n governments have struggled so
long in vain. This tax, originally one-tenth per cent on all sales, was
voluntarily imposed upon themselves by the people, among whom it was at
first very popular, with a view of making up the deficiency in the
land-tax of China caused by the T'ai-p'ing Rebellion and subsequent
troubles. It was to be set apart for military purposes only,--hence its
common name "war-tax,"--and was alleged by the Tsung-li Yamen to be
adopted merely as a temporary measure. Yet, though forty years have
elapsed, it still continues to be collected as if it were one of the
fundamental taxes of the Empire, and the objections to it are raised,
not by the people of China, but by foreign merchants with whose trade
it interferes.

Here we have already one instance of voluntary self-taxation on the part
of the people; what I have yet to show is that all taxation, even though
not initiated as in this case by the people, must still receive the
stamp of popular approval before being put into force. On this point I
took a good many notes during a fairly long residence in China, leading
to conclusions which seem to me irresistible.

Let us suppose that the high authorities of a province have determined,
for pressing reasons, to make certain changes in the incidence of
taxation, or have called upon their subordinates to devise means for
causing larger sums to find their way into the provincial treasury.
The invariable usage, previous to the imposition of a new tax, or
change in the old, is for the magistrate concerned to send for the
leading merchants whose interests may be involved, or for the headboroughs
and village elders, according to the circumstances in each case, and to
discuss the proposition in private. Over an informal entertainment, over
tea and pipes, the magistrate pleads the necessities of the case, and
the peremptory orders of his superiors; the merchants or village elders,
feeling that, as in the case of _likin_ above mentioned, when taxes
come they come to stay, resist on principle the new departure by every
argument at their control. The negotiation ends, in ninety-nine
instances out of a hundred, in a compromise. In the hundredth instance
the people may think it right to give way, or the mandarin may give way,
in which case things remain _in statu quo_, and nothing further is heard
of the matter.

There occur cases, however, happily rare, in which neither will give
way--at first. Then comes the tug of