Mgr. Jarlin, of Peking, quoted to Lord William the saying
of a Chinese gentleman : "Before 1900 every Chinaman was convinced that he was superior to a European ; after 1900 every Chinaman is convinced that he is inferior." This was said to show how ready Chinese are to learn. In other words, our occupation of Peking made the Chinaman realise for the first time that it was necessary for him to learn European ways. The influences which ' Lord William regards as having caused the awakening of China are : (1) the failure of the " Boxer " movement ; (2) the success of Japan ; (3) the spread of missionary work. To these he adds the native Press and the spread of railways. " China,' said one Chinese statesman to me, ' is the oldest and yet the youngest of nations." He was confident that the new knowledge would make China great. Lord William's con- clusion is worth quoting in full :—" The message I think the West should give to China, both by the mouth of Missienaries and of statesmen, is that Western knowledge without Western ethict will only shoe the heel of tyranny *ith iron, and that those ethics are, as a matter of history, intimately connected with and founded on the teachings of Christianity." We agree. The awakening of Japan has been a great fact, but we have no sea of doubt that the awakening of China will prove of infinitely greater importance.
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