lance so close, that they had almost to bow and ask permission to go in and out of their own dwellings. Had there a prophet arisen in those days and declared, that within a single generation this great country would be open to the foreign traveller, and all its important ports would not only be open to foreign residence and foreign trade, but would almost be turned into foreign cities; that steamers would be thronging her coast and rivers; that the representatives of foreign powers would be residing in Peking, holding audiences with the emperor and his ministers; that China herself would be sending ambassadors to foreign courts, and her sons to foreign schools,-nay even would be establishing schools and colleges of her own, under the care of western scholars, to have her young men looking towards official life instructed in the languages and sciences of the West; that she would be establishing arsenals and foundries, manufacturing arms, building ships of war, studying navigation and military science, introducing into her army and navy foreign arms, foreign discipline, and to some extent foreign language; that her trade, then dwarfed by restrictions and made contemptible by squeezing and smuggling, would grow to its present size and respectability, and be placed under one of the bestregulated Customs found in the world,-I say, had there a prophet arisen in those days and declared the coming of all these events, and so soon, what would have been thought of him? There were few perhaps who would not have thought him mad. Yet all these things have happened, and many more besides. Mines are to be opened, telegraphs and railroads have had their beginning, the press even has been started in its grand work; and last, but not least, heralds of the Christian faith are everywhere doing their work. Yes, the country is opened, and it is every year and every day opening more and more, to our influence in matters of politics, in matters of commerce, in matters of education, and in matters of religion. In all these we have been her people's instructors; and it is no exageration to say, that they have been instructed. It is true that they have not learned all that we have undertaken to teach them. It was not to be expected that they would. But they have learned much, and they might have learned more, had our teaching been better. It may perhaps be said that the knowledge which they have gained and the improvements which they have made, have been forced upon them. This may be true in part; but what of it? Who does not know that much of the knowledge and many of the improvements that come to us all, come to us in this way? Much of what we learn, we learn from the things that we suffer. Much of the progress that we make, we make because progress overtakes us, and its current, which we cannot stem, bears us with it. If then the Chinese have been learning and making progress from neces

sity, that is by being brought in contact with circumstances that have required it, wherein is their case peculiar? Is not this just what happens to all people, and to all men?

But the objection as stated-that the knowledge which they have gained and the improvements which they have made, have been forced upon them-is not true; or rather, as before remarked, it is true only in part. Our intercourse with them has no doubt to some extent been forced upon them; and the concessions which they have made to us in treaties, have perhaps been made from necessity. They would no doubt have avoided these had it been possible for them to do so. But forced to this point they have voluntarily gone further and adopted to a considerable extent our ideas and improvements; and there is every reason to believe, that they have adopted them as fast and as far as they have become convinced of this utility. But the objection, to whatever extent it may be true or false, does not affect our argument, which is simply to show that progress has been made, and made under circumstances comparatively unfavorable; and so infer that this progress will not only continue, but that it will increase as the circumstances become less obstructive.

It will be admitted of course, that if the Chinese could see things in their true light-if they could see how many things in their old system are useless, or worse than useless, and could with strong and eager hands pluck them up and throw them away, their progress would be far more rapid, and attended with fewer difficulties. But as yet they cannot do this. Their vision is clouded, they see things but darkly. So they cling to the old and the worse, and reject the new and the better. Time and conflict are needed to adjust these matters for them, and time and conflict will no doubt adjust them. This indeed is certain, as certain as that progress is the natural order of things, and especially the order of things at the present time. There is now, or there is soon to be, progress everywhere. The night of the human race is past. Day, with its light, is breaking. The great nations of the earth are astir; and soon the world, their common city, will be loud with the din of their mighty toil. Late sleepers will find sleep no longer. They too must be up and doing. And "EXCELSIOR will become the cry, and the destiny of all.

"

There is then, we think, no doubt but this people is to be a people of progress. In the end they will be so from choice. In the meantime whether this choice be present or absent, the great fact remains, the world is moving on, and they must necessarily move with it. The goal we see, and their arrival at last we also see; but the road that leads them to it is hidden. We know not whether it lies through sunshine and peace or through storm and conflict.

2. This brings us to our second inquiry, namely: The progress of this people being supposed, are the capabilities of their present language such as will enable it to keep pace with this progress? In other words, can their language be so modified and improved as to become an accurate and convenient depository of thought, and medium of communication, for a people advanced in the arts, sciences, literature, and general education?

It is presumed that most of those who will take the pains to read this essay, will have more or less acquaintance with this language, which will obviate the necessity for any extended notice of it. But for the benefit of any who possibly may not have this acquaintance, a few statements in regard to it may be needed.

