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784 The Saturday Analyst and Leader. [Se...
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CHINA. * THE author of " a Cruise in Jap...
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* The Pan «/'</ f'litur? of liritish Rel...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Examinations And I^Ailuees. Rf^Heee Are,...
nected with his studies . This seemed so strange , that the uncle was thoroughly determined to penetrate its-reason , and , with the greatest difficulty , extracted the confession that the boy had been forced to bind himself under the most solemn , oath , that during the holidays he would not touch a book that could in the slightest degree contribute to his success in examination . Thus , the pupils had made , at their own good pleasure , a law of idleness to prevent the ambitious or the industrious from gaining a march , upon the indolent . We have heard , again , only very recently ., that a system of persecution is caried on against those who choose to study , as it is called , out of hours . An esprit-de-rorps , and a lad and false oneis thus founded and maintained by
ill-con-, ditioned y «? : « tf «/ . y and red-tapists in embryo , and the credit of the establishment is thus , in some measure , at their mercy and discretion . All this probably is , and certainly ought to be , known to the authorities of the college ; but there is no limit to the acquiescence , in many eases , of such authorities in foolish codes ordained by those " who ought to know of nothing but submission . Indeed , those who have been brought up at a place , and imbibed its spirit , have often a foolish pride in maintaining its silliest habits and morale , instead of making use of their knowledge " and experience to correct it . We do not know ¦ whe ther this is the case at "Woolwich . Certainly , not many
years itgo , a disgraceful system of persecuting any professor , grossly , who was remarkable for any ludicrous peculiarity , and not specially endowed with moral courage , was shamefully rife at our civil and military colleges . The system must have been known to the heads of these establishments , and implied a most thoroughly contemptible want of discipline . No public schoolmaster in England -would have tolerated for one moment such mischievous nonsense , but would have expelled the offenders by dozens , rather than liave permitted its continuance , and any man ¦ with a particle of independent spirit -would do so at Woolwich , or no matter where , and no matter how closely the offenders might happen to be connected with governors ; directors , et hoc
genus omne . irrespective of any sort of persecution , probably in no country in . the world , is the progress . of boys and young men so much impeded as in England by false feeling as to the disereditableness of industry . It has been the cause of more unsuccessful careers than dissipation to which it has often led , and there is scarcely any description of youthful folly to which the public school or university man , when arrived at the age of thirty , looks back with more regret and self contempt than at his own former contempt of industry , and affectation of accomplishing everything by the mere force of talent , with the most trifling amount of application . It is the very pest of some Of our highest places of education in England , and though it may rarely crush a first-rate man , it often damages him , whilst it almost and often quite ruins the second-rates by hundreds . This ambition of idleness seems to be a national disease , and must
tell unfavourably on the progress of the nation . Certainly , we do Dot want its malign influence to be aided and increased by any deliberate persecution of the industrious , ab extra , and by forces even more formidable than that of foolish and infectious opinion . And now a few more words with regard to examinations , whether at Woolwich or elsewhere . In these examinations those who stand at the head , or near it , however much " they may have been indebted to their schools , or to their instructors ; we do not wish to underrate the debt ; have probably been far more indebted to themselves . If the secrets of the examinations were known it would not greatly surprise us to find that some of the very worst , as \ yell as the very best examiners , occasionally were the products of the very same establishment . A thoroughly hard worker ( where there is no special and unfair cramming ) will take a place of honour , even though not brought up at a school with a at the head of the list
shining' name , and two or three names would scarcely necessarily prove that a school is a good one . It jtaay seem a hard demand , but the places of education of the last and worst of the candidates , though not necessarily their oiv > i names , ought to be made public , and we shall make sure of nothing" till this is done . A certain number of good marks are generally required on each subject ; it occasionally happens that the lower candidates scarcely obtain one . The nursery gardens where these particular plants are produced , whether called college or the mere little plots <) f expensive private tutors , require a board to warn parents off tho premises . It is certain that our various kinds of army education in the present days of science ought to bo very careful , if we do not want to fall altogether into the Tear . Amongst other absurdities , an ordinary Cambridge or Oxford education is allowed to be sufficient ( qualification for some appointment in the -English army j it is difficult to conceive anything more ridiculous , but the Times , which has of late industriously affected to take the " upper-class" view of things , apologised for the practice some months ago , in a leader if wo mistake not , on the ground that young mon in the higher ranks often took a hidden turn in the choice ot a profession , and that too much time ought not to be lost in accommodating matters .
784 The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [Se...
784 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Sept ., 8 , 1-860
China. * The Author Of " A Cruise In Jap...
