power of resistance against the force of
civilization is much stronger, as in the case of China, in comparison
with Japan, the required length of time becomes still greater. The
vast and thickly populated Empire of China naturally contains the
various aggregates of people, with diverse inclinations and
antagonistic interests, which makes their joint effort for any
achievement extremely difficult, especially when the central authority
is weak. The disadvantages are further multiplied by the difficulty of
travelling and communication. On account of these hindrances, the
Western civilization has not as yet time to permeate the whole Empire
of China, and give the people an impetus for progressive movement. It
may be well questioned whether "the fathers" could have succeeded in
organizing the federal government, if the colonies were as large, and
contained as great a population as the present United States. As it
was, several States refused to enter into the confederation at
first.[15] Taking into consideration her better facility for
communication, and her proximity to the other European powers, perhaps
Russia owes to the size of her territory, the successful maintenance
of her absolute monarchy as much as China. But here the decisive
battle is already impending. At this moment she is trembling with
apprehension lest the palace of the Czar be at any moment levelled to
its foundation by the terrible explosion of a nihilist's bomb. The
more the employment of force is resorted to as the means of
suppression, the greater the violence of resistance. It may take the
Chinese people generations before they are seized with such political
fanaticism, but judging from precedents, it is a rational probability
that the absolute monarchy of China may yet become the object of
furious attack by her now inert and abject populace, apparently in
happy ignorance of the nature of sovereign authority, the free and
unrestrained exercise of which they may learn to covet too soon.

[15] New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.
Bryce's The American Commonwealth, Vol. I., p. 32.

Ignorance, antiquarianism, and large territory, then, are some
principal causes which retard the march of progress. There remains
only the third and last objection to be met--the adaptability of the
Asiatic people to the representative form of government.

III. If two thousand years of Asiatic despotism has given her people
one lesson, that les