itself to jollity, and visitors have many opportunities to observe the Cuban dancing a dreamy sort of poetry materialized. Sundays are observed rather as feast days than solemn occasions; and then the bull-fights, theatres, circus, and opera may be enjoyed, as well

as the evening music in the park. And all the time one is certain to enjoy good food, luscious fruits, excellent attendance, and the kindness of a very polite and hospitable community.Cornhill Magazine.

THE Conditions under which missionary work is carried on in China are peculiar, and are but imperfectly un derstood by those who have never visited the country and been brought into personal contact with the Chinese. The population is divided into two sharply defined classes, the very rich and the very poor; the middle classes, which are a distinctive feature of most other countries, are in China an insignificant quantity. But though the poor with all their ignorance and superstition are the more amenable to external influences, for good as well as for bad, they betray, in common with their rulers, a most rooted aversion to foreigners. The days of Chinese exclusiveness have departed, never, we believe, to return; but the supreme self complacency of the people as a whole, their lofty pretensions, their affectation of goodness, wisdom, and more or less beneficent power, are still one of their most striking characteristics, and while naturally more marked in the words and actions of the official class, may still be detected in the most wretched coolie who loads a ship's bunkers with coal. The latter's inborn animosity toward strangers does not of course show itself much outside China, where the conditions are naturally reversed. It rather develops into an unuttered contempt, and a determination to get the better of the foreigner in every conceivable way, even if it be only in the washing of linen. In China itself this animosity is fanned and kept alive by the expressed contempt and the active opposition of the governing classes. For among his many good and bad qualities the average Chinaman possesses that of being quick to take a hint. If his masters are passive (which is not often the case) in their

attitude toward Europeans, he also is passive: if his masters show active dislike, he does the same; and the result is in its mildest form the flinging of mud and stones, and in its worst such outbreaks as that which occurred the other day at Kucheng. This outbreak supplies us with a good illustration of the quality to which we have referred. When the lawless classes in one city, instigated by official sanction, commit outrages with impunity, their friends in other cities are always ready to emulate their example. Had the Government promptly ordered an open inquest without fear or favor at Kucheng, there would have been no trouble at Foochow nor fear of any at Canton.

China, as all the world knows, has a very ancient civilization and a very high moral code. It is only within comparatively recent years that the light of Christianity has been carried there. Confucianism has no doubt wrought much good in its time, but it has outlived its moral power; its body is there still, but such soul as it had seems to have departed out of it. Confucius threw no light on any of the questions which have a world-wide and eternal interest; he gave no real impulse to religion; he had no sympathy with progress. It does not seem, however, as if Dr. Legge's prophecy that his influence would wane is likely soon to be fulfilled. Putting Christianity aside for the moment, China would assuredly fare better if she followed out her great philosopher's principles. It is because her people preach so glibly of morality and virtue, and neglect to practise them, that the Empire is the morally rotten body that we see it to be. The assumption of universal philanthropy and far-reaching philosophic principles, which are brought out even

in all the official documents, must appear to any straightforward man to be the very apotheosis of cant, when these high professions are viewed in the light of actual accomplishment. Even their teachers, with all their magnificent platitudes, were extremely ignorant and narrow-minded men. It has been said of them, and said rightly, that they knew nothing outside China, that they had no imagination, and that they did not wish to learn. The Empire of the Son of Heaven was enough for them, and satisfied their highest aspirations. To such men, and to the disciples of such men, what did it signify what the Fan Kwei, the Foreign Devils, thought or did, so long as they kept away and gave no trouble; or, if they were bound to come, so long as they acknowledged the sovereignty of the Emperor by performing the recognized ceremonies? It is easy, when one has grasped the real situation, to understand the attitude of the educated Chinese to Christian missions. "Who are these barbarian beasts," they ask, that they should aspire to lead us into the right paths? They send us for their own benefit a poisonous drug; where is their benevolence? They send their fleets and armies to despoil other nations; what becomes of their pretensions to rectitude? They allow men and women to mix in society and to walk arm-in-arm through the streets; where is their morality? They reject the doctrines of the ancient kings; where is their wisdom? Deficient, therefore, in four out of the five cardinal virtues, how can these barbarians expect to reform others?" We have seen this argument advanced in a score or more of Chinese tracts. Will any one, who has been in the country and studied the people for even a brief space of time, say that he has never heard the same argument advanced by his native friends?

