same responsive chord in the people who are under our charge, the same as England has done in Burma and the Malay States, success would await our efforts. In Burma, law and order have been established more than in any of the other cities of the Malay Peninsula. I was astonished to see how much had been accomplished in a few years, and to note the resources of the land, and I am certain that the indication at present points to great possibilities of development all through that section of Asia.

I shall not go into more details of the physical, geographical, political and material conditions of Siam. In the space at my disposal, I have tried to give but a passing glance at the various conditions. While I have referred largely in a complimentary way to Siam, I may say it is done in order to help a country which has striven to go forward, and because I believe that the object of the King and the princes and the majority of the people is to make the country a much stronger one than it is, and to convince the world that with proper care they can take their position among the strong and important nations of the world. There is among its leaders that quality which can make it strong if it is properly guided and properly protected. It has its faults and its weaknesses, but it is not for me to discuss them. I believe that Siam, if she is allowed to maintain her independence, will hold her position eventually almost as well in the south as in the north. I hope that Siam will be encouraged in her efforts to go ahead. I believe that if the King and the princes and the leading people of that country are satisfied that the three great nations do not intend to take away from them their empire, but rather to help them, progress in Siam is certain in the prosperity and well being of the people as well as in the administration of good government. The seed is sown which is now springing up, and which will bring forth its harvest in due time. But I wish emphatically to state that the people of Siam depend above all things upon the attitude and policy of Great Britain. Siam, while strong in

her devotion to herself, must admit that, if the controlling hand of Great Britain is taken away, and if the British Empire fails to recognise the great opportunities now presented, and fails to appreciate how much the strength of her Empire in south-eastern Asia depends on maintaining the integrity of Siam, she would be powerless. I hope Britain will give her such support as will enable her to work out her destiny in the best way. I trust that my

remarks will awaken further interest in Siam, and thus materially help this most interesting country to work out its own destiny with the proper support of other nations, in order that it may be enabled to take its rank among the other leading Asiatic countries.

INTERCOURSE IN THE PAST BETWEEN CHINA AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

By T. L. BULLOCK,

Professor of Chinese in the University of Oxford.

WHEN, through the dimness of the past, we catch our first glimpse of the Chinese people, they were but a very small nation, dwelling in the extreme north-west corner of their present country. In this little angle of the land they were left to progress after their own fashion... To their north, on the vast bleak uplands, were the Tartars, from the earliest days raiders and border robbers, but too uncivilized and unprogressive for intercourse with them to prove an assistance or a stimulus. On two other sides, the east and the south, the land was occupied by barbarous folk, who were at once uncultivated and unaggressive. These last were of the same race, doubtless, as some of the less than half-civilized tribes which even to-day occupy isolated districts amid the higher mountains in the south-western part of the empire.

Behind the Chinese, to the west, lay the desert, cutting them off from the other early civilizations of the world. Still, uninviting as is the track across the desert, between China and Central Asia, there was doubtless some coming and going of traders, through whom more than mere merchandise might be transmitted. China certainly owed some things to the West. It seems to be clear that her calendar and her astronomical knowledge were derived from that quarter. Also, a Babylonian origin is claimed, rightly or wrongly I dare not say, for the small number of hieroglyphs from which her complex system of writing has been built up. That the Chinese proceeded so much more rapidly than their neighbours along the path of civilization may be ascribed, at any rate in part, to the fact that they were settled in the one little spot where communication with Central Asia was possible.

By the time of their great Emperor Yü, whose date is generally given as B.C. 2205, the Chinese had expanded beyond their earlier home, and were spreading eastward along the valley of the Yellow River. In a few hundred years more they had become a large nation. They occupied North China from the desert to the sea, and were overflowing into the valley of the Yangtse.

When we come to the sixth century B.C., we have in our hands contemporaneous records, the accuracy of which is indisputable. China was now, and had been for many hundred years, a feudal empire, ruled by a single monarch, but divided into more than fifty States, some large, some extremely small, whose Princes were constantly warring against each other, while they paid but little regard to their supreme lord. Along the southern fringe of the empire, as it then was, on both sides of the river Yangtse, were several large principalities, which owned allegiance to the Emperor, 'but were considered to be Chinese only in an imperfect degree, and were looked upon as still partially foreign or barbarous.

But the end of the feudal system was not far off. The year 255 B.C. saw the establishment of a new dynasty, that called the Ts'in, when the whole empire was brought under the direct rule of the monarch. This alteration in the government was productive of momentous effects. Hitherto the Chinese gentleman had been a fighting man as well as a scholar, accustomed to take an active share in the petty wars which were constantly carried on. Thus, among the pupils who surrounded Confucius was Tzu-lu, the most noteworthy of them all, and the second favourite of his master. Tzu-lu, while a student and seeker after wisdom, was at the same time a bold and energetic soldier, who at last, as his master had foretold, actually died sword in hand. But from the time when there was no longer any necessity or any excuse for being constantly at war with one's neighbour, peace became the normal characteristic of the country, and the profession of arms declined. Wars there were

from time to time, both internal and external, which served generally to show how completely the Chinese had become an unmilitary race; but the campaigns were few and brief compared with the long periods of peace, and generally affected but small parts of the vast country. Moreover, the educated Chinaman gradually came to look upon the profession of arms as inferior to that of learning, and as unworthy of the man of culture. The commanding and the officering of the troops was thus left to men of untrained intellect and inferior capacity, by which change the efficiency of the army was seriously impaired. It is worth while, when referring to this, to take a glance at the neighbouring country of Japan, whose civilization was derived from that of China. While copying the Chinese in almost every other respect, the Japanese retained their feudal system right down to the present day. They abolished it only thirty years ago, after that they had entered into treaty relations with European Powers. As the natural if not the necessary consequence of this form of government, the Japanese gentleman has always been educated not merely as a scholar, but also as a soldier, and has habitually carried arms. Moreover, in accordance with his peculiar code, he was trained to be ready at any moment, should his honour require it, to draw his sword and take the life of any man, including that of himself. It cannot be doubted that this presence of large numbers of gentlemen accustomed to the use of arms greatly facilitated the formation of that admirable Japanese army of whose prowess the world was witness only a couple of years ago.

We just now spoke of the Chinese as having spread into the valley of the Yangtse. Later, the illustrious Han Dynasty, which ruled from about B.C. 200 to A.D. 200 extended their dominions considerably further towards the south; but it was not till the establishment of the house of T'ang, A.D. 618, that what are now the Southern Provinces of China were regularly incorporated as part of the kingdom. From that time, with few exceptions, China has remained