orses or cows in coats and trousers, and that success
at the public examinations is the greatest prize this world has to
offer.

To be among the fortunate three hundred out of about twelve thousand
candidates, who contend once every three years for the highest degree,
is to be enrolled among the Immortals for ever; while the Senior Classic
at a final competition before the Emperor not only covers himself, but
even his remote ancestors, his native village, his district, his
prefecture, and even his province, with a glory almost of celestial
splendour.

LECTURE III

DEMOCRATIC CHINA

DEMOCRATIC CHINA

Theoretically speaking, the Empire of China is ruled by an autocratic
monarch, responsible only to God, whose representative he is on earth.

Once every year the Emperor prays at the Temple of Heaven, and
sacrifices in solemn state upon its altar. He puts himself, as it were,
into communication with the Supreme Being, and reports upon the fidelity
with which he has carried out his Imperial trust.

If the Emperor rules wisely and well, with only the happiness of his
people at heart, there will be no sign from above, beyond peace and
plenty in the Empire, and now and then a double ear of corn in the
fields--a phenomenon which will be duly recorded in the _Peking Gazette_.
But should there be anything like laxness or incapacity, or still worse,
degradation and vice, then a comet may perhaps appear, a pestilence may
rage, or a famine, to warn the erring ruler to give up his evil ways.

And just as the Emperor is responsible to Heaven, so are the viceroys
and governors of the eighteen provinces--to speak only of China
proper--nominally responsible to him, in reality to the six departments
of state at Peking, which constitute the central government, and to
which a seventh has recently been added--a department for foreign
affairs.

So long as all goes well--and in ordinary times that "all" is confined
to a regular and sufficient supply of revenue paid into the Imperial
Treasury--viceroys and governors of provinces are, as nearly as can be,
independent rulers, each in his own domain.

For purposes of government, in the ordinary sense of the term, the 18
provinces are subdivided into 80 areas known as "circuits," and over
each of these is set a high official, who is called an intendant of
circuit, or in Chinese a _Tao-t'ai_. His circuit consists of 2 or more
prefectures, of which there are in all 282