[396] Herbert Spencer, in the Principles of Ethics, speaks of "the many who, in the East, tacitly assume that Indians exist for the benefit of Anglo-Indians." He is right in saying it is tacitly assumed; for few go so far as to say openly that the Indians are destined by Nature to be exploited by the White races. But the tacit assumption often leavens their thoughts and discourses on "the native question." One recent writer, indeed, distinctly states that "it is an inexorable law of progress that inferior races are made for the purpose of serving the superior; and if they refuse to serve, they are fatally condemned to disappear." (W. H. Brown, On the South African Frontier). But who is to decide which are "the inferior races"?
[397] See Shakespeare, King Henry V., Act iii. Sc. 6.
[398] The Times, 4th Sept. 1907.
[399] Mr Chester Holcombe, in The Real Chinese Question, p. 242.
[400] Mutato coelo mores mutantur!
[401] I earnestly commend to the reader's notice an admirable leader in the Times of 15th January 1907, which closes with these words: "Altogether it seems to be time for the white races to take a fresh survey of the whole situation, and to recognise that, in the changed conditions, the old haughty and dictatorial attitude stands in need of modification."
[402] Lest it may appear that I am under-rating the speed with which evolutionary forces have operated among the European races during the last few centuries, I venture to quote the words of one whose opinion is likely to be listened to with respect, and who was the last man to minimise the significance of the conquests made by science. "There can be no doubt that vast changes have taken place in English civilisation since the reign of the Tudors. But I am not aware of a particle of evidence in favour of the conclusion that this evolutionary process has been accompanied by any modification of the physical or the mental characters of the men who have been the subjects of it. I have not met with any grounds for suspecting that the average Englishmen of to-day are sensibly different from those that Shakespeare knew and drew.... In my belief the innate qualities, physical, intellectual and moral, of our nation have remained substantially the same for the last four or five centuries" (T. H. Huxley, Prolegomena to Evolution and Ethics).
[403] A few years ago a certain Chinese magistrate in a district very near Weihaiwei was much disgusted, on arriving at his post, to find that the opportunities for "squeeze" were so severely limited that he was likely to remain a poor man. On his own responsibility he decided to tap a new source of revenue, and issued a proclamation to the necessary effect. In a few days the populace was up in arms, the magistrate's official residence was pulled to pieces (it is still almost a ruin), and he was himself a disgraced fugitive.
[404] The Times of 15th December 1906 reports the sale at Christie's of a pair of vases of the K'ang Hsi period for 3,700 guineas, and a pair of beakers of the Yung Chêng period for 3,100 guineas.
[405] Quoted in Professor Giles' Chinese Pictorial Art.