Wuen the recent memorial of the Viceroy of Chilli on the charities which have been founded and maintained under his direction, appeared in the Gazette, C' @ readers were filled with admiration. " Ti the man to be Chief Mi "This is really good work, prosper while such a Minister controls the affairs of the country." In fact the Viceroy has been very kind to the poor, and has induced the rich iuhabitants of Tientsin, whether salt contractors or proprietors of houses, junks, and mercantile establishment to exhibit a large amount of genuine philanthropy. An immense number of the distressed poor have during Into years been thrown on the compassion of the rich. The Viceroy has felt that charity on a Inrge scale was a necessity; the rich citizens of tientsin are well able to second his idea, and append to have done so liberally. An asylum has been commenced. Poor boys, suitable objects of charity, are received in the first division of this asylum, which is a sorting establish. ment, where the boys may be divided into companies, according to their capabilities, Happy those who shew a quickness of eye and anything promising intelligence in the face and forehead; they will be drafted into the literary division, and be put to school, The school is the second of the six divisions, Next to literature is agriculture, and below that is manual skill, The third division embraces boys who can learn cotton and millet cultivation, and the usual occupation of a farm, Hero Innd has been purchased and colton-growing and gardening set on foot under the care of practical culti" vaters able for the duty of teach ing. The fourth class are weavers of mats, engravers, and painters, who are afterwards when their trades are learned, to be started in life under such masters as will give them occupation, The fifth di in for the poor women and girls who are homeless, They will be retained here to be fed and clothed till those who are marriageable can be married and those who can find places as servants are properly disposed of. The sixth division is for opiam-smokers, adas for whom the Viceroy has in other ways shown great solicitude, They are to have the superintendence of good doctors, to be treuted as sick persons, to be supplied with efficient medicine, and, it is added, be made to afford proof of the desire of the promoters that the Imperial prohibition of opium-smoking may not be a dead let. ter, It ie stated that more than 2,000 huve been alrendy cured.
Some one may ask, how far are in. stitutions of this kind of native origin? To this it may be answered that Confacianism has done something to lead to the establishment of hospitals, but that Buddhism has done more, Kuan Chung, one of the predecessors of Confucius, in instructing his countrymen in their moral and political duties, states that in his time there was an official Protector of Orphans in the capital of each kingdom. Fe also says that if any one took care of an orphan who was without relatives ho was enti-
Uled to exemption from tribute for some one of his sons. It was also an auveient custom for local magistrates to feed and clothe sick orphans. This
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.