CHINA . * THE author of " a Cruise in Japanese Waters " has composed another little book , equally useful and skilful , on the subjeot of the Chinese anil their relations with Britain , past mid future , "fie has boon moved to this principally by the luck pfsound information evinced in tho lato debates upon China . It is , he tolls us , an
incontestable fact that the opinions of the majority were based not upon historical and commercial data , but simply upon the statements of certain special interests or factions . The main-difference , however , appears to lie in an essential contradiction between the ideas of the Chinese and the European . The Eastern is in all senses the opposite of the Western mind . In their books they read from opposite sides , and begin at opposite ends ; and in manners it is the same . We are not , therefore , surprised at being told of the divergence that exists between the intellectual and logical processes of John Chinaman and John Bull . Whatever the , latter may think , the former
will be sure to think differently . This is the uniform experience of Captain Osborn . and the source of all the difficulties between the two empires . He never remembers , he tells us , any European who took an European and rational view of China , who was in the end right . Nor is this strange ; for the world is content to be governed with un-reason in China , as elsewhere . She has her traditions , too , which are , or ought to be obsolete , but which she still indulges herself in thinking to be . living forces . She , too , has her dead which are not yet buried , as they ought to be , out of sight . Verily , we might see our own sometimes in the un-reason of China ; let it suffice that the Chinese see it well enough , and know how to take
advantage of it : Captain Osborn gives a rather amusing resume of our misunderstanding with the Chinese ; and draws also au amusing picture of the Chinese habit of misunderstanding . It is not only in diplomacy , foreign policy , and public points that we are ever thus at variance with Chinamen ; but he firmly believes that in all matters , however trival , we and these people ever differ . He can . hardly remember an instance of his going to a Chinaman , and expressing an opinion that the reply of the latter did not commence with the words , My no thinkee so ! " and then , in his way , he generally told you that exactly the contrary would be the case . If the question were a Chinese one , he was generally right , unless force were resorted to . "In short , " concludes Capt . Osborn . *' the European in China appears to me to be ever singing-a song about the Flowery Land and its people , to which the native , standing by , strikes in with a chorus of ' My no thinkee so !'"
Captain Osborn argues for the necessity offeree as the only cure for their ohstinate ignorance . European diplomacy in China amounts to a just appreciation of what is right , what is to the interest of European civilisation , and then a skilful application of force , not reason . Of the servile state of their minds ^ one instance may suffice . While sailing up the Peiho River , our author counted at one time no fewer than twenty-five villages in . sight from the masthead , and often ten or ¦ fifteen were visible ; they were none of them ruined in condition , and all appeared full of inhabitants , stalwart naked laborers , and hosts of noisy healthy children ; women were not seen until afterwards , but of them there was no lack . The first arrival of the gunboats and Europeans was a startling event to these former to the
poor villagers ; but a strange sight for the was see whole male population of a village ranged along the bank , on th e hands and knees , and performing " kotow , " as their gunboats passed . Besides this form of respect and fear for the Fanqui , they each offered a token of peace and amity in the shape of a fowl , and here and thiere some , more frightened than the rest , shouted to the interpreter , Mr . H . N , Lay , " Hail , great king ! Oh , pray be pleased to disembark and reign over us ! " One man , at a village , supposed to be a Christian convert , improved upon the proceedings by placing himself on his knees in the position of adoration , and continued so long as H . M . gunboat " Bustard " remained in sight . " He , poor fellow , " exclaims the captain , - " was no doubt anxious to propitiate the demon that had so suddenly burst upon the quietude ot but th ot nis jnnsnan leamuuK
his Chinese village ; e application « was as original as that of some Sandwich Islanders , whom I heard not many years ago singing the 64 th Psalm to soothe the heathen goddess who , they believe , presides over their troublesome volcano . Enough is here to indicate what might be done with China , were England ambitious of dominion . Her footsteps , wherever she has left them , have indeed been faithful . Witness the city of Shanghai , the queen of Central China . Some sixteen years ago , Captain Osborn was one of some half-dozen English boats' crews , under the Commodore , R . B . Watson , C . B ., and part of the fleet of Admiral Sir W . Parker , G . C . B ., who first burst upon the Chinese quietude of its existence as the pioneers of a new order of things . rsot the most sanguine among them could have anticipated that , in so short a spaco of time , such a magnificent European colony would have been created . '' Who could , " he demands , " have foretold that whore no foreign keel had ever before floated , an import and export trade in European bottoms , amounting to the value of twenty-six would
millions seven hundred and seventy-four odd pounds , now exist , and that , at the same time , the native trade and native craft would show no apparent diminution Y Yet it ia so . Where a low . unhealthy marsh , dotted with squalid Chinese abodes only then met the eye , such a quay or bund is now seen aw would put those who live on the banks of Father Thames to the blush ! handsome houses , gardens , yachts , mail-steamers and steam-tugs , a thousand indications , in short , of the wealth and prosperity of rt groat commercial community . The naval officer , contemplating such a scene ot prosperity and wealth , replete with high promise to all the world , suddon-l y created 6 n the footprints loft by hia profession , may , at any rate , Without egotism , say thut its labours have not been in vain ; and as J turned mv back ' upou Shanghai towards the first unbroken ground north of ' Yangtze the hope naturully arose that our coming labours might bo equally prolific in benefits to Great Britain and China . " . . Such a vein of reflection naturally directu our attention to tne future of China . Wo have much to get over in tho past , not
* The Pan «/'</ F'Litur? Of Liritish Rel...
* The Pan «/ ' f ' litur ? of liritish Relations in China . By Cnptaiu Shoraril Oflborn , O . B ., Roy « l JNnv > . Win . Bliiokwouilanil Sonn .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08091860/page/8/
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