Explore "Chinese Sketches" by Herbert A. Giles on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
From the previous sketch it may readily be gathered that the state of / Chinese law, both civil[*] and criminal, is a very important item in / the sum of those obstacles which bar so effectually the admission of / China -- not into the cold and uncongenial atmosphere euphuistically / known as the "comity of nations" -- but into closer ties of / international intercourse and friendship on a free and equal footing. / For as long as we have ex-territorial rights, and are compelled to / avail ourselves thereof, we can regard the Chinese nation only _de / haut en bas_; while, on the other hand, our very presence under such, / to them abnormal conditions, will continue to be neither more or less / than a humiliating eye-sore. Till foreigners in China can look with / confidence for an equitable administration of justice on the part of / the mandarins, we fear that even science, with all its resources, will / be powerless to do more than pave the way for that wished-for moment / when China and the West will shake hands over all the defeats / sustained by the one, and all the insults offered to the other.
[*] That is, local custom.