THE PRICE OF MISSIONARIES.
THE market price of missionaries is rising in China. Germany sent up the rate at a bound a year ago, when one of her proselytizing subjects was murdered in Shantung. France has now outdone all other nations by presenting the Chinese Government with a demand for enormous compensation for the prolonged imprisonment of Father Fleury, who was seized last year by the rebels in Szechuen. Father Fleury escaped with his life, tho he was rather11roughly handled by his captors. But France is so concerned at the treatment he received that she will only consent to be pacified for the insult offered through him to the French nation upon payment of a sum equivalent to £200,000 sterling ($1,000,000), together with a concession of certain mining rights in Szechuen. If that is her assessment of the injury involved in the case of simple capture, what will be the size of her bill for the murder of Father Victorin, a French subject, who was killed a few weeks ago in the interior of China under circumstances of revolting barbarity? Surely nothing less than a million pounds and the cession of a couple of provinces will suffice to assuage her wrath. By their extravagant demands France and Germany have reduced the whole system of claims for compensation for missionary outrages to a flagrant absurdity. The cynical use of the bodies of slaughtered missionaries as pawns in the great game of international intrigue in China is a scandal to the churches and to all Christian nations. Missionary enterprise in the far East is being brought into unmerited contempt in the eyes of the people. If the blood of marted pioneers of the faith is to be shed for no better purpose than to open a protected path for mine exploiters and stock-jobbers, it were far better to leave China to her ancient creeds. . . . The cross was not raised in China in order that the nations of the West might fill their coffers and seize harbors and extort mining concessions whenever one of its bearers was struck down by the hand of fanatical hatred. Nor do the earnest men who are working in China to-day for the Christian religion—with certain notable exceptions, which need not be specified here—desire that if they meet with an untimely end their fate shall be made the pretext for the material aggrandizement of the country to which they belong. Going forth, as they do, in a spirit of self-abnegation, they bitterly resent the mockery now being cast upon the holy cause which claims their devotion. But that the governments of France and Germany have come to look upon their labors and their sacrifices from a very different standpoint, is clear from an examination of the compensation claimed for various missionary outrages during the last sixteen months. The following table is incomplete, but it gives the principal cases during that period, with details of the "recompense" obtained:— HOLLAND.—Mr. Peter Rijnhart, murdered on the borders of Tibet. No compensation claimed. UNITED STATES.—Native medical assistant murdered at the Chungking Mission. Small indemnity paid, two prominent officials dismissed, building granted for use as hospital. GREAT BRITAIN.—Mr. Fleming and native Scripture reader murdered. Indemnity of about £2,750 granted, murderers executed, prominent local officials degraded. GERMANY.—Missionary murdered in Shangtung. Substantial indemnity granted, officers concerned in outrage punished, promise given to build a cathedral at cost of Chinese Government, monopoly of railway and mining rights in province of Shangtung granted, and port of Kiaochau leased for ninety-nine years. FRANCE.—Father Fleury imprisoned by rebels. Sum equivalent to about £200,000 demanded, together with mining rights in Szechuen. Father Victorin murdered; no claim yet presented.