Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 139.pdf/59

50 rate. But in the twelfth century I feel myself at home, only less at home than if Mr. Froude had come and sought me out in the eleventh. If history means truth, if it means fairness, if it means faithfully reporting what contemporary sources record and drawing reasonable inferences from their statements, then Mr. Froude is no historian. The "Life and Times of Thomas Beeket," whatever it may be, is not a history; because history implies truth, and the "Life and Times of Thomas Beeket" is not truth but fiction. It does not record the life of a chancellor and archbishop of the twelfth century, but the life of an imaginary being in an imaginary age. It may be a vigorous and telling party pamphlet-; it is not a narrative of facts. Mr. Froude is a man of undoubted ability, of undoubted power of writing. If there is any branch of science or learning in which accuracy of statement is a matter of indifference, in which a calm putting forth of statements which are purely arbitrary can be accepted in its stead, in that branch of science or learning Mr. Froude's undoubted ability, his gift of description and narrative, may stand him in good stead. But for the writing of history, while those gifts are precious, other gifts are more precious still. In that field "before all things truth beareth away the victory;" and among those whom truth has enrolled in her following as her men, among those who go forth to do battle for her as their sovereign lady, Mr. Froude has no part nor lot. It may be his fault; it maybe his misfortune; but the fact is clear. History is a record of things which happened; what passes for history in the hands of Mr. Froude is a writing in which the things which really happened find no place, and in which their place is taken by the airy children of Mr. Froude's imagination.

 

 From The Nineteenth Century.

Chinese are, by common consent of all Western nations, pronounced to be an eccentric and impracticable race. And not without reason; for, in nearly every characteristic which marks a people, they seem to be hopelessly antagonistic to nations occupying the western hemisphere, and usually included in the conventional term "civilized." Oil and water would seem to be scarcely less reconcilable to each other than is the Chinaman to the European or American; and the greater the opportunities of intercommunication the less they appear likely to harmonize. Yet the Chinese do not, like most dark-skinned races, flinch or degenerate in the contact. On the contrary; homogeneous, sturdy, clannish, and enterprising, they not only hold their own, hand to hand and foot to foot, with more favored races, but compete with them successfully upon Chinese soil, and bid fair to wrest from them the prizes of art, labor, and commerce even in their own territories. As a natural result, Chinese immigration has become a red rag to Australians and Americans alike, and the question of putting a decided stop to it, or so dealing with it as to keep it within manageable bounds, forces itself with daily increasing weight upon the attention of the several administrations concerned.

Summarize the charges brought against Chinese immigrants by those most nearly interested, namely, British colonist and United States citizen, and these may be stated as follows: They are pronounced to be the scum of the population of the worst districts of China; they migrate without their families, and the few women they import are shipped under a system of slavery for the vilest purposes; they introduce their own bizarre habits and ideas, and studiously eschew all sociability with colonists of other races; they outrage public opinion by hideous immoralities; they ignore or defy judicial and municipal institutions; they form secret and treasonable associations amongst themselves; they manage to afford, by their low, miserable style of living, to undersell and underwork white men as mechanics, laborers, and servants; they fail to take root in the soil, making it their aim always to carry home their gains to the old country, and even to have their bones conveyed back thither for interment; in a word, so far from seeking to become colonists or citizens in the true sense of the terms, and striving to enrich or benefit the country of their temporary adoption, they are mere vagrants and adventurers, and that of a kind positively hurtful to the general welfare and progress.

Some of these accusations are serious enough, and the remainder of the traits ascribed derive an importance which they would not otherwise possess from mere association with a race which has unfortunately rendered itself obnoxious. The object of this paper is to inquire how far the generally received opinion is to be accepted as correct, and whether any, and, if so, what, steps can be taken to remove or