The
Spaniards Never Held Any Relations With The Central Government, All Their
Business Being Conducted With The Viceroy Of Fuhkien; And The Successive
Massacres Of Manila Completely Excluded Them From Any Good Understanding
With The Pekin Government.
With Russia, China's relations have always been
different from those with the other powers, and this is explained partly
by the fact of neighborship, and partly by Russia seeking only her own
ends, and not advantages for the benefit of every other foreign nation.
With France, the relations of China, owing to a great extent to the
efforts and influence of the missionaries, had always been marked with
considerable sympathy and even cordiality. The French monarchs had from
time to time turned their attention to promoting trade with China and the
Far East. Henry the Fourth sanctioned a scheme with this object, but it
came to nothing; and Colbert only succeeded in obtaining the right for his
countrymen to land their goods at Whampoa, the river port of Canton. But
French commerce never flourished in China, and a bold but somewhat
Quixotic attempt to establish a trade between that country and the French
settlements on the Mississippi failed to achieve anything practical. But
what the French were unable to attain in the domain of commerce they
succeeded in accomplishing in the region of literature. They were the
first to devote themselves to the study of the Chinese literature and
language, and what we know of the history of China down to the last
century is exclusively due to their laborious research and painstaking
translations of Chinese histories and annals.
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