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THE wonderful change which has in the last few months taken place under our very eyes in the status of Japan has excited the wonder of the world. That a plucky little nation, which only yesterday, as it were, emerged from a mediæval feudalism, should challenge the oldest and most populous Empire in the world, with a population ten times its own, and in a few weeks, by an unbroken succession of victories, capture its strongest fortresses and many of its great cities, has excited the astonishment of mankind. We purpose giving a resumé of the opinions of expert authorities on this remarkable phenomenon and some of its probable consequences.

In an article on "New Power in the East," the New York Outlook says: "The most remarkable event of this end of the century has been the agreement upon terms of peace between Japan and China. The result of this event is not only to open China to commerce and civilization, but also to establish Japan as the leader of Asia, and on a par with any European State. Never in the world's history has there been such a sudden and satisfying manifestation of a new power.

"After the first encounters the low organization of the forces on the one side was convincingly contrasted with the high organization of those on the other: the resistance was but

that of the mollusk to the mammal. The Chinese have therefore suffered an unbroken succession of defeats. We have come to the end of the war only to find that China lies prostrate, an invertebrate mass-a weak and vitiated dynasty, a corrupt and tyrannical mandarinate, and a leaderless and peculating people. The humiliation of China is a matter which no one except a partisan of savagery can for a moment regret. China now enters upon a far greater future for herself, with greater profit to England.

"It may be said that the Chinese are cowardly as well as corrupt; but it must be remembered, after all, that the dominance of Confucianism has something to do with the matter, and Confucius held all violence to be unbecoming. To this must be added the power of disintegration. The Chinese are not one people, but a collection of peoples. The people in the south cannot understand the speech of those in the north. Every province is independent, and its only real connection with its neighbour lies in a common submission to the Emperor. There has thus been no real, united, virile China. When Talleyrand said that Italy was only a geographical expression, he might have applied that saying with greater force to the Flowery Kingdom.

"The crushing of China and the rise of Japan have not been exactly simultaneous events. The one has occupied a few months, the other a number of years, but an incredibly small number; for the steps to this eminence have all been taken within the life of the present Mikado. It is a wonderful history, that of less than fifty years. Following Commodore Perry's expedition came the realization in Japan itself that feudalism must be broken down. With it were also broken down those inveterate superstitions which surrounded the person of the Mikado. To his credit be it said that in this

respect the present Mikado has done everything to show that he is infinitely more worthy of his rank than any of his predecessors. His steps, and those of his accomplished ministers, have ever been upward. These steps have been the humbling of insolent and grasping viceroys, the reduction of the rebellious Samurai, the establishment of a representative government and of a constitution, and, generally, the introduction of foreign methods of life and progress. Within the past year we have seen a semi-official recognition of Christianity, the abolition of extra-territoriality, and the assertion of Japan's right to regulate her own tariffs ratified by treaties, and now comes the conquest of China.

"This last event is far greater and more significant than one country's mere triumph over another. For the first time since the decline of Tamerlane's power we see an Oriental State rise to hegemony in Asia. This is accomplished without any intervention or assistance from Europe or America. A year ago such a transformation-above all, such an unaided transformationwould have been deemed impossible. We find, nevertheless, that the new power which has thus suddenly dazzled the world proposes to be not only conqueror but leader, that it will undertake single-handed the reconstruction of eastern Asia, and thus become a propaganda of what has already been attained by Japanese progress. Should this propaganda succeed, a whole hemisphere will arise out of the sloth of ages. As has been shown in Japan, so in Chinese countries Confucian civilization alone will be no match for a combination of that civilization with the broader, more practical, more intelligent, more moral progress of Christian nations. Yet, while paying full credit to everything gained from outside, the Japanese yield to none in self-respect

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people astonish even the French, who are the most skilful among artisans, by the cleverness of their work. It is true the Japanese are small of stature, but the superiority of the body depends more on its constitution than on its size. If treaty revision were completed, and Japan completely victorious over China, we should become one of the chief powers of the world, and no power could engage in any movement without first consulting us. Japan could then enter into competition with Europe as the representative of the Oriental nations.'

world sees a first-class power asserting itself in the sisterhood of great nations which is not Christian.

"Nevertheless the civilization which Japan has accepted is wholly the product of Christianity. It has been produced and perfected by Christian nations. When, in 1853, Commodore Perry opened Japan, that Empire was an absolute nonentity among the nations of the earth. Its people had never before seen a ship-of-war.

When Commodore Perry emptied on shore his ship-load of presents, and among them the miniature railroad train, in their delight the people would straddle across the cars and sit down on them, crazy to get a ride on the train, where they could not get in, along the little track. There came a craze for everything foreign; they called for teachers from America and Europe; they sent their young men and young women by the scores to be educated here, and did not stop in affright as China did after making the same beginning. It is amazing what a revolution has been made in the whole habit of the thoughts of the people in a generation. It is enough to give serious thought to people that make so much of the influence of heredity on habits of thought.

