Imatges de pàgina
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officials is the right of appointment and dismissal. All officials hold office during the pleasure of the Crown and can be dismissed at any time with or without reason assigned. No instance has been known of an official, however highly placed, refusing to lay down office and hand over the seals to his successor at the bidding of the Emperor or Empress. This power it should seem is sufficient to ensure prompt obedience to any orders from the Court, but it is checked by the fact that the successor to a viceroy or governor so removed must be selected from among the regular members of the Civil Service, who are all imbued with the same traditions of government and the same bureaucratic spirit. The Crown has never ventured to put into high office a mere creature of its own, or one who has not regularly entered the service by some recognized channel and risen through the ranks. Such an attempt would, undoubtedly raise a storm of indignation throughout the whole of the country such as no government could face.

This leads us to say a word as to the mode in which the official ranks are recruited-a system which has perhaps as much as anything else contributed to the general stability and moderation of the Government and prevented it from degenerating into a military dictatorship. Entrance to office is obtained, as is generally known, by a system of public examinations open to the humblest as well as the highest. Within recent years a certain number have been admitted by purchase, but only to junior rank. All practically have to begin at the foot of the ladder and work their way up, and all the high posts in the provinces and nearly all those in Peking are filled with men who have so risen. Admission is free to Manchus and to Chinese alike and until recent years there has been no preference shown in selection.

The great body of officials thus forms

a bureaucracy which stands in a middle position between the Crown and the people. Springing on the one hand from the multitude and looking on the other hand to the Crown, they are friendly to both. As governing the people they are the recognized medium for the redress of grievances and for formulating fresh legislation. As a whole they carry on the government of China both provincial and central, and they constitute a check, and a very efficient check on the vagaries of the autocratic power of the Emperor. At the same time the relations between them and the Imperial House have for many years been thoroughly cordial. There is no question of their loyalty to the dynasty, and on the other hand advice tendered by the great viceroys and governors has carried the greatest weight with the Central Government. Until the unhappy events of the last few years the distinction between Manchu and Chinamen seemed to be disappearing, and even yet it cannot be doubted that at the present moment a Manchu emperor is the only one who would command general recognition.

The relations between the Central and Provincial Governments are well illustrated by the system of finance. The Peking Government has no revenues peculiarly its own, but is dependent on the sums it can draw from the provinces. The Imperial Maritime Customs revenue may be deemed an exception, but even that is received in the first instance by the provincial treasuries, and in any case the whole of it is now pledged to foreign bondholders. The money for the support of the Manchu troops, as well as for the support of the Imperial household itself, must be drawn from the provinces. The customary practice has hitherto been for the Board of Revenue in Peking, which has nominal control over the finances of the Empire, to indent annually for such sums as were required for the use

of the central government, a certain amount being assessed on each province according to its supposed means and so long as the amount did not vary greatly from year to year it was paid with reasonable punctuality, but as more and more was asked for, it was only got with increasing difficulty. The expenses of local government were naturally the first charge on the provincial exchequer and the Peking demands could only be met out of the surplus. If there was no surplus, demands could be met only by increased taxation with its attendant unpopularity and risk of rebellion. Finance brings out in a marked manner the strength and weakness of the Imperial Government. So far as legislation goes the Central Government can impose taxes to any extent. An Imperial decree being the highest form of legislation, it has only to issue the decree and the law is complete. But to carry such a law into execution is a different matter. It can only be done through the constituted provincial authorities and if these decline to cooperate or declare it to it cannot be done at all. governor or viceroy so The Saturday Review.

be impossible, The particular refusing may,

of course, be dismissed, but the solidarity of interest that pervades the service will prompt his successor to do the same thing and for the same reasons, though perhaps in a more guarded form.

To apply these remarks to the present position of affairs in Peking, the pay for the Manchu troops and the large bodies of Chinese troops now surrounding Tien-tsin must be drawn from the provinces of the Yang-tze basin and of the Canton River. If this money is not forthcoming, as under the present temper of the Viceroy it is not likely to be the troops now opposing the allied advance must in no long time dissolve for want of food or break up into predatory bands. Of the two forces which lie at the back of all governments-the power of the purse and the power of the sword-the Peking Government only wield one and that by reason of the existence of the hereditary Manchu army which is at its call. The power of the purse is in the hands of the great viceroys and is only available to the Central Government by their concur

rence.

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A VISION OF THE DEAD.

They fly forgotten; as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

So keep them, God, safe in the Quiet Land, Hold them within the hollow of Thine Hand. Lo! where the serried ranks before us stand Of the unnumbered Dead.

From scenes of vanished glory once they came,
From fields of long obliterated fame-
We view them now with half-regretful shame,
All the forgotten Dead.

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good. For the ultimate idea of the society, which had its origin in the State of Maine some years ago, appears to be to impart a certain living enthusiasm to the young by enlisting their services in positive Christian work for the good of their fellow-creatures over and above the mere performance of the ordinary religious duties and rites common to all churches. The conventional religious order in all countries and among every race is always in danger of lapsing into a conventional pharisaism, a repetition of formulas, an exaltation of creeds over character and life. After one has passed a certain stage in life it is not easy to break up this parched human soil and to fertilize it with the rains and air of heaven. Therefore, the appeal for a more heroic and less routine attitude of soul stands far greater chance of response when made to the young, and this seems to be precisely what the Christian Endeavor movement does. We should doubt whether, in that appeal, mere enthusiastic emotion does not greatly outweigh a reasoned basis of Christian action. But, be that as it may, we say again that we fully believe in the essential value of this movement. To give to the young a high aim in life which calls for devotion and love to mankind is a very noble achievement.

