The English are great on clubs, but the Chinese can beat them in that line. Since the war with Japan the breaking out of clubs has taken the form of an epidemic.
Of the more ephemeral organisations the most noted was the Reform Club, which gave umbrage to the Government and hastened its own death by demanding a free constitution and an elective parliament. Another formed about the same time still exists under the curious title of a "School for Shame." Its prime object is to excite a proper state of feeling in view of China's humiliation at the hands of her neighbours, beginning with the Islanders on the East, A more formidable Society is now looming on the verge of the future. It bears the name of Pao-kuo-hui, or Patriotic Assooiation. The account of its origin, as given by one of its members, is the following. A squad of German soldiers having made their way to Kaomi, a town adjacent to Kiaochou, some of them entered the temple of Confucius, broke off an arm of the sage and carried it away as a trophy destined to figure in a Berlin Museum. This was more than Chinese pride could stand. 'The story was industriously circulated among the scholars of the empire assembled for the triennial Metropolitan' examinations. Rushing together like the silversmiths of Ephesus, they announced that their religion was in danger, not from. missionaries, but from the vandalism of German soldiers. The greased cartridges, which lighted the fires of the great mutiny in India because they were supposed to be designed to break down the native castes, were not quicker in arousing popular indignation than this broken arm of Confucius.
'A petition to the Throne was drawn up in which the signers pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honour, to aid in sweep: ing the country of its foos,' The next stop was to organise, and this was done by the adoption of a constitution consisting of Tile portentous document, supposed to be a profound secret, is now before me. It says nothing of the broken arm of Con-articles, and twenty-five by-laws. fucius, who might now very properly wear the famous gown that had one sleeve shorter than the other, but begins by saying:'*This patriotic Club is formed for the defence of the Empire—in view of the fact that our territory is daily sliced away, the powers of the Government daily circumscribed and the people more and more oppressed (by whom?)." In the 2nd article it cites a decree issued shortly after the late war, which calls on the nation to prepare itself to avenge the past, and to safeguard the future; using a Chinese classic phrase which' might have been borrowed from Virgil's vanquished ball which lay on stony ground and chewed the cud of bitterness, until able to humble his adversary. The three things to be defend-ad are the territory, the people, and the religion."
What religion is meant among the many in China, we are not informed, though the expression seems more than once presumably to. mean the religion of Confucius, which is endangered by predatory excursions of soldiers in quest of objects for exhibition in the museums of the West.
Té this be not the meaning, that part of the document must be taken as a tribute to the efficiency of missionaries, who are not once mentioned though measures are taken to counteract their influence, one of the. measures proposed being to institute in all meetings of the central and affiliated clubs
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.