ture arising amongst their several districts, and who are responsible to the higher courts for the mode in which these are dealt with. Important cases, as a matter of course, are treated by the Dutch authorities; and a system of appeal, it is presumed, exists, so as to obviate corruption or injustice. The system is found to work well, and the Chinese like it; and example might with advantage be taken from it to introduce something of the same co-ordinate jurisdiction in other foreign states resorted to by Chinese. Could ameliorations of the kind described be once introduced, no long time would elapse before the results would show themselves in the increased attraction to foreign shores and happy settlement there of a people who, if properly understood and dealt with, are certainly capable of proving the most tractable and useful colonists in the world.
But, it may be argued, it does not suffice merely to establish the fact that the Chinaman is capable of becoming a useful colonist if properly understood and discreetly dealt with. There remains yet the difficulty of reconciling the white man to the damaging competition in the labor market to which he is subjected by the presence of the Chinaman, be he ever so quiet, good, and useful. The experience of all modern colonization goes to prove that the white working man cannot and will not tolerate the having to measure himself against colored labor. Not only does it inevitably drive him out of the market, but its mere introduction amongst a community of white men seems to have the direct effect of paralyzing their energies and creating a lower scale of society with which the white working man can have no sympathy, be he ever so poor and starving; and the result is that he either takes his place above the black and employs him to work for him, or he sinks to something below and becomes demoralized and lost.
This may be all very true, but it is open to question whether, as a consequence, the white man possesses the right to exclude the colored man from sharing with him any portion of God's earth, or competing with him in the great struggle for life which is the lot of humanity. A curse of servitude seems indeed to have been placed by an inscrutable Providence upon the colored races, and however philanthropists may claim that the colored man is by nature the equal of the white man, yet there can be no doubt that the time is still far distant when the colored man can fit himself for the equality political and social which theoretically should be his. But the white man may well be content to assert the ascendency which a more advanced state of civilization and intelligence has secured him, and to take the lead politically of his darker brother. There can be no justice in his attempting to appropriate likewise the loaves and fishes that should be common to all, or to grudge to the colored man the fruits of labor earned by the sweat of his own brow. If the interests of the two races clash, or harmony of sentiment and action be found difficult, it is for the government of the country concerned to meet the case by judicious legislation, which shall insure to every class the enjoyment of its reasonable and legitimate rights. For the masses to interfere, and to say, "This or that shall not be so long as it does not suit us," is to throw contempt on all government, and sooner or later to bring about a condition of anarchy dangerous alike to all. The latest accounts from San Francisco report that vast bands of working men have associated themselves by oath to stop the immigration of the Chinese altogether, and, if needs be; to destroy any Pacific mail steamer that attempts to introduce them. But let the case be reversed, and let a Chinese mob attempt such a high-handed measure as against American or other foreigners arriving upon their native shore — an outrage they would be quite capable of if driven thereto in retaliation — and what would be the consequence? Treaty rights would be instantly quoted against the disturbers of the peace, and the "inevitable gunboat" would forthwith appear on the scene to maintain these rights by force of arms. The white man, in fact, considers himself entitled to bring China and her commercial resources under tribute to his untiring enterprise and greed of gain, and the least he can do is to tolerate the admission into his own lands of Chinese whose object in resorting thereto is not so much to acquire wealth as to find bread for their daily needs.
The question very naturally suggests itself, what is then to be the future of the Chinese in Australia and America? It is difficult to make a forecast on this head with any approach to precision in view of the ever-varying phases which mark the political atmosphere in these days. In the United States especially paroxysms of political fever so continually agitate individual states, and even at times the nation at large, that he would be a bold man who would presume to predict what will be the condition of the country or any section of
