Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 117 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

0117	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. iv.] THE FORCE OF RIVALRY. 91

In this view we must give up our House of

Commons ideas on preserving the integrity of

China. We gave them up in practice, almost

as soon as the Resolution of last February was

passed, and under the pressure of circumstances

we annexed Wei-hai-wei and Mir's Bay. We

must, instead, remember that there are greater

forces than our individual wills which rule the

world, and that however fixedly we may make

up our minds to do one thing, we are often

driven by those forces to do precisely the

opposite. From the beginning of the history

of mankind there has been a force engendered

by rivalry and competition, first impelling bar-

barous man to clear out the beast of the field

from the best parts of the earth, then, driving

on the more advanced to subdue the barbarous,

and now urging the civilised either to oust or

control the uncivilised.

That force it is which has caused the progress

of the world, which has placed the strong above

the weak, the good above the bad, which

compelled a trading company, much against its

own will, to take the whole of India, to our

ultimate advantage and the good of the world,

and which is driving us and other European

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