LOOKING FURTHER BACKWARD. Arthur Dudley Vinton. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Arthur Dudley Vinton
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Жанр произведения: Языкознание
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isbn: 9788027224890
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sometimes, results of events. But in my lectures to you I shall endeavor to direct your attention, not only to events and to results, but also to causes; because until yon know the cause you cannot rightly measure the result. The study of causes enables us better to appreciate results; it greatly broadens the scope of our knowledge, and greatly develops the reasoning powers of our mind. When once we have learned that a certain result will follow given causes, we have added to the suin of human knowledge. I would, therefore, impress upon your minds now, at the outset of our historical studies, the importance of seeking for the causes that led in the past to those social changes which have marked the rise or decadence of nations; and especially of those causes which immediately resulted in the fall of the Nationalistic system of government. If yoii would understand history — if you would know the shoals and quicksands that have once before threatened disaster to the ship of state — so that the dangers of past years may warn you what currents of thought and channels of action it is dangerous to follow, you must bring to the accomplishment of that understanding three qualities of mind: you must be students, gathering facts from the records of past ages, creating nothing, only bringing out what is; you must be philosophers, deducing by sound processes of reasoning, by trustworthy comparisons and impartial analyses, general principles which may be safely followed; and you must be statesmen to comprehend the purposes and opinions of masses of men, to observe and measure with accuracy the instrumentalities by which parties or organizations have sought to carry out their principles, and to render their policies acceptable or beneficial to the nation. It was because your ancestors did not understand history that they failed to be forewarned by its obvious teachings, or to appreciate the omens that foretold the coming catastrophe.

      Chief among such warnings was the Revolution in France. It was the stone which set the avalanche in motion. It was the first of the series of events which have changed the form of your government; and, therefore, I shall in my next lecture ask you to consider it with some minuteness.

      Lecture II

       Table of Contents

      At the time that the Marseillais revolted, France was under the Nationalistic system of government. There were no police and no regular army, and the government had no machinery to quell the disorder that arose. To be sure the superintendents of the other trades in Marseilles, acting under telegraphic instructions from the Central Council at Paris, attempted to organize the employees of those trades into restraining forces; but as these employees sympathized with the rioters they exercised no restraint upon the disorder, so that the authorities at Paris found themselves obliged to recruit a force from the Parisians, and to dispatch this force to Marseilles. This was, as your histories will tell you, the work of several days, and the delay gave the Marseillais time to organize into a regular military force.

      This rebellion brought to light two defects in the Nationalist form of government. First, the lack of secrecy in the deliberations of those high in office; and second, the peril which every government must be in when it has failed to maintain a standing army large enough to enforce order, or to do police duty in times of local rebellion or disturbance. Because there had been no war for a century, the Nationalists had looked upon war as an impossibility; military science had been forgotten, and there had been no manufacture of munitions of war. Hence now, when there was an imperative need of an army, the only military force which the French government could put into the field was no better than an undisciplined mob armed with antiquated weapons which had been manufactured more than a century before. We have one of these identical weapons among the curiosities in the museum of Shawmut College; it was intended to be discharged with " powder " — a somewhat bulky material, the principal ingredients of which were charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre. This nondescript army was enlisted, equipped and forwarded by rail to within a few miles of Marseilles, about a fortnight after the rioting first broke out. This delay gave the revolutionists time to mature their plans.

      Happily I am in position to throw new light upon the subject of this French Revolution. About two years previous to its outbreak, I had been appointed to a responsible position in the Chinese Bureau of Foreign Intelligence, and with a view of acquiring knowledge which would fit me for the duties of that position, I had spent the preceding year and six months in Europe and North America.

      Though the policy of China, ever since the Nationalistic systein of government was generally adopted, had- been to render more strict our ancient policy of non-intercourse with foreign nations, our rulers had none the less recognized the importance of knowing accurately and intimately exactly what foreign governments were doing. Our Bureau of Foreign Intelligence was, therefore, considered by our statesmen as one of the most important departments of the government, and was maintained most liberally and admirably. Subsequent events proved that our statesmen had acted most wisely.

      We, in China, had long seen the signs of a disintegration of the Nationalistic governments, although your philosophers and rulers appeared lamentably blind to them. The French Revolution had not surprised us. We not only foresaw it, but we aided it. The men, who, during the, fortnight that the Paris government was practically paralyzed, organized and drilled the Marseillais, had visited China and had had the benefit of instruction in our military schools. The self-supplying airguns, with which the Marseillais were armed, were manufactured in China and had been secretly shipped to France.in anticipation of this very uprising. Indeed, there is now no harm in saying that the revolutionary movement in France was fomented, aided and abetted by China.

      Your school-books have already told you how the Marseillais met and defeated the government troops — that mockery of an army. You know how one success followed another and how the Nationalistic government melted before the armies of the new rulers as the snow melts beneath the rays of the April sun. You know, too, what general distress followed among the people, who had been so long accustomed to rely upon government for labor and support that they were too bewildered to labor individually and too helpless to support life by their individual resources. You know, too, how gladly they welcomed the establishment of the Empire and the reorganization of society on the feudal basis with modifications derived from the Chinese system of government. You know all this. It was part of your earlier historical studies. Therefore, I will not dwell upon it now.

      But while, as I have said, we in China were not surprised at the French Revolution nor at its success, we were surprised, and very greatly surprised, that the United States were so little warned by it. That the people were blind was not astonishing, since all the news that they received was what the government gave them in daily bulletins, usually very meagre; and to adversely criticise Nationalism or to point out its many weaknesses, at home or abroad, was treason and promptly punished as such. I repeat, that we in China were not surprised that the people of the United States took no note of the danger that might threaten them; but that their rulers were not warned was to us indeed astonishing.

      I do not think that your school histories impart the information that after the establishment of the French Empire, France became practically a dependency of China and annually paid to China a tribute of many million taels. Such, however, was the fact— and it is a fact that must be remembered in considering the subsequent events that took place during the war between the United States and China.

      The declaration, by China, of war against the United States undoubtedly took the latter nation by surprise. I quote, on this subject, from Professor Julian West's diary.

      He says, under date of September 29th, 2020:

      " We arrived in town this morning, all well but all sorry that our summer vacation in the Adiron-dacks has ended. Edith has been very busy all day getting the house in order."

      Under date of September 30th, he writes :

      " We returned home last night, too late for me to complete the entries of yesterday's happenings under their proper date. I, therefore, write them down to-day. We dined last night with the Berrians (descendants of the novelist). I was afraid that Edith was too tired to go out after her day's travel and household labors, and suggested, when we received the invitation, that we send a regret and spend the evening quietly at home — but she would have none of my suggestions, so we went. On our way we noticed that the streets seemed more full