almost esteemed as a science in China. Mr. Wingrove Cook assigns to the Chinese in cookery a middle position—below the French and above the English. The Chinaman considers the Englishman's mode of feeding the nearest approach to that of the savages of Formosa; 'for,' says he, 'the Englishman does the chief work of the slaughterhouse upon his dinner-table, and he remits the principal work of the kitchen to his stomach.'. . . The social life of the Chinese is generally described as a mass of ceremonials and cold formalities, devoid of all real kindness of heart; but this opinion is based upon incomplete observations. In their common intercourse the Chinese are not more formal than is elsewhere considered to be well bred. Whether in the crowded and narrow thoroughfares, the village green, the bustling market, the jostling ferry, or the thronged procession, wherever the people are assembled promiscuously, good humor and courtesy are observable."
The Chinese are eminently a peaceable people. In this respect they conform more perfectly to the theoretical standard of Christian morals than any Christian nations. Duels are unknown among them; and they consider a resort to force as proof of an inferior kind of civilization. They are conservative, and dread all violent disturbance. Governor Davis says, "They have lived so much in peace that they have acquired by habit and education a more than common terror of political disorders"; and again, "Their common maxim is, 'Better be a dog in peace than a man in anarchy.'"
The ancient and permanent policy of the Chinese Government has accorded with the spirit of its population, and has been peaceful. "Happy the people whose history is wearisome," remarks Montesquieu; and Governor Davis observes, "If this be the character of Chinese history—if we find the even current of its annals for a long time past (before the late rebellion) less troubled by disorders and anarchy than that of most other countries—we must look to the causes in the fundamental principles of the government, and in the maxims by which it is administered."[1] Such habits of life are of course not favorable to the virtues of the prize-ring and the battle-field. Christians have hence reproached the Chinese for practicing the pacific morality of Christ, and, because they have not been given to internal discord and external war, have accused them of cowardice—the leading characteristic, by the way, of the American militia. If the reader will look over the first article in the November "Atlantic Monthly," on "Our Military, Past and Future," he will find it proved that, in the various wars that make our annals such lively reading, American citizens have always proved the most arrant cowards, who will never stand up to fight unless they have been so long subject to military discipline that all manliness is drilled out of them, and they become mere puppets, good for nothing but to obey orders. And it further turns out that the "courage" of even the old disciplined soldier, in nine cases out of ten, is a differential result of his opposing fears, and that he fights the enemy because he is more afraid of his friends.
We used to hear many years ago about a quality called moral courage, and the stand for principles in defiance of brute force; but since our great war less has been heard of that very unmilitary virtue. It will therefore be refreshing to recall a conspicuous Chinese instance of it. On the 28th of December, 1857, a mile of gunboats, English and French, were drawn up in line before the city of Canton. They summoned the Viceroy to surrender, but ho did not comply. The allies then opened fire, and kept up for many hours
- ↑ Davis's "China," vol. i., p. 249.
