Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/105

 Chinese people a divine discontent with the old order of things, and from one end of the empire to the other the spirit of reform is abroad. Men who formerly shouted arrogantly with the crowd that China was all-sufficient and needed nothing from without, are now crying aloud in the market places for the introduction of the features of European civilisation, which has enabled to be performed what seems to the Eastern mind to be the greatest miracle of the age. He would be a bold man who would prophesy how far the movement will go. Chinese conservatism, though it has been driven from its entrenchments by the events of the past few years, is still lurking in the background, and circumstances may in the future, as in the past, bring it into active life once more. Looking, however, at the depth and intensity of the popular desire for changes designed to be a buckler against the assaults from without, which aforetime have brought such lamentable humiliation upon the empire, it would appear that China has at last really reached the parting of the ways. The telegraphs, the posts, and the railways, which are covering the vast dominions with a network of civilised organisation, are infusing new blood into the outworn arteries, and the rapidly growing native press is educating the inhabitants to new conceptions of life. Official policy, too, is taking to itself more and more of the progressive views which dominate the best systems of Western government, while the machinery of government is being in many respects improved by the mere elimination of old abuses. In time there is hope for China—hope that she may yet rise to the full height of her greatness and take her position in the world as one of its mightiest forces. The fears entertained in some quarters that a real awakening on her part would be of disastrous import to the peace of the world are probably  chimerical. The Chinese are traditionally an unaggressive race, and there is no reason to suppose that the adoption of Western ideas would work a change within their nature.

Whatever danger there may be for Western nations in the regeneration of China lies probably exclusively in the industrial sphere. There, indeed, we may look for startling results when the teeming population of the empire is organised on scientific lines and its energies are turned to the production of manufactures of which Europe and America have now practically the monopoly. But the competition, strenuous though it will be, will not necessarily be destructive, for we may rely upon Western energy, aptitude and pliability of thought, providing means by which the handicap of cheap Eastern labour will be met. In any event there will be no disposition to place obstacles in the way of Chinese progress if her victories are sought exclusively in commercial fields.