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40 CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.ment. The task set before the organizers of the newsystem was to provide regulations for the control ofinstruction in schools and also for examination of pupils,while at the same time making sure that there should bea sufficient supply of capable men to fill the offices underthe Civil Service.The change in the aim of education has been contemporaneous with changes which are occurring in thegeneral government of China. As long as the governingpower remained in the hands of the few and did not concern the ordinary citizen, it was sufficient that the educational methods in vogue should produce a requisitenumber of educated men to fillplaces of responsibility.With the preparations which have been made for theintroduction of constitutional government for severalyears, the importance of universal education has cometo be recognized. It would be impossible to expect acountry to be governed well, on democratic lines, whilethe populace remained uneducated. Where the vote ofthe individual is so bound up with the general governmental arrangements of his country that it affects forgood or evil the destinies of his fellow-citizens, it is recognized that this individual should be one who hasreceived some sort of an education. China with a Constitution, Provincial Parliaments and local MunicipalAdministrations, would be in a worse condition thanbefore if the voters who are responsible for casting theirvotes in favour of a certain plan are known to be menwho, from lack of education, can have no possibleunderstanding of what is proposed. Education must gohand in hand with the growth of constitutional government, even though the urgency of the situation may notallow it to take itsproper place by preceding such government. If it were necessary to choose between thesway of an educated, benevolent autocrat and that of anuneducated populace, the good of those governed wouldbe best promoted by the former. Universal educationshould be rightly considered of the utmost importance iu