And first, what is meant by the Chinese language? Is there anything that can properly be so called? Hardly we think, in the sense commonly understood, as when we speak of the English language, the French language, the German language, etc. In each of these countries there is one common language-a language that is spoken and written, and spoken and written, though of course in different degrees of accuracy and elegance, by all who speak and write. This is not the case in China. Here the language written and the language spoken are wide apart; so wide indeed that books when read to the common people must be turned into their vernacular in order to be understood. The written language though varying much both as to style and idiom, is yet intelligible to all who learn it, which may be somewhere from one tenth to one hundredth of the whole population. But the language spoken is in endless confusion, both as to sound and idiom. The language spoken at Canton is unintelligible at Foochow; and the language spoken at Foochow is unintelligible at Ningpo; and so on. In fact, the different dialects found along the coast, to which our knowledge is chiefly confined, are almost innumerable. The language spoken in the northern and western provinces is said to be more uniform. But probably even there the changes are considerable. There is a dialect, called the Court or Mandarin, which is sometimes represented as intelligible every where. The truth is, however, that it is intelligible nowhere, except to officials and a few others, who for special reasons acquire it, unless it be in the northern and western portions of the country where the language of the people is a kind of Mandarin. But even the Mandarin changes with its locality; and there is no just ground for speaking of it as something definite and invariable. This dialect might be written; and it has been written to some extent. It appears in some books of light literature, and in some moral essays. But it is not the common language of books, or of any kind of writing.

The Chinese language then-if we insist on the use of the ex

pression, must be understood-whatever it may have been once-to be in this disjointed and chaotic condition now. Its signs indeed remain, and, presented to the eye, in whatever part of the country one may be, they are still expressive; but their names, or sounds, have fallen into hopeless confusion. Then too, while many of these signs have become obsolete, there have grown up in the various dialects, or vernaculars of different places, many thousands of words for which there are no signs in existence. So the art, if the people ever had it, of speaking as they wrote, and of writing as they spoke, is now lost, and, so far as one can see, lost irretrievably.

But why irretrievably? One, and perhaps the chief, reason to be assigned for this, is found in the peculiar character of their written medium, or the signs of which we have been speaking. These are not alphabetic flexible signs, such as are found in other languages, but fixed arbitrary, pictures, or representations. At first these signs or representations may have had some resemblance to the objects represented; but they are now essentially arbitrary; and they are utterly inflexible. The least alteration of a Chinese character would change it either into another character, or into something that would not be a character at all. One will readily see how rude, how clumsy, how inadequate, such a vehicle of thought must be. He will also see, that while it might serve to meet the necessities of a rude people when few and in constant intercourse, and when their wants and thoughts were few and stereotyped, it must begin to fail as they become numerous and scattered, and as new wants, new ways, and new ideas grow up amongst them. Moreover he will observe that though by care and culture it is extended and improved, yet as this extension and improvement go on, fitting it better for the use of scholars, they necessarily place it beyond the reach of laborers, making it in fact a dead language, useful to those acquiring it, but unacquirable to the masses; and that the masses deprived of the use of the language in its written form necessarily depart from it in their use of the spoken. And so these two forms having become separated, and having been separated so long and for such a reason, there can be no hope of their ever being reunited.

These statements, intended chiefly to call attention to one or two features of the Chinese language, will also, I think, have served to place before us these important facts, which, if kept in mind, may aid us in our progress; first, that the language as it is spoken differs very widely from the language as it is written; second, that this difference is the natural and necessary result of the circumstance that that language, from its peculiar structure, is incapable of being understood and used by the masses; and third, that the language spoken not only

differs widely from the language written, but it differs full as widely from itself in the different parts of the empire.

Now with these facts before us we may ascertain, I think, without much difficulty, the capabitities of the present language of this people to meet the requirements of their contemplated progress.

One of these requirements will certainly be the use of a common language, and a language whose written and spoken forms will be sufficiently alike to be written when spoken, and to be understood when read,—a language that will be the common depository of thought and medium of communication throughout the empire. This language. must be the language of the senate, the language of the forum, the language of the rostrum and pulpit, the language of the schoolroom, and the language of the press. Their present language, as we have seen, is far, very far, from being such. Is it capable of becoming such? There may be those who think so. If there be, they would do well to tell us what constitutes this capacity, and by what process it is to be developed. For ourselves, we confess that we can see none; and that our hope in the future of this language, if we ever had any, is dead-twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Their language as spoken has no common bond strong enough to draw together and unite the numerous dialects now in use. Nor is any one of these dialects sufficiently prominent or influential to be able to extend itself and displace the rest. This might possibly be hoped for of the mandarin, were it not for the fact, that any spoken language, to become, or remain uniform in a country like this, must also be written, and made the language of all classes and of all pursuits. But the mandarin cannot be written, so as to be intelligible, except by the use of the Chinese character, or those numerous arbitrary signs, which one must toil half a lifetime to learn, and a whole one to keep in memory; and so it would become nearly or wholly useless, to the common people.

It is possible perhaps to exaggerate the difficulty of acquiring a knowledge of the Chinese character. Such at least seems to have been the opinion of Sir John Davis, who has told us,-in language not over modest perhaps,-that, "The rumoured difficulties attendant on the acquisition of Chinese, from the great number and variety of the characters, are the mere exaggerations of ignorance." Nevertheless, the common opinion has always been, that the acquisition of this language is a task of no easy accomplishment; and this opinion has probably for its foundation something more than ignorance. There have been many besides Sir John Davis, who have studied this language, and who have studied it too with some success, who have at many times and in many ways spoken of its difficulties. But there is evidence of these difficulties more weighty than the judgment of foreign