never been so successful in re-establishing friendly intercourse as unfortunate in giving occasion for stopping it. "As in the instances where actual force was used to decide disputed claims, the Chinese have generally proved inferior, they have become desirous to avoid any recourse to phy. sical strength. Instead of spilling blood, they prefer to spill ink, and have proved to the world that China is invincible in a paper war. Like the anathemas of the papal see, fulminating edicts have been invariably issued on such occasions against intruding foreigners. These edicts are in general very specious, and would persuade a European unacquainted with the case to believe that the Chinese have justice on their side. Their threats are intimidating, and their commands almost irresistible, but here they stop; for the intruder either yields and retraces his steps, or if not, the Chinese is too wise to let matters come to the extremity of force, where he is as sure of defeat as he is certain of victory in a pitched battle of words. "The continual collision of the foreign mercantile establishments at Canton with the Chinese authorities, has occasioned great surprise to persons but slightly acquainted with the native character. The most severe animadversions also have been called forth from capatalists who have suffered loss, and who have not been on the ground to judge of the case. But so long as the prejudice against foreigners is cherished, there must be contests; on the one part, to maintain old privileges, ameliorate their present condition, and extend the trade; and on the other, to retrench the liberties and enforce the exclusion of strangers. The experience of centuries has taught Europeans that the Chinese authorities will heap insult on insult upon them, when it can be done with impunity to themselves and their interests; but when an opponent supports his argument with physical force, or their interest demands it, they can be crouching, gentle, and even kind. This peculiarity of national character, so very unlike our own, has been prolific in mutual evils. "It has exhibited the measures taken by the European residents to redress their grievances in a light the most unfavourable by contrast with their own plausible and forbearing deportment. While we do not forget the long catalogue of petty annoyances from the Chinese authorities, which the Europeans have suffered from the first arrival of the Portuguese to this day, we regret that the possession of the Gospel has not taught Europeans more forbearance and long-suffering. Had these been oftener practised on suitable occasions, we should have had fewer causes of complaint against the Chinese; but it is not strange that Europeans, destitute of the spirit of Christian meekness, on coming to this country, and finding themselves treated as barbarians by a nation so evidently below them in civilization, should feel their indignation roused, and should retaliate insolence for insolence, and dislike for hatred. Thus the line of separation became broader and broader. Govermental proclamations, detailing the infamous conduct of barbarians, have been repeatedly posted up at Canton. Foreigners have wisely taken no notice of them; but the minds of the people have been thus embued with strong antipathy against such worthless barbarians. Thus the authorities gained their point; for the aversion to foreigners, thus excited and cherished, was the best precaution against forming too close a friendship with them. The writer has often heard the natives rehearse these accusations with self-gratulation at their own superiority. "Thus every event has contributed to widen the breach between foreign nations and the Chinese. In vain have embassies been tried to conciliate their favour; no presents have been withheld, no trouble spared, in order to bring about a friendly intercourse." "These fruitless embassies will teach the sovereigns either to attempt no negotiations at all, or to propose them in a different state of affairs; for there are two grand obstacles-the pretension of China to supremacy over all the nations of the world, and her dread of every superior power. Add to this the want of veracity prevalent in all the departments of her government, the ignorance on subjects of general knowledge, and their bigoted adherence to unfounded opinions; and we shall the less blame the embassadors for the failure of missions, in which there was scarcely a possibility of success. Gutzlaff, our readers need not be informed, is a zealous upholder of the doctrine that China is not hermetically sealed against Christian enterprise; and he certainly himself found or made facilities of intercourse which less sanguine or less courageous minds would have shrunk from daring to em The brace. In his native Prussia he had long pondered and mourned over the awfully wretched state of the heathen, and depicted them to himself as " vehemently thirsting after a Redeemer and the Divine consolations of the Gospel of Christ. Many thousands may read, pel;" to enable him to communicate which, he says in a letter dated from his tutor Pastor Joenicke's missionary seminary at Berlin in 1822, "I have commenced the study of six languages, that I may become an evangelist of the kingdom of Christ in all parts under heaven;" and greatly did he rejoice when after various disappointments he found