We regret to notice the death of the Marquis Tseng,
formerly Chinese Ambassador to London and Paris, though not for the reasons we see assigned. We do not believe that the deceased statesman desired to introduce European ideas into China. What he wanted, as he often confessed, was to introduce something of the strong Western organisation, more especially as to the discipline and equipment of the Army, and the improvement of interior means of communication. His ideal was the improvement of the State, not of the people. The Marquis Tseng, however, performed one incomparable service to his country, and, as it may prove, to Europe. He broke down the extraordinary European impression that China was some- how a comic kind of Power. That idea completely dominated Frenchmen in particular, till they found their diplomatists defeated by the Chinese aristocrat who did not know French, but who did know how to resist French threats, and make China a formidable foe instead of a "quantity that might be neglected." The Marquis Tseng cost France thirty thousand conscripts, including invalids ; and but that any maritime Power can cut off the food-supply of Pekin, would have driven her to abandon Tonquin, as she did abandon Formosa.
Previous page