But the most important and significant fact about a movement of this character is the renewed proof it brings of the infinite capacity of Christianity to adapt itself to new conditions and to reappear in ever new forms. The question is asked, what are the especial traits of Christianity which mark it off from other forms of religion? There are not a few, but foremost among these traits is the elasticity and capacity for growth of the Christian religion. On mere scientific grounds we might fairly predict the success of Christianity in its great

world-competition with other religious forms, because of this unique fact. It can perpetually adapt itself, can persistently readjust itself to a new environment. We do not deny that this capacity has its peculiar dangers which Christ foresaw when he uttered the parable of the tares and the wheat, The tares have grown plentifully in the Christian Church, probably from the Apostolic times, certainly from a very early age when Christianity was played upon by the subtle influences of the Graeco-Roman world. By the fifth century the tone of the pagan stoic was often higher than that of the outwardly conforming Christian; and today the furious anti-Christian call for "revenge" on the Chinese from the very people who profess to have been upholding the cause of Christian missions in China shows how our ideas as to Christian conduct are liable to become confused.

But it is the unique distinction of Christianity that it can be revived and largely restated without altering its essential truth. Examine the religion of the Moslem world and you will find that this is not the case. That is why it is so impossible to reform Moslem society, to give it a new principle of life. The Koran, a series of commands from a kind of celestial autocrat, has told the Faithful once for all and in every detail what to believe and to do, thus leaving no opportunity for growth. We are far from saying that the Arabian Prophet conferred no blessings on mankind; he did a great work of social purification in the corrupt society of Arabia, and his gospel may prove helpful to the black races of Africa, who need to be removed by a great effort from their low worship and customs. Beyond that, however, Islam cannot possibly be the creed of progressive mankind, for it represents a hardened, stationary belief. Buddhism is of course a far more spiritual

creed, born of as noble an enthusiasm as the world has ever known, and it has exerted for centuries a refining influence on Oriental life. To-day even in some parts of Burma it is the root of a singularly beautiful and simple life, flowering out into some of the purest virtues. But, taking the East as a whole, Buddhism is almost an extinct spiritual force. It has hardened into a system, mechanized itself in prayer-wheels, tinkling bells and vain repetitions. In China, to which it penetrated so early, it is not the active force in life; such religion, or rather rationalized morality, as actuates the Chinese mind is the system of Confucius. In its native home (India) Buddhism is no more. In Japan it has apparently helped to produce an externally refined character, beneath which, however, lie some very sinister traits and a general frame of mind which is æsthetic rather than religious. Hinduism is undoubtedly a very great fact, its priesthood powerful, its numbers growing, its influence enormous. But it is all systematized; its increase is by accretion rather than by growth, and -most striking fact of all-it tends to perish when brought into living contact with culture. It cannot, as a whole, adapt itself to new conditions of life.

Lutheran Church of the last century-what stiffened corpses they all seem! The pulse is still; decay seems to have marked with her "effacing fingers" the body of Christ. But it has always proved in the Christian world that death is but the prelude to resurrection. Out from the black chaos when the Roman civilization fell and crumbled into mouldy fragments, Gregory and Benedict organized a new spiritual order in Western Europe, an order marked not merely by faith, but by faith which showed itself in works so beneficent, that we may trace in large measure the better elements of our life to-day to these men. When the older religious movement again becomes rigid in the thirteenth century, the new Orders of Dominicans and Franciscans, not organized from any central source, but growing freely from different perceptions of Christian truth, pour fresh streams of life and thought on the soil of Christianity. A mechanized Christianity in England is met by the faithful fervor, at various times, of a Wycliffe, a Latimer, a George Fox, a Bunyan, and a Wesley. The renewal of life, even at the most barren period, is perpetual and certain; the spring never runs dry. In rich, formal Milan St. Carlo Borromeo reveals new depths in the Christian idea of love; the example and memory of St. Vincent de Paul inspires men and women to a love for the suffering which Pliny and Seneca, with all their fine ethical theories, never really felt in their inmost hearts. Perhaps the true central life of Christianity has never been so much revealed in the regular ecclesiastical system as in the spontaneous offshoots (at times "perplexed in faith, but pure in deed") of the spirit of faith and love which have grown into such mighty agencies for the deliverance of mankind. That these agencies have penetrated every the corner of the globe and have been

We are well aware that some of the criticisms just made on other religions might be passed on organized Christianity in some of its forms. As we have said, the universal tendency of man is to stereotype, to be a slave of the letter and of tradition, and the tendency has made itself only too painfully manifest in the Christian Church, so that at times we have to ask ourselves, what is left there of the spirit of Christ? The Roman Church of Julius II and Leo X, the Eastern Church prior to the Iconoclastic movement, the English Church der the first two Georges,

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