. It is, therefore, all
the more cheering when we find, as is frequently the case, retiring or
transferred mandarins followed by the good wishes and affection of the
people over whom they have been set to rule.

Until quite recently, there has been no such thing in China as municipal
administration and rating, and even now such methods are only being
tentatively introduced in large cities where there are a number of
foreign residents. Occupants of houses are popularly supposed to "sweep
the snow from their own doorsteps," but the repair of roads, bridges,
drains, etc., has always been left to the casual philanthropy of wealthy
individuals, who take these opportunities of satisfying public opinion
in regard to the obligations of the rich towards the poor. Consequently,
Chinese cities are left without efficient lighting, draining, or
scavengering; and it is astonishing how good the health of the people
living under these conditions can be. There is no organized police
force; but cities are divided into wards, and at certain points barriers
are drawn across the streets at night, with perhaps one watchman to
each. It is not considered respectable to be out late at night, and it
is not safe to move about without a lantern, which is carried, for those
who can afford the luxury, by a servant preceding them.

One difference between life in China and life in this country may
be illustrated to a certain extent in the following way. Supposing a
traveller, passing through an English village, to be hit on the head by
a stone. Unless he can point out his assailant, the matter is at an
end. In China, all the injured party has to do is to point out the
village--or, if a town, the ward--in which he was assaulted. Then the
headman of such town or ward is summoned before the authorities and
fined, proportionately to the offence, for allowing rowdy behaviour in
his district. The headman takes good care that he does not pay the fine
himself. In the same way, parents are held responsible for the acts of
their children, and householders for those of their servants.

CHAPTER III--RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION

The Chinese are emphatically not a religious people, though they are
very superstitious. Belief in a God has come down from the remotest
ages, but the old simple creed has been so overlaid by Buddhism as
not to be discernible at the present day. Buddhism is now the dominant
religion of China. It is closely bound up with the lives of t