and civilized, in which immortality is not indulged in to a greater or less degree, and in which its practice is not tolerated by society so long as it is not obtruded too glaringly upon the public notice. Even religious and highly moral England has much to deprecate in this particular, and, if one may judge by what is to be seen every day in the streets, theatres, refreshment bars and rooms, places of entertainment, and other public resorts in the principal towns, the evil, instead of diminishing, seems to keep pace with the high-pressure rate of advance which marks every phase of life. But China is heathen, and, taking her with this qualification, it may be safely asserted that her people act more strictly up to their limited lights, and that their immoralities are fewer and far less obtruded upon the notice, than is the case in countries which have been vastly more privileged in the way of teaching, examples, and opportunities.
It has been too much the habit with some travellers, newspaper correspondents, and other hasty observers, who have ventured to write about China, to pander to the preconceived notions of their readers by mocking at the pretended mental and moral characteristics of the Chinese, and representing that, with all their loud talking about codes and maxims of renowned sages, they are, practically and without qualification, a dishonest, treacherous, cowardly, cruel, and degraded people. But it is as false as it is unmanly so to picture them. As a matter of fact, and making due allowance for the proportion of evil which must exist in every community, they regard the writings of their sages with all the reverence which we give to Bibles and liturgies in the West, and in the main carry out the excellent principles therein laid down most strictly in their social economy and personal relations. How otherwise could vast communities exist, as they do in China's thousand cities, person and property secure, peace, happiness, and plenty universal, education encouraged, local and general trade flourishing, business contracts sacred, poverty exceptional, and vice only to be found if sought out in its own special haunts? It is true, famine and flood periodically devastate huge tracts of country, rebellion decimates whole provinces from time to time, official rapacity and cruelty find their victims, alas! too frequently; cases of robbery, murder, infanticide, embezzlement, abduction, and other crimes are not uncommon; gambling-houses, brothels, and opium-dens thrive, and are winked at by the executive; and opium-smoking has its votaries in the most respectable family circles. But all these blots and blisters upon society are, in China as elsewhere, exceptions, not the rule; and they are apt to attract the observation of the superficial traveller or bookmaker, while he shuts his eyes to, or purposely ignores, the background of the picture, where may be seen the Chinaman as he is at home, an intelligent, patient, hardworking, frugal, temperate, domestic, peace-loving, and law-abiding creature.
Thus much for the Chinese from a collective point of view. What this paper, however, has more directly to do with is the low character of that portion of the people which emigrate. Here circumstances and associations have to be taken into consideration, and the two facts already noticed — namely, that it is chiefly the poor and wretched who leave the country, and that no respectable females accompany the men — go far to explain how it comes to pass that they appear to be addicted to so many and such serious vices. This tendency, however, seems to have been more markedly observed in the case of those Chinese who have migrated to San Francisco, and to a certain extent also in the Australian communities. It certainly cannot be said to characterize those who have found their way into the Malayan archipelago, owing no doubt to the fact that, finding themselves among kindred dark-skinned races, they have in most cases married, settled down, and become serviceable members of society. Their successful introduction amongst such races would go far to prove, at any rate, that, given the necessary encouragement and protection, as well as reasonable facilities for attaching themselves to the soil, they are capable of becoming as contented and useful workers as they are in their own country.
As regards the insubordination and impatience of restraint ascribed to the Chinese immigrant, there is also something to be said both for and against. A frequent and well-founded occasion for complaint against the Chinese on this score has been their tendency to form secret associations, which, originally constituted in China for political purposes, are apt, when entered into abroad, to degenerate into conspiracies to resist unpopular government measures, or to determine disputes between clans or factions by resort to force. In fact, the instant and implacable severity with which any attempt to form a hoei or secret society in
