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"4 CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.have been the step was one of far-reaching importance,certainly for China and perhaps for the world. It isevident that but a microscopic fraction of the peopleof China have any idea at all what is connoted by theword "constitution" now so incessantly on the lips oftalkers and the pens of writers, but they look forward toits introduction as the opening of a golden era, insteadof an embarkation on the storm-tossed sea of liberty."By what processes are these innumerable millions tolearn the meaning of that mighty and mystic term, todistinguish between liberty and license- to be schooledin that self-restraint which involves cooperation, thesubordination of the present to the future, and especiallythat of the individual to the community The ? provincial assemblies which met on the i4th of last Octoberconstituted the initial step in this great experimentwhich is of interest and of more or less importance to allChina s contemporaries. Those who had the opportunity of witnessing this beginning were struck with thedignity and the poise of the newly-chosen delegates,imperfectly informed as they were of the ends in view,of the means by which they were to be obtained, and ofthe methods of overcoming the bristling obstacles whichalready begin to appear. It seems certain that as soonas they find themselves, these assemblies will begin toinquire why the people are so heavily taxed, and whatbecomes of the vast sums which are now so lightlywrested from them. The next step will be an impeachment of the inordinately large number of thoroughlyinefficient officials against whom there has hitherto beenpractically no redress. When that day comes districtmagistrates will be obliged to give prompt attention tosuits-at-law, to decide with some measure of fairness,and the rudiments of a writ of habeas corpus act willemerge, preventing the indiscriminate detention of bothguilty and innocent for months and years until all trackof the original case has been lost to the public. Whetherthe reformed code of Chinese law which is promised

GENERAL SURVEY. 5at an early day is to take cognizance of matters likethese, no one seems able as yet to say with certainty,but whether it does or does not, the old tyrannies anddisregard of individual right are doomed.Among the exhibitions of the new spirit in Chinais the frequent outcry against Chinese officials who haverendered themselves unpopular, especially by trucklingto foreigners, and the resolution to prevent them fromreturning to the towns, the cities, and the provinces wherethey were born, but which they have disgraced in theestimation of their fellows. Liable to abuse as this sentiment no doubt is, it yet shows a wholesome interest inthe general welfare hitherto quite unknown. There hasbeen an agelong struggle in China between the right ofthe Central Government to govern and the right of thevarious provinces to govern themselves. There is noquestion that certain provinces notably Hunan standupon special footing, due in part to their history whichhas led to certain prescriptive privileges and immunitiesand in part to the temper of their people. Discrimination of this sort is thoroughly consonant with the Chinese theory and practice of government. But whenthe provinces omit or even refuse to remit taxes to thecourt, when the gentry take upon themselves to decidewhat loans shall or shall not be made by the government, and when they insist upon the right to build theirown railways as well as to manage them when built, weseem to have our modern civilization confronted with thefeudalism which preceded the Bmperor Ch in Shihhuang.From the point of view of science, of politicaleconomy and of sound finance there can be no questionas to how the struggle must end, but the pitiful weakness of the government in Peking tends to yield on vitaland definitepoints and to temporize where a promptassertion of ultimate authority would appear imperative.What will happen when the national parliament sogreatly thirsted after really meets cannot be foreseen,but sooner or later a process of disillusionment must be

"4 CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.have been the step was one of far-reaching importance,certainly for China and perhaps for the world. It isevident that but a microscopic fraction of the peopleof China have any idea at all what is connoted by theword "constitution" now so incessantly on the lips oftalkers and the pens of writers, but they look forward toits introduction as the opening of a golden era, insteadof an embarkation on the storm-tossed sea of liberty."By what processes are these innumerable millions tolearn the meaning of that mighty and mystic term, todistinguish between liberty and license- to be schooledin that self-restraint which involves cooperation, thesubordination of the present to the future, and especiallythat of the individual to the community The ? provincial assemblies which met on the i4th of last Octoberconstituted the initial step in this great experimentwhich is of interest and of more or less importance to allChina s contemporaries. Those who had the opportunity of witnessing this beginning were struck with thedignity and the poise of the newly-chosen delegates,imperfectly informed as they were of the ends in view,of the means by which they were to be obtained, and ofthe methods of overcoming the bristling obstacles whichalready begin to appear. It seems certain that as soonas they find themselves, these assemblies will begin toinquire why the people are so heavily taxed, and whatbecomes of the vast sums which are now so lightlywrested from them. The next step will be an impeachment of the inordinately large number of thoroughlyinefficient officials against whom there has hitherto beenpractically no redress. When that day comes districtmagistrates will be obliged to give prompt attention tosuits-at-law, to decide with some measure of fairness,and the rudiments of a writ of habeas corpus act willemerge, preventing the indiscriminate detention of bothguilty and innocent for months and years until all trackof the original case has been lost to the public. Whetherthe reformed code of Chinese law which is promised

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