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credited by a suddenly aroused fear of Chinese immigration associated with his treaty, and loaded with obloquy by orators of the sand-lot type. Those who had submitted to the persuasive spell of his eloquence forgot then the purport of his great idea. He had published nothing, therefore it had no visible expression in print and was only to be found buried among official documents. For these reasons, therefore, the significance of his demeanour has been forgotten, the true value of his work effaced. But now that the antagonisms of the past are allayed he should be returned to our knowledge and his purpose of peace and goodwill, his lofty principle of forbearance, and his method of persevering suavity appreciated.

It is time to disabuse ourselves of the notion that the Chinese are a stupid and unchangeable folk because they have evolved a philosophy of life that, unlike our own, does not find its supremest satisfaction in wealth and in war. We must credit them with intellectual powers that only need proper direction to accomplish great things. If they erred in the past through excessive caution they promise in the near future to make good any defect of this sort by too great

temerity in change. The effect of any untoward transition in an enormous mass of people possessing the qualities of the Chinese cannot be disregarded by intelligent minds. Mr. Burlingame understood the risks involved both to others and to themselves in such a lapse; and to the welfare of the Christian world as well as to the task of serving China in the interests of her own revival he gave his heart and soul with a devotion that ended in the sacrifice of his life. As an embodiment of the true missionary spirit he stands among the foremost public men of his generation, and it is a spirit which is still efficient. Professor William Garrott Brown has admirably appraised the influence thus cut short but not concluded: "If Burlingame's name be not forever associated with an epochal readjustment of the world's civilisations, then few names have missed immortality more narrowly." 1

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT,

August, 1912.

1 Atlantic Monthly, June, 1905, p. 32.

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ANSON BURLINGAME

AND THE FIRST CHINESE MISSION TO FOREIGN POWERS

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