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It must be apparent that, under such adverse conditions as these, the task of our missionaries in China is an unusually difficult one; and it is most creditable to their zeal and to the fervor of their convictions that these exceptional difficulties should have even increased their numbers. Bringing the beauties of Christianity to the

The

heart of a Chinese is a vastly different matter from bringing the same to, let us say, a South Sea Islander. In the one instance you have a gross and idolatrous savage, who more often than not has a feeling of admiration for a white man, provided he is not a trader; when you have gained that savage's good-will, half the battle for Christianity has been won. In China you have a people whose settled conviction it is that the ultimate purpose of your presence there is to kill them off and confiscate their property; who hardly discriminate between missionaries and other Western people, but class them all in the one hated category of Foreigners; and who have their own striking religious beliefs and rites. predominant religion of Taouism is consecrated by the practice of centuries and the adhesion of their own forefathers. Both these considerations count for much, count for everything, in fact, with the Chinese. They are the most conservative nation in the world, and they are strict in the worship of their ancestors. Their conservatism is proverbial; and it is one of their most grievous charges against our civilization, and our pretensions to teach them a more excellent way, that we bury our progenitors in cheap deal coffius, and do not so much as offer sacrifice to their manes or provide them with the fare to the next world. No one, of course, ever made the mistake of expecting the T'sung-li-Yamên to co-operate with the propagandists from the West in their endeavors to introduce Christianity. It is doubtful if the central Government could do much, even were it ever so well disposed. The country is too large, the means of communication with the outlying provinces are too slow and primitive to make the thing possible, even granted the good intentions; and the good intentions are notoriously wanting. It required the energetic reprisals of the European Governments for the cruel massacre of Tientsin in 1870 to convince the T'sung-li-Yamên of the advisability of giving something more substantial than a mere promise of protection to foreigners, which was intended to be broken on the first opportunity. In connection with those mas

sacres the Government issued a memorandum defining its attitude toward the missionaries. It professed no hostility to them or to the object which brought them to the country; but it complained, and the charge was levelled more particularly against the Roman Catholic missionaries, who were specifically named-that the converts were not drawn from a moral class. The result, it affirmed, was that this boasted religion had come to be thought lightly of among the more respectable members of the community. Its unpopularity had been greatly increased by the conduct of the converts, who, relying upon the influence of the missionaries, oppress and take advantage of the common people [those who had not accepted Christianity];" and yet more by the conduct of the missionaries themselves, who, when collisions occurred between Christians and the others, invariably upheld the former in their conflict with the authorities. "This indiscriminating enlistment of proselytes," they went on, has gone so far that the rebels and criminals of China, pettifoggers and mischief-makers, and such like, take refuge in the profession of Christianity for the purpose of creating disorder. This has deeply dissatisfied the people, and their dissatisfaction, long felt, grows into animosity, and their animosity into deadly hostility. The populations of different localities do not know that there is any distinction between [different religious propagandists among] the nations of the West. They include them all under the one denomination of foreigners, and thus any serious collision that occurs compromises all foreigners in China." To control the missionaries, and to prevent so far as possible any troubles between them and the populace, the T'sung-li-Yamên submitted eight articles to the following effect: (1) the Yü-Ying Tang, or infant asylums, should be abolished, or failing that, the sphere of their labors should be restricted to the children of native Christians unable to rear them; (2) women should under no circumstances be admitted into the chapels (or establishments), nor should female missionaries be allowed in China; (3) missionaries

residing in China should be amenable to Chinese law and usage; (4) where Chinese and foreigners lived together in the same locality, the one law should be impartially administered to both; (5) the passports of the French missionaries, authorizing them to proceed to any province to preach and teach, should state distinctly and precisely the province and the prefecture; (6) before accepting any man as a convert, missionaries should satisfy themselves as to his moral character; (7) missionaries should be forced to obey the established laws (or respect the dignity) of China; (8) the authorities should, "in the interests of peace, be consulted on the question of purchasing laud for the erection of chapels, etc., and the missionaries should not have the right to demand the restitution of any chapel they might be pleased to indicate.