"In a few years we have seen old prejudices dissolved, old civilization utterly discarded, and a Christian civilization adopted in its place. Japan has a constitutional monarch, with a parliament and representative ministry like Great Britain. It has as large a railroad system in proportion to its territory as the United States; it has quite as good a school system, reaching from the kindergarten to the university; its post-office department is admirably conducted, and every body now knows that its military affairs are managed with great wisdom and patriotism and honesty. If ever there was a nation enthusiastically patriotic it is Japan. It has the Red Cross attachment to its military service under the Geneva rules and under the sanction of the laws of the Empire -something that we cannot boast of in the United States. Its students of philosophy and science and medicine rank with the best, and we see all the enthusiasm and devotion which belong to the birth of a new nation.

"But not a Christian nation. Ten years ago our missionaries were saying that it looked as if Japan

would become Christian before the end of the century. But there came a chilling frost; and for the last two or three years there has been very little advance in the number of converts. They have done well that they have held their own. There has grown up with the patriotism a feeling of pride, not to say vanity, which has made the Japanese say that now they have learned all the West has to teach, and that they will develop hereafter along their own lines; that if they can they will reform the old Budd. hism of their common people or the Confucianism or Shintoism of the upper classes, making of it a purer and a better faith which shall absorb all the ethical teachings of Christianity, very much as the Brahmo-Somaj has attempted to reform the old Brahminism of India.

"What the result will be we cannot yet tell, except that we believe that our Christian faith has the Spirit of God with it and will prevail. But, meanwhile, for some years to come we shall see the great experiment tried of a great nation which does not profess to be Christian, whose religion is becoming simply a system of ethics. We shall learn how thoroughly a Christian civilization can be ingrafted on a non-Christian or a pagan faith. And if, as now seems probable, China shall feel the impulse which Japan has given to her, and shall herself speedily accept the Christian civilization of the West, there may be two such powers a generation hence.

We believe that our Christian missionaries have for the most part acted very wisely in Japan in that they have taken pains not to antagonize the Japanese national feeling; and it may even be a question now, or very soon, whether in the interests of Christianity itself the foreign missionary force there should not be reduced. It is greatly to be hoped that Japan, which has thus

far shown itself so tolerant of Christianity, even if it has not seized it with the eagerness with which it has adopted our civilization, may not league patriotism with its native faiths in opposition to the faith of Jesus Christ."

Dr. Leonard, a missionary secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, writes thus of Corea, now virtually a dependency of Japan:

"Seoul, the capital of Corea, contains a population of 250,000, and is much the largest city in the kingdom. It is situated about thirty miles from Chemulpo, the nearest seaport, and is surrounded by volcanic mountains, some of which are quite Alpine in outline and altitude, and some are nude of vegetable life from summit almost to base. The roads leading from the city are over mountain passes or through narrow defiles, the widest of which leads to the river Han.

"Corea has been known for centuries as

as the Hermit Kingdom,' because she has until recently refused to have any relations with foreign nations. During much of her history she has been tributary to, if not a vassal of, the Chinese Empire, and in her subordinate condition necessarily had political relations with her superior. But with Western nations she had no intercourse, until forced to open her doors by the arbitrament of war, less than a quarter of a century ago. In harmony with her policy of seclusion she built all her cities inland, including her capital. Until since she has been holding some commercial intercourse with the outside world, there were no towns on her extended sea-coast, and even now there are but few.

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try. Along the northern boundary a wide stretch of land was proscribed, and no one was permitted to make permanent settlement upon it, and it became a hiding-place for criminals and outlaws from both Corea and Manchuria, her northern neighbour. The seclusion policy led not only to the building of the capital city inland and amid mountain fastnesses, but also surrounding it with a substantial granite wall.

"About five hundred years ago, when the city was supposed to be in danger from a foreign foe, a wall six miles in circumference, running in a zigzag line up and over the mountains on the north and south, and across the narrow valley on the east and west, was erected. The wall is from twenty-five to thirty feet high, and was completed in the short space of nine months. It was doubtless a formidable defence when only bows and arrows were used in warfare, but in these days of heavy projectiles is utterly valueless. no repairs have been put upon it for many years, it is becoming quite dilapidated at some points, and will ultimately disappear. The material in it will go far in rebuilding the city in 'the good time coming,' when through the Gospel of Christ the Coreans shall be happily elevated to the plane of a Christian civilization.

As

"It is quite impossible to give to one who has never seen this city a just idea of either its plan or architecture. Except some of the principal streets, that seem to have been originally intended to follow straight lines, the city seems to have been built without a plan. Boston, it is said, was originally built along cowpaths, which accounts for the tangle of streets in its older parts that so confuse the uninstructed stranger. But Seoul did not have the advantage of even the cowpath, with its graceful curves, as a guide, and so the streets run every whither, with sharp angles, abrupt endings and irregular widths. The streets, except

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