ed. Remedies of most original character
were suggested in the public organs and private circles, and a renewed
spasmodic tirade was directed against the Chinese. A petition, made
and signed by numbers of the retail trading class, was addressed to
the Sovereign; but it appears to have found its last resting-place
in the Colonial Secretary's waste-paper basket. The Americans in the
United States and Mexico were in open riot against the Celestials--the
Governments of Australia had imposed a capitation tax on their entry
[50]--in British Columbia there was a party disposed to throw off
its allegiance to Great Britain rather than forego its agitation
against the Chinese. Why should not the Chinese be expelled from the
Philippines, it was asked, or at least be permitted only to pursue
agriculture in the Islands? In 1638, around Calamba and along the
Laguna shore, they tilled the land; but the selfishness and jealousy
of the natives made their permanence impossible. In 1850 the Chinese
were invited to take up agriculture, but the rancorous feeling of the
natives forced them to abandon the idea, and to seek greater security
in the towns.

The chief accusation levelled against the Chinaman is, that he comes as
an adventurer and makes money, which he carries away, without leaving
any trace of civilization behind him. The Chinese immigrant is of the
lowest social class. Is not the dream of the European adventurer, of
the same or better class, to make his pile of dollars and be off to
the land of his birth? If he spends more money in the Colony than the
Chinaman does, it is because he lacks the Chinaman's self-abnegation
and thriftiness. Is the kind of civilization taught in the colonies
by low-class European settlers superior?

The Chinaman settled in the Philippines under Spanish rule was quite
a different being to the obstinate, self-willed, riotous coolie in
Hong-Kong or Singapore. In Manila he was drilled past docility--in six
months he became even fawning, cringing, and servile, until goaded
into open rebellion. Whatever position he might attain to, he was
never addressed (as in the British Colonies) as "Mr." or "Esqre," or
the equivalent, "Senor D.," but always "Chinaman ----" ("Chino ----").

The total expulsion of the Chinese in Spanish times would have been
highly prejudicial to trade. Had it suited the State policy to
check the ingress of the Chinese, nothing would have been easier
than the imposition of a P50 poll ta