many of the offices have no regular salary, and some of them are dependent for support on what they must receive as gifts or bribes.

Corrupt as the administration is unquestionably in many of its features, the mass of the people are safe in their person and property. Davis says the greatness and prosperity of the empire rests on the impartial distribution of the offices; and he quotes a similar opinion from Milne. Staunton thinks that repeated acts of flagrant injustice do not escape with impunity, and on this point Williams seems to agree with him."

Much care is taken to inform the people about their political rights and duties. Instructive discourses are read once a month in public to the inhabitants of every village and ward. The penal code is printed in cheap form for general circulation, and is composed in simple language, so that its meaning shall be clearly understood. Sir George Staunton, who translated it into English, said of it: "The most remarkable thing in this code is its great reasonableness, clearness, and consistency, the businesslike brevity and directness of the various provisions, and the plainness and moderation of the language." "

The government has made a practice of selling admission into the rank of bachelor, with the right of wearing the cap indicative of the rank and all its privileges except that of competing for the diploma of master. Some inferior offices have also been sold, but these sales seem to amount to but little relatively.

SEC. 208. Person and Property.-There are no explicit legal guarantees of the rights of person or property. As already stated, the language has no word for liberty.' No habeas-corpus process or similar legal proceeding provides for the release of persons imprisoned illegally. No

section in the code protects witnesses or persons accused of crime against torture, which they often suffer, though it is not among the punishments inflicted on criminals after conviction. The judicial proceedings are, in many cases, harsh and the penalties of crime cruel, but on the other hand the trials are prompt; the witnesses are not worried by frequent delays and new trials; and the accused and their friends are not plundered to their last dollar by criminal lawyers.

Chinese law permits a peculiar system of bondage to which the term slavery cannot be applied without the risk of conveying false impressions. This bondage has its origin in a sale by the parents, or in a judicial sentence for crime. The parents have power to sell their children, but very rarely do so, unless under the compulsion of deep poverty, and then the children sold are mostly girls under ten years of age. The most common motive for purchase is the desire to get domestic servants; a less common motive is the wish of a wealthy man to have a concubine or subordinate wife. If the bond-girl becomes a servant, the master must provide her, before she reaches the age of twenty-five, with a husband, who, from that time forward, has complete control of her. Bondage never passes by inheritance from the mother to her children. It is different with the bondmen. His sons and his grandsons, not his great grandsons, nor his daughters, nor his granddaughters, are in bondage. With her consent, the husband may sell his wife to be the wife of another man, but she does not enter into bondage. The male slave, when thirty years of age, is entitled to a wife, and it is the duty of the master to provide one for him. The male slaves are very few; female slaves are common in the families of

the wealthy, ten or twenty being sometimes found in a house. There is no serfdom in China.

Taxes are light and uniform. The land outside of the towns and cities is held in fee-simple by the tiller of the soil, in small tracts. Most of the owners are individuals, some few are villages and clans. There is no very large estate, no entail, no primogeniture, no influence to make any notable change in the tenure or distribution of land. The law of inheritance gives a double portion to the eldest son, and the remainder is equally divided between the other sons; and the father often bequeaths his estate to the eldest son in trust for the equal benefit of all the sons. The emperor can confiscate private property, but never does so unless under urgent and exceptional circumstances, and then he allows no compensation to the sufferers. Nominally he is the owner of all land, but the possessory title of the people is equivalent to feesimple, subject to the sovereign's right to confiscate without indemnity.

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Complaints and responses by litigants must be in writing; but there is no profession of the law, and the judge, in trying a case, listens only to the parties directly interested, and then to witnesses. Evidence is taken without oaths. Cases are never decided by ordeal, nor is official action ever determined by auguries or other appeals to supernatural power.

SEC. 209. Confucius.-Three forms of religion prevail extensively in China, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The last is of Hindoo origin, and an account of it will be given in another chapter. Taoism has neither well-defined creed, nor a well-educated or well-organized clergy, nor any notable influence on the government or among the educated classes. Its priests devote them

selves to ceremonial services demanded by the ignorant and superstitious, and thus what may be called the religion of Taoism is maintained as a mere matter of form. The Chinese Buddhists, Confucians, and Taoists have very little ecclesiastical animosity. They say, "Religions are many, reason is one; we are all brothers."

Confucianism, peculiarly Chinese in its character, was taught, not as an original doctrine but as a compilation of the wisdom of many antecedent centuries, by Confucius, who lived from 551 to 479 B. C. It is the faith of the scholars, and of the imperial government. Though not the religion of the majority of the Chinese people, it may be called the distinctive religion of China. Its main doctrines are that you must be virtuous; that you must worship the spirits of your ancestors; and that you must not bother yourself about any other divine existence or about a future life. Virtue, as understood by Confucius, includes every feeling that contributes to excellence as a relative, a friend, a neighbor, a citizen, or a fellow-man. He laid down the golden rule in a negative form by saying, “ Do not to others what you do not wish done to yourself." He preferred virtue to life. He said, “I love life and I love justice, but if I cannot have both, I would give up life." He thus expressed his preference of virtue to popular applause: "I have the fidelity of a dog, and am sometimes treated like one. But what matters the ingratitude of men. They cannot hinder me from doing good. If my teaching be disregarded, I still have the consolation of knowing that I have done my duty." He asserted that the satisfaction of doing right, and the return which it generally obtains from men, are in themselves sufficient rewards for virtue. He advised his pupils to be virtuous for virtue's sake; and he defined

universal virtue as comprising justice, benevolence, and constancy. In his opinion faithfulness and sincerity deserved to be considered as of primary importance for a well-regulated society. He taught that wealth and office. are not requisite to the highest happiness, and that it was important that the people should not be blinded by their glitter. One of his sayings was that "to recognize that poverty comes by the ordinance of heaven and in the face of difficulty not to fear, is the valor of the sage."

To Confucius any kind of success obtained by the aid of injustice was detestable, and honesty was admirable, no matter what might be the fate of its devotee. He said, "The general of a large army may be defeated, but you cannot defeat the mind of a peasant determined to do right." In his opinion, death itself might become a triumph to a poor and friendless man if inflicted on him because he insisted on doing his duty. He would have us conduct this life as if it were certainly the only one, as if no late repentance could wipe out early wrong, as if mean selfishness would surely be punished by our contempt of ourselves, and by the contempt and neglect of our neighbors, and as if our constant regard for the welfare of others would entitle us to the esteem of the community, and would secure to us, from most of our acquaintances, responsive kindness. Confucius did not know how to enjoy life without contributing to the happiness of others, nor did he attach much value to mere official precept without example. He wanted virtue to begin at home, and in the highest circles. He said: "It is not possible for a man to teach others who cannot teach his own family. Therefore a ruler, without going beyond his family, completes the lessons for the state.