ig6  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
tion,  most  missionaries,  certainly  most  Protestant  mission
aries,  generally  accept  this  position  ;  but  they  cantío
always  be  trusted  to  temper  zeal  with  discretion  and  to
distinguish  what  is  right  from  what  is  lawful.  In  this  li eS

—  element  of  danger  to  the  missionary  and  to  his  cause.
Not  only  in  the  treaty  ports,  the  sole  authorised  places  for
foreign  trade,  is  the  Westerner  covered  by  his  extraterri'
torialised  position,  but  in  every  corner  of  this  vast  Empire
in  which  he  may  put  his  foot.  When  the  missionary  far  in
the  interior,  many  miles  from  the  observing  eyes  of  his
Consul,  transfers  a  corner  of  his  protecting  cloak  to  his  poor
Chinese  convert,  he  may  be  doing  what  is  right,  but  it  lS
not  lawful  ;  and  this  is  the  naked  fact  underlying  many  an
episode  leading  to  a  riot.  You  cannot  eradicate  from  a
missionary’s  mind  the  belief  that  a  convert  is  entitled  to
justice  of  a  quality  superior  to  that  doled  out  to  his  un
converted  brother  :  it  could  not  be  got  out  of  your  mind,  °r
out  of  mine,  in  a  similar  case.  None  of  us  could  endure  tha
a  protégé  of  ours  should  be  haled  away  to  a  filthy  prison  or
a  debt  he  did  not  owe,  and  kept  there  until  he  had  satisfie  &gt;
not  perhaps  the  fictitious  creditor,  but  at  least  his  custodians
who  were  responsible  for  his  safe  keeping.  The  case
particularly  hard  when  the  claim  is  not  for  a  debt,  but  °r
a  contribution  to  the  upkeep  of  the  village  temple  -t  r e
throne  of  heathendom—or  of  the  recurring  friendly  village
feasts  held  in  connection  with  the  temple—counterparts  0
Fast  Day  and  Thanksgiving  ;  and  when  conversion  drives
its  subject  to  break  off  all  his  family  ties  by  refusing  to  con'
tribute  to  the  maintenance  of  family  ancestral  worship  and
the  ancestral  shrine,  the  hardship  is  felt  on  all  sides—by  the
missionary,  who  cannot  decline  to  support  his  weaker
brother  in  his  struggle  against  the  snares  of  the  devil  ;  by  th e
convert,  who  is  divided  between  his  allegiance  to  his  ne^
faith  and  the  old  beliefs  which  made  all  that  was  holy  in  hb
former  life  ;  by  the  family,  who  not  only  regard  their  recreant
member  as  an  apostate  but  are  also  compelled  to  maintain
the  old  worship  with  reduced  assessments  from  reduced
numbers  ;  and  by  the  people  and  governors  of  the  land,  wh°