rs is required to get a command of
them even for reading in a vernacular
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dialect. In all parts of China our missionaries have rendered the
Scriptures into the local dialects. so that they may be understood
when read aloud, and that every man "may hear in his own tongue the
wonderful works of God." In some places they have printed them in
the vernacular by the use of Chinese characters. Yet those characters
are clumsy instruments for the expression of sounds; and in several
provinces our missionaries have tried to write Chinese with Roman
letters.

The experiment has proved successful beyond a doubt. Old women
and young children have in this way come to read the Scriptures
and other books in a few days. This revolution must go forward
with the spread of Christianity; nor is it too much to expect that
in the lapse of ages, the hieroglyphs of the learned language will
for popular use be superseded by the use of the Roman alphabet, or
by a new alphabet recently invented and propagated by officials
in Peking.

In conclusion: Our missionaries have made our merchants acquainted
with China; and they have made foreign nations known to the Chinese.
They have aided our envoys in their negotiations; and they have
conferred on the Chinese the priceless boon of scientific text-books.
Also along with schools for modern education, they have introduced
hospitals for the relief of bodily suffering.

W. A. P. M.

PEKING,
Aug. 4. 1906.

[Page 292]
II.

UNMENTIONED REFORMS[*]

[Footnote *: Written by the author for the _North-China Daily
News_.]

The return of the Mission of Inquiry has quickened our curiosity
as to its results in proposition and in enactment. All well-wishers
of China are delighted to learn that the creation of a parliament
and the substitution of constitutional for autocratic government are
to have the first place in the making of a New China. The reports
of the High Commissioners are not yet before the public, but it
is understood that they made good use of their time in studying
the institutions of the West, and that they have shown a wise
discrimination in the selection of those which they recommend for
adoption. There are, however, three reforms of vital importance,
which have scarcely been mentioned at all, which China requires
for full admission to the comity of nations.

1. A CHANGE OF COSTUME

During their tour no one suggested that the Chinese costume should
be changed