himself ac. tually afloat for the Indian Archipelago, under the joint auspices of the Dutch and London Missionary Societies. We shall not follow his eventful career; but we cannot withhold his fervid anticipations concerning China in the retrospect of his arduous labours. "When love to our Saviour shall transcend all minor and selfish passions, and, fully possessing the heart, shall prompt to the uttermost exertions to glorify his name, we humbly believe that all the barriers of Chinese misanthropy will fall. There is something irresistible in that holy ardour which counts all things nothing for Christ, and which is prepared for any sacrifices to exalt his glorious name. The prince of darkness, with all his infernal array, can never prevail against the men who rely upon their Redeemer's strength, who walk in his Spirit, and who live and die in his service. As he is the ruler of the universe, and the sole potentate, upholding the world by his Almighty hand, the removal of obstacles insurmountable to man is to him an easy work. A simple, steady faith in him, exalts its possessor above impediments and repeated disappointments: he knows that his Saviour will triumph over all his enemies, and, under all difficulties in the path of duty, will uphold him. In the Divine promise, surer than any human covenant that all the nations of the earth shall be given to his Lord, he reads the certain conversion of China. Armed with this faith, he is confident that the day, though remote, is yet sure, and that small efforts, in the day of small things, will subserve the cause of God. Scriptures, the composition and distritranslation and circulation of the Holy bution of tracts, with occasional oral addresses to the people, are the means he would employ to promulgate the Gos and hear, and not understand; yet, if a few among these thousands embrace the word of eternal life, the salvation of that few is an abundant reward; for to save one soul is far more valuable than to conquer the world. While quoting this divine truth, I am convinced that individual Christians, thoroughly penetrated with such sentiments, could accomplish more for the benefit of China than the greatest statesmen as mere politicians. Of the former there have been few to consecrate their lives to this great object, and still fewer who have been successful in their attempts; but more will arise as soon as the enterprise shall cease to be regarded as hopeless." Assuredly China was not excepted when the heathen were given to our Divine Lord as his heritage, and the uttermost parts of the earth as his possession ; and though the wall is lofty and strong, and no practicable breach seems to have been made in it, we cannot doubt that the prophecy will one day be fulfilled, and that it is our duty to endeavour "to be fellow-workers with God" in this mighty enterprise, when and how He pleases, if he will graciously condescend to employ our feeble services. We would even hope-abhorrent as is strife to the servants of the Prince of Peace, and wicked as is the doctrine of doing evil that good may come that it may please Him who can educe good from evil, to the pending rupture with China to the relaxation of the restrictions which forbid missionary intercourse. It cannot be said that Christian missionaries have barred China against us; there is no convenient" mutiny at Vellore" to lay the blame upon; there were no Bibles in the opium packages," overrule keep up the gaming establishment at that settlement, on account of any habits or institutions of the Chinese, and we fear few religious tracts in the smugglers' chests. Wickedness has shut China against us; may righteousness re-open it! or if unjustly opened by rougher weapons, may righteousness follow to heal the cruel wounds of war! And here we must do Dr. Morrison the justice to mention how conscientiously he bore his testimony against that direful traffic which has caused the present disasters; in which the honest Christian merchant is involved with the contraband trader. His widow, in her interesting memoir of him, quotes many passages which shew his opinion on the subject. Thus he writes to Sir G. Staunton, in 1822. "There are two or three English ships on the coast, smuggling opium into China. The Hoppo has published two orders requiring the English chief to order them into port. This is a traffic which is far from being reputable either to the English flag, or to the character of Christendom." Again he writes to the Secre tary of the London Missionary Society, in 1826 :— "There is a great influx of new commercial agents, especially for opium, that disreputable smuggling commerce. The sale of this drug, it is said, has much increased, and with it there is a great increase of crime." He frequently mentions the anxiety of the Chinese government to suppress the traffic; and this from humane, moral, and patriotic motives. His testimony to the disinterested honesty with which the rulers of that mighty empire consult the welfare of the people to the contempt of sordid fiscal gain, is very honourable to them; and the late total destruction of the contraband opium, and the continued refusal to levy a tax upon it, tend to corroborate Dr. Morrison's conclusion. He says, in 1823, in reply to an official inquiry made to him from the Lieutenant Governor of Singapore, as to whether he thought the British