source of all our troubles with Chinese immigrants. And how can it be expected to be otherwise, when a government undertakes suddenly to bring within the scope of its legislative enactments tens and hundreds of thousands of an entirely alien race, without having them in anyway represented in the executive, or without taking the precaution to see that some one member of the ruling power, at any rate, is familiar with the language, customs, and habits of thought of the people governed? A move in this direction has fortunately been made of late in Hongkong and Singapore, and with on the whole favorable results, considering the partial nature of the measures adopted. But until this reform was introduced, and as is even now the case in Australia, the West Indian islands and the United States, it may safely be affirmed that there was no one in official circles who comprehended one word of the spoken or written Chinese language, and that the members of the government one and all were utterly ignorant of the peculiarities of the people whom they were set to govern. Here at once would be a fruitful source of mutual misunderstandings between the governing and governed, leading inevitably to exaction and harsh treatment on the one side, and to shrinking, isolation, discontent, and despair on the other.
Happily there seems to be a remedy for this untoward condition of affairs, and one not beyond the reach of accomplishment, if only the proper course be taken to adopt and apply it. Much may be effected in the first place by efforts to improve the type and condition of the Chinese who emigrate, and by encouraging female emigration in the case of those countries where the Chinaman finds himself thrown among peoples of alien race to himself, as, for instance, in the British colonies and western American states. This result can only be attained by international arrangement with the Chinese government, and, more than one Western power being concerned, it would be a happy thing if concerted action could be brought to bear so as to secure unity of purpose in the general interest. The Chinese government, although always intolerant of the efflux of their people from their own dominions, have of late learned to accept the inevitable, and to show an interest in the welfare of their expatriated subjects, as has been evinced by the commission sent a few years ago to South America to inquire into the condition and treatment of their people there, and by their negotiations with more than one foreign government with a view to the legislation of emigration and its conduct upon humane and properly recognized principles. Nothing can have a more mischievous effect than the attempts which have been made both in America and Australia to legislate upon the subject independently of the Chinese government, and to place restrictions upon the influx of Chinese which the utterly opposed to treaty stipulations, and which foreign governments would certainly never tolerate in the case of their own subjects resorting to Chinese territory. Then, again, an entirely different system will need to be introduced in respect to the treatment of the Chinese who settle upon foreign shores. Every administration, within whose jurisdiction Chinese happen to place themselves, should lose no time in supplying itself, as a sine qua non, with respectable interpreters, competent both to speak and write the language — such men, in fact, as those who, under the enlightened policy of the British Foreign Office, have done so much of late years to smooth away the asperities of our relations with China itself — men who, on the one hand, can, by their experience of the Chinese character, pilot the government into a discreet threading of its many intricacies, and on the other, by their familiarity with the language, court the trust and confidence of the people themselves.
Another most effectual method of conciliating the Chinese, and inducing content in their minds whilst under an alien rule, would be to hold out encouragements to individuals from amongst their own number to merit the distinction of taking a part, however limited, in the administration of their affairs. The Chinese are, as has been advanced at the commencement of this paper, an eccentric people. Their mental architecture is so entirely different from that of any other race as to be simply unique, and to attempt to lead them to a result by any other process of thought or argument than that to which they have been accustomed is to court almost certain failure. Hence the wisdom of humoring them to a certain extent; and this is nowhere more necessary than when dealing with them from an administrative point of view. The Dutch, with their usual acuteness, have detected this peculiarity, and met it in Java and their other Eastern possessions by appointing what are called "capitan Cheena" over certain sections of population, a species of small court magistrates, in fact, to whom are relegated all cases, civil and criminal, of a petty na-
