r. An
"oecumenical embassy" was the result. Some of our students were
again attached to the suite; reciprocal intercourse had begun; and
Burlingame has the glory of initiating it".

In the work of reform three viceroys stand pre-eminent, viz., Li
Hung Chang, Yuen Shi Kai and Chang Chitung. Li, besides organising
an army and
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a navy (both demolished by the Japanese in 1895), founded a university
at Tienstin, and placed Dr. Tenney at the head of it. Yuen, coming
to the same viceroyalty with the lesson of the Boxer War before
his eyes, has made the army and education objects of special care.
In the latter field he had had the able assistance of Dr. Tenney,
and succeeded in making the schools of the province of Chihli an
example for the Empire.

Viceroy Chang has the distinction of being the first man (with
the exception of Kang Yuwei) to start the emperor on the path of
reform. Holding that, to be rich, China must have the industrial
arts of the West, and to be strong she must have the sciences of
the West, he has taken the lead in advocating and introducing both.
Having been called, after the suspension of the Imperial University,
to assist this enlightened satrap in his great enterprise, I cannot
better illustrate the progress of reform than by devoting a separate
chapter to him and to my observations during three years in Central
China.

Tests of scholarship and qualifications for office have undergone
a complete change. The regulation essay, for centuries supreme in
the examinations for the civil service, is abolished; and more
solid acquirements have taken its place. It takes time to adjust such
an ancient system to new conditions. That this will be accomplished
is sufficiently indicated by the fact that in May, 1906, degrees
answering to A. M. and Ph. D. were conferred on quite a number of
students who had completed their studies at universities in foreign
countries. As a result there is certain
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to be a rush of students to Europe and America, the fountain-heads
of science. Forty young men selected by Viceroy Yuen from the advanced
classes of his schools were in 1906 despatched under the superintendence
of Dr. Tenney to pursue professional studies in the United States.
That promising mission was partly due to the relaxation of the
rigour of the exclusion laws.

The Chinese assessor of the Mixed Court in Shanghai was dismissed
the same year because he had condemned criminals to be beaten w