Government was called upon to "It is a principle of the Chinese Government which I have never seen violated, not to license what they condemn as immoral. His imperial majesty and his government condescend to dehort the people from vice; but never avowedly on any consideration license it. They cannot prevent private vice, but the public voice is uniformly against it. Gambling (like opium smoking) although much practised, is disgraceful in China; and the government, in its endeavours to suppress these vices, is supported by the conscience and opinion of every Chinaman. I know they glory in the superiority, as to principle, of their own government; and scorn the Christian governments that tolerate these vices, and convert them into a source of pecuniary advantage or public revenue. I believe the Chinese view the system as a contemptible dereliction of the duties of a paterual government from a sordid money-making spirit in the rulers. This language may appear strong, but it does not amount to the nervous strength of Chinese legislators and moralists; nor to the feeling which every Chinese Coolee (though himself a bad man) in his better moments always cherishes. In China I have been reproached for the wonted conduct of the Penang government in licensing opium-smoking shops and gambling houses. "As to the second part of the subject, viz. what may be safe and practicable here, I cannot from experience speak, as I do not know how far the good Pagan taste of the Chinese may have been vitiated by unprincipled pseudo-Christian indulgence during former colonial governments. But I imagine the num ber of Chinese is very small that would not cordially approve of legislative enactments to diminish the facility and licensed respectability of gambling." We do not follow out the memoir of Dr. Morrison, as the outlines are well-known; and for the filling-up recourse must be had to the volumes. It were superfluous to mention his piety, his zeal, his pre-eminent ability as a linguist, and the services which he rendered to literature, to commerce, and to Christianity, by his Chinese Dictionary, and Chinese version of the Holy Scriptures, and his missionary labours. VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. AFTER a debate of three days, Sir James Graham failed but by nine votes in a house of 533 members present, of carrying a vote of censure upon her Majesty's advisers for not having made such pre-arrangements as might have prevented the disasters which have occurred in China. Successive cabinets, it is true, as well as the East India Company, have been conveniently blind to the enormities of the smuggling traffic in opium; but the present ministry is specially to blame, not only because the trade had become much larger and more notorious; but because the abolition of the Company's monopoly transferred the responsibility to the ministers of the Crown. Sir R. Peel agrees with the cabinet, that war has now become indispensable; and true it is that the Chinese acted unjustifiably in seizing parties who were not opium smugglers; but they followed out their ideas of national hostages, and they had received great provocations; for what right had we to force our opium upon them in spite of their edicts; injuring their revenues, corrupting their officers, and poisoning their population? And for what are we at war? For what are unoffending millions of her population to be visited with all the borrors of hostile incursion? For what are her peaceable merchants to have their vessels seized, plundered, and destroyed? Is it to enforce the opium traffic? Is it to re-imburse the smugglers for the well-deserved confiscation? Oh no! says Dr. Lushington, it is only to obtain reparation for outrage. What reparation? Will any man believe that no mulct is to be exacted; no opium treaty extorted? and that the India Company will no longer grow poppies for China? Our faith is not equal to our wishes. Parliament bas adjusted the Privilege question by an act granting protection to its printer and other officers. This is right; but it is not so still to leave a maligned person no remedy against the calumniator. The late Canadian Bill, which divides the Clergy reserves among the churches of England, Scotland, and Rome, and various classes of Dissenters, seems likely to be vetoed by the appeal to the Judges, which the House of Lords has decided upon, as to its legality. That the words "a protestant clergy," in an act passed in the year 1791, were meant to include any church but the Anglican, does not seem likely; the Church extension, including the necessary division of large parishes, is the most important measure which could be adopted for the public welfare. Mr. M'Neile, though we do not concur in all his opinions or propositions, has strikingly shewn this in his late valuable lectures. With church extension would be connected Scriptural schools, pastoral labours, and sacred ordinances; and though God alone can give the blessing, we may, in faith, hope for it in the diligent use of his own appointed means of grace. We are constantly witnessing new efforts of vice and infidelity;-Socialism is the climax-and what can put them down but the faithful preaching and strenuous inculcation of evangelical truth? we say emphatically evangelical," meaning specifically what is couched in that emphatic word. The Quarterly