There are two or three interesting questions in regard to these proposals. Let it be stated at once that the first, fifth, and eighth did not concern British Protestant missions. It was pointed out at the time to the Chinese authorities by Lord Granville that converts, simply by becoming converts, were not exempted from the obligations of their natural allegiance or from the jurisdiction of the local authorities. This disposed of the assertion that the missionaries upheld their converts in their opposition to the ruling powers. As to the charge that native rogues were attracted to the Christian fold by the prospect of making profit out of their professed conversion, it is to be feared there was something in it, though not so much as the T'sung-li-Yamên tried to make out. This is one of the troubles our missionaries have to encounter wherever they go; but, even if we had not ample proof to the contrary, it would be a monstrous injustice to suppose that the ranks of converts were made up even largely of the criminal classes. We have yet to be persuaded, moreover, that the missionaries do not well to bestow particular attention upon these classes. As for the implication of connivance between the missionaries and the pettifoggers, etc., to defeat the ends of Chinese justice, that also is an

assumption altogether unwarranted. Here and there may possibly be found a teacher with much zeal and little discretion, who deals less delicately than he might with Chinese prejudices; but if there has ever been any interference, and that has still to be proved, it has never gone further than a protest against some glaring wrong or some diabolical cruelty aimed at a native for no other reason than that he was a Christian. Chinese punishments cannot be paralleled in the world for brutality. Much odium, having its origin in the disapproval of the Mandarins and in the sneers and innuendoes of the Taouist priests, attaches to a convert to Christianity; and if he is not under the immediate wing of the missionaries, his lot is pretty sure to be a hard one. But one of the most striking features of missionary work in China is the loyalty and devotion of the bulk of the native converts. If proof be required, it may be found in the minutes of the Consular investigation into the cause of the outbreaks at Wuhu and Wuhsueh in 1891. Missionary reports may possibly be partial, but this official document is not. It proves, beyond doubt, that in the riots at the latter place, when a Wesleyan minister named Argent and an Imperial Customs officer named Green were killed, the natives attached to the various missions performed excellent service in protecting the European ladies and children from the fury of their countrymen.

The second of the proposals put forward by the T'sung-li-Yamên is very curious and significant. It is an offence to Chinese propriety that men and women should associate freely; and the idea of the latter going about the country and penetrating into strange houses is utterly repugnant to them. Personally, though they are undoubtedly of much value in the conduct of the missions, we are inclined to think that the prevalent impression as to their moral character, or to put it bluntly their want of moral character -militates very powerfully against their influence for good. Curiously enough, women were the involuntary causes of the massacres at Tientsin and at Wuhsueh in 1891, and of the dis

turbances at Wuhu in the month (May) preceding the affair at Wuhsueh. It is fair to state here that it was the action of the Sisters of Mercy attached to the French Catholic missions which stirred the popular fury in each instance. Among the many singular superstitions of the Chinese people is one which corresponds closely to the miaumai of the Hindoos; a belief that Western physicians use the eyes, brains, and hearts of infants in the concoction of their medicines and of those magical potions which are to be used in the fulness of time to kill off the inhabitants of China preparatory to the con-fiscation of their land. This absurd belief probably originated from their own practices in this direction. The Chinese, as their law-books show, are firm believers in witchcraft by spells and drugs, and those parts of the human frame which we have mentioned are frequently employed by them in the way of medicines; a practice, by the way, not 'unknown in our own country even in the eighteenth century. One of the great works of the Sisters was the saving of infant life. Female babies in China are held in very poor estimation, and are frequently thrown out to die or given away to any persons so misguided as to desire the possession of them. The object of the Sisters was in every way commendable. They sought to prevent a deplorable waste of human life; or, if their care could not avail to save the poor little wasted bodies, they sought at least to save their souls. They gathered into their infant asylums all the children they could find. It was proved that their methods were not always beyond reproach, but the end, they argued, justified any means. The deaths were very numerous, not unnaturally, considering the neglected condition of the children when received. A rumour spread that the Foreign Devils were employing professional kidnappers to obtain infants for the sake of their eyes, hearts, and brains. The educated classes are, in all that pertains to physiological knowledge, as ignorant and as superstitious as the common people. The popular rage broke out; some bodies, which were exhumed, seemed to afford confirmation of the

charges; the official classes and the secret societies fanned the flame; and the result was that every French man and woman in Tientsin were killed, and all the property belonging to them and to their mission destroyed. The nuns were subjected to foul outrage after death, and their bodies thrown into the Peiho river. The French were virtually the only sufferers, though some Russian property was damaged and two Russians killed under the impression that they were French; but the prompt action of the foreign representatives at Pekin, a little further up the river, frightened the T'sung-liYamên, and the riots were quelled.

