One hundred years ago
A MANSION House Fund has been opened for the relief of the districts stricken with famine in China, and every one who wishes can subscribe. The Lord Mayor was obviously reluc- tant to give his consent, but was over- borne by local knowledge and by his natural reluctance to check a movement which might save many lives. We can appreciate his motives, but we question still if he was right in yielding. There must be sense in philanthropy, as in everything else, and we see no sense in lowering the reservoir of charity in Britain, which, vast as it is, holds only a defined quantity, by an attempt to do what China ought to do for herself. We cannot relieve the whole world from hunger, and do not see that the Chinese have any more claim on our liberality than any other friendly people, while they have this less claim, that one copper coin from every Chinese house would effect ten times as much as our subscriptions. To answer, as the sino- logues will, that the Chinese will not subscribe, is to raise the question whether the world is benefited by keep- ing such numbers of such immovable people alive.
The Spectator, 26 January 1889
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