Reviewer finds a specific in Oxford Tractism; and gives broad hints that he would rejoice to see revived those amiable arguments of fiue, imprisonment, or torture, with which the founder or most zealous advocate of that system, Archbishop Laud, at tempted to uphold it; for he says: you allow dissent," if you permit "the toleration system"-to Methodists, for instance, or " Evangelical Dissenters," -you must also allow Socialism. You cannot separate the one from the other. All are departures from "the Church," and therefore you must put down all, or This Oxford leave all untouched! "If Tract Quarterly article will do more to aid Socialism, by the bigotry and absurdity of its statements, than a heap of Mr. Owen's publications. The Review er is pleased to say, that "the Socialist has friends and agents in our Evangelical clergy." We will not stoop to reply to such insane raving and downright falsehood; but sure we are that it is "evangelical" doctrine, and not the fanaticism or persecutions of Laudism, that is the only panacea for such evils. Those whom the Quarterly Review stigmatises as "evangelical" consider it a Scriptural injunction to give to Socialists and all other men, a reason of the hope that is in them;" but this the Oxford Tract sect teaches is neology and infidelity; you are not to give reasons, but to tell men that you rest your claims upon tradition. The "fact" of a traditional church is to be urged against the Socialist as an argument in full, and then forth with he cannot but be convinced! Will the Reviewer condescend to try the experiment before he so confidently predicts its results? An able letter from the Bishop of Calcutta to the Bishop of Norwich upon the Martiniere institution, and the reply of the latter, have been published, which forcibly corroborate the statements in our last Number. It is clear, first, that the plan was not Bishop Wilson's, except in so far that he prevented its being worse; secondly, that it recognizes those features of doctrinal truth which are acknowledged in common by Romanists, Anglicans, and orthodox Presbyterians; and therefore does not coincide with the no-creed project of the Irish school system; and thirdly, that even with these favourable modifications, it rather proves the impracticability, than tempts to the introduction, of the general and special scheme even for a particular institution; and that to model the popular instruction of a Christian nation upon such a plan would be as futile as it is unscriptural. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. M. X.; A. B.; A Subscriber; Clericus; Humanus; A Churchman; F. S.; Secretarius; W. D.: Vicanus; H. B.; are under consideration. How can Tubeos imagine that we will employ a printer to print, or cause our readers to pay for, a series of papers to exhibit his discovery, "after chasing an ignis fatuus for thirty years," that "all the controversies of theologians are idle," for that "salvation means nothing more than rendering obedience to the commandments?" If he will run through a concordance, at the word "salvation," substituting his synonyme, he will find that as delusive a will-o'-the-wisp has fermented from his own-not very novel-lucubrations, as from any of those on "faith on works," which he has so intensely studied from Sandeman to Huntingdon. Would he read, "Now is our keeping the commandments nearer than when we believed;""Neither is there keeping of the commandments in any other;" "In the day of keeping of the commandments have I succoured thee;" "He became the author of eternal keeping of the commandments;" with fifty other passages. The same remark as to non-eligibility of admission applies to the subject proposed by THEOPHILUS; who being "A Baptist" (that is an Anabaptist, for we will not allow infant-baptism, or baptism without immersion, to be invalidated by an exclusively-assumed name) thinks that "the evangelical party, if they are contending for principles," ought to come to his conclusion, that the baptism of infants is "the reign of Antichrist;" and that with it all national church establishments ought to be abolished, as being "the great Apostacy and "the practical cause, to a vast extent, of nearly all the irreligion and misery that now so universally prevails.' If Baptists consider such notions candid or scriptural, they must at least be their own preachers and printers. We cannot but re-iterate our laments respecting the powerful aid rendered to their cause by the insidious suppression, by compact, of the doctrine of infant-baptism in the hundreds of millions of publications of the "Religious Tract Society." They have thus excluded this important doctrine for nearly forty years, not only from the Sunday and daily schools of the Dissenters, in which these tracts form almost the only reward-books; but from the numerous missions of the London Missionary Society. BIBLE SOCIETY EXTRACTS.-Among this month's Extracts are two which form an appropriate sequel to the subject of our review ;-the letter from Malacca, on the circulation of the word of God among the Chinese; and the memorial of the lamented missionary Williams and his colleagues for aid in printing the Scriptures in the language of the natives of the Navigators' Islands, in which 20,000 persons have learned to read; and twice that number are under Christian instruction. What hath God wrought! |