The old story about Knai-tse, or baby-stealers, was, as we have hinted, at the bottom of the outbreak at Wuhu on May 12th, 1891, and of the outbreak at Wuhsueh on June 5th following. The Koloa-Hui, one of the many secret societies with which China is honeycombed, was an active instigator of the former, and probably also of the latter. A proclamation was posted about the streets of Wuhu after the riot, in which direct reference was made to the allegations of kidnapping as the sole cause of the disturbances. In regard to the origin of the troubles. at Wubsueh, we will quote the deposition of a native Christian named Hsiung Chialien, servant to Mr. Warren, as taken before Consul Gardner of Hankow.

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At about six in the evening of the 5th of June, a Chinaman was seen in Wuhsueh carrying four Chinese female babies. He was asked what he was doing with them. said he was taking them down to Kiukiang, to the Roman Catholic mission, to be made into medicine. I saw the man and the babies; they were just outside the Wesleyan mission. The people attacked the man. man said he came from Kwang-chi. When the people attacked the man he escaped to the Lung Ping-sze's official residence, and told the Lung Ping sze that he was taking the children to the Roman Catholic mission to be educated, they being the children of Catholic parents. There was a mob around Lung Ping's residence. He told the mob that if any of them wanted to make a complaint against the man he must enter his name formally on the charge-sheet. No one would give his name as plaintiff. The Lung Ping-sze thereupon refused to take action, and said

the man might take the children to Kiukiang:

When the man got outside the mob again attacked him, and one of the children was

crushed to death. The children were all under one year old; the dead child was opposite the Wesleyan mission. Some one suggested that the Wesleyan missionaries were going to make medicine of it, and then the Wesleyan mission was attacked. The door of Mrs. Protheroe's house was broken open, and afterward Mrs. Boden's house was attacked. The mob broke first into the pantry, upset the lamps, which set fire to the place, and then. broke into the sitting-room and set that room on fire. They beat the three ladies, and one of the mob seized one of Mrs. Protheroe's children. I got the child away. The ladies and children escaped to the residence of the Makowsoe, who refused them admittance. Afterward they ran to a vegetable garden, and a poor person allowed them to hide in his hut. Only two (Mrs. Warren and Mrs. Boden) hid in the hut. Mrs. Protheroe and three children got to the Yamên on the Weh Fu. On the way to the Yamên I met Mr. Argent and Mr. Green, and begged them to turn back, as every one had left the Wesleyan mission, but they would not. When they got near the chapel Mr. Argent tried to take refuge in a shoemaker's shop. The mob destroyed the shop and struck Mr. Argent over the head, and gave him a severe wound. I said to the mob, "Don't strike the foreigner; strike me. The shoemaker asked the mob not to strike Mr. Argent in his shop. The mob then dragged Mr. Argent into the street, and killed him. Meanwhile Mr. Green ran into a pond near. He was in the pond about two hours The mob said if he would come out they would not beat him. He came out, and they beat him to death with stones.

If there is one class of foreigners which the Chinese populace hates more than another it is the Jesuit missionaries. The Fathers have always been very active, and the nuns, as we have hinted, have not always been careful to consider Chinese susceptibilities or to conceal their abhorrence of the wholesale murders of female infants; they probably never realized that they were seriously credited with collecting children to make medicine of them. But it must not be assumed that the Roman Catholic propagandists are the only ones suspected of these practices. As we have said, the bulk of the Chinese make little or no distinction between any of the Western nations or between different religious sects; to them all are interlopers with but one aim, the confiscation of Chinese lands for their own special benefit. The deposition of Hsiung, which was proved how quick a mob is to level the epithet to be in every particular true, shows baby-stealers against all foreigners in