get their passports from the German Legation, the Spaniards from the Spanish, Italians, Belgians, and Hollanders from their respective Legations, but no European State has any right to arrogate to itself the position of protector of missionaries in general.
It is satisfactory to learn that the head of the Catholic Church is of this opinion, and although grateful to France for what she has done in the past, is now desirous of being free from French protection in the future. To carry out these views, the Pope is about to send to China a very high official to reside in Peking and perform the functions of a Minister. As the Pope has no troops and no territory, but is merely a kind of Dalai Lama, there is no danger to China from opening direct relations with him. The affairs of the missionaries can then be dealt with in an open and straightforward manner, as no fear of political traps will lurk behind. The Christians when they know they are no longer protected by a military State will understand that their security will depend on their own wisdom in avoiding offence. And the officials and people, on the other hand, will gradually learn that the Christians are only anxious to lead virtuous lives, without any political ambition, and they will respect them. The Imperial Government will then also be able to extend its favour to all Christians and missionaries without the fear of nursing traitors in its bosom. The missionaries have among them men of great learning and much skill in sciences, which the Emperor Kanghsi—who must always stand as the model for Chinese rulers—knew very well how to utilise. The present generation possesses men no less capable of rendering good services to China, and there would be no reason for not using them if the suspicion of their being agents of the French Government were once cleared away.
Notwithstanding so much clear thinking, however, the action of the Chinese continued, as before, nebulous. They seemed never able to seize the bull by the horns, but drifted on, allowing themselves constantly to be put in the wrong, hoping perhaps to accomplish by illegitimate means what was within their legal competence. Afraid or unwilling to control the provincial authorities, they allowed outrages to be perpetrated for which they refused redress until coercion was applied, thus affording to foreign Powers a not in all cases unwelcome pretext for extending their protection even to Chinese Christians. Within a month of the consummation of the transfer of the Pei-t'ang Cathedral, and after the Marquis Tsêng, fresh from Europe, had taken his seat at the Board, the Tsungli-Yamên had fallen into its chronic apathy with regard to Christians. A missionary named Bodinier arrived in Peking from distant Kweichow for the purpose of soliciting the intervention or intercession of the French Legation in favour of the persecuted Christians in that province. While he was on his journey the Catholics of Chungking in Szechuan were being similarly maltreated. Certain disturbances in that great commercial mart culminated in the attack on the house of a wealthy Christian family, which resisted the assailants, several of whom were killed in the affray. The magistrates, who had been supine during the time when the mischief was brewing, thereupon arrested the head of the Lo family and condemned him to death,—an exercise of authority which was held to be arbitrary, and invidiously directed against Christians. Here was an occasion when the Central Government should have taken prompt action, and so deprived the French Government of any pretext for interference. It was a moment when that Government was less apt than usual to put forth its power in the Christian cause. M. Constans was Minister in China, and he was personally not at all disposed to assume the protection of Chinese Christians. Nevertheless, the case being urgent, and the Tsungli-Yamên either cowardly or indifferent, M. Constans broke through the rule he had laid down for himself so far as to telegraph to Paris for instructions. The reply was prompt, doubtless inspired by the propaganda at home, to the effect that he should take up the case of Mr Lo. Thus the Chinese threw away a golden opportunity of showing to the world that the Chinese Christians did not stand in need of any foreign aid. An impartial investigation might have shown, indeed, that the Christians were the aggressors, and the local Chinese officials might have been vindicated from the charges made against them. But the Government's inaction constantly puts it in the wrong even when it may be substantially in the right. The same fatal course has been regularly pursued even to our day, with results patent to all.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
BRITISH SERVICES: DIPLOMATIC, CONSULAR, AND JUDICIAL.
Necessity for administrative and judicial control over British subjects—Consular courts—Supreme court for China and Japan—Personnel of the consular service—Functions of the diplomatic representatives—Absence of distinction explained by apathy of Home Government—Need of reform.
The frequent references throughout this work to the part played by British agents in the development of intercourse with China seem to call for a short account of the character and status of the official machinery which served for so many years as the principal working joint between the two opposed systems of civilisation.
The relations between Great Britain and China were necessarily at first experimental. The consuls appointed to the five ports were selected with no special training, and the chief superintendent, to whom they looked for guidance, was scarcely better furnished than themselves. Yet, as has been shown, the remoteness of the consuls from their chief, and of both from the Government they served, threw them much upon their own resources. How the demand for independent initiative was responded to by some of the individuals concerned has been incidentally noticed in previous chapters.
From the time when it assumed direct relations with China, the need of an effective control over British subjects resorting to that country weighed heavily on the British Government; for in exempting them from native jurisdiction the Government took on itself the responsibility for the good behaviour of its people. The exercise of this control was necessarily tentative, proceeding step by step as occasions arose. The unceasing solicitude of the Government for the orderly conduct of its subjects in China is testified by a long series of Orders in Council conferring on the consuls and their superintendent an almost despotic authority over the persons of the British residents. The operation of this arbitrary system was more satisfactory than could have been expected, thanks to the high character of the parties concerned and the common-sense which governed their mutual relations. In their double capacity, however, of protectors of Chinese and foreigners against the inroads of British subjects, and of the latter against the inroads of the Chinese, the consuls soon discovered that the one part of their duty was easy and the other difficult; and it is no matter for wonder, therefore, if, following the line of least resistance, some of them should have leaned to the side of repression rather than to that of the encouragement of their countrymen. This was noticeable even in judicial proceedings, where the consul was supreme over his own nationals, but had no authority over their opponents. Some check on the consequences of consular idiosyncrasies and defective legal knowledge was maintained by a supreme court in Hongkong, independent alike of the superintendent of trade and of the governor of the colony, to which court appeals lay from consular decisions. This prerogative of the colonial court was not unnaturally irksome to the diplomatic and consular servants of the Foreign Office, and was doubtless one cause of the coolness, not to say antipathy, with which the colony has generally been regarded by them.