war. A proclamation is issued,
describing the tax, or the change, or whatever it may be, and the
people, if their interests are sufficiently involved, prepare to resist.

Combination has been raised in China to the level of a fine art. Nowhere
on earth can be found such perfect cohesion of units against forces
which would crush each unit, taken individually, beyond recognition.
Every trade, every calling, even the meanest, has its guild, or
association, the members of which are ever ready to protect one another
with perfect unanimity, and often great self-sacrifice. And combination
is the weapon with which the people resist, and successfully resist, any
attempt on the part of the governing classes to lay upon them loads
greater than they can or will bear. The Chinese are withal an
exceptionally law-abiding people, and entertain a deep-seated respect
for authority. But their obedience and their deference have pecuniary
limits.

I will now pass from the abstract to the concrete, and draw upon my
note-book for illustrations of this theory that the Chinese are a
self-taxing and self-governing people.

Under date October 10, 1880, from Chung-king in the province of
Ssuch'uan, the following story will be found in the _North China
Herald_, told by a correspondent:--

"Yesterday the Pah-shien magistrate issued a proclamation, saying that
he was going to raise a tax of 200 _cash_ on each pig killed by the
pork-butchers of this city, and the butchers were to reimburse
themselves by adding 2 _cash_ per _pound_ to the price of pork. The
butchers, who had already refused to pay 100 _cash_ per hog, under the
late magistrate, were not likely to submit to the payment of 200 under
this one, and so resolved not to kill pigs until the grievance was
removed; and this morning a party of them went about the town and seized
all the pork they saw exposed for sale. Then the whole of the butchers,
over five hundred at least, shut themselves up in their guild, where the
magistrate tried to force an entry with two hundred or three hundred of
his runners. The butchers, however, refused to open the door, and the
magistrate had to retire very much excited, threatening to bring them to
terms. People are inclined to think the magistrate acted wrongly in
taking a large force with him, saying he ought to have gone alone."

Three days later, October 13:--

"There is great excitement throughout the city, and I am told that the
troops are under arms