bth Aug. iz traveller who is strolling about the principal thoroughfares of Peking is Kable, at a crossing of two main streets, to find a huge screen of patchwork cloth suspended from poles, in such a way"as to obstruct the view from all sides, only a narrow' opening being left for carts and pedestrians. Pursuing his way, he notices that the entrance to all the many alleys is barricaded with rush-mats, and that the same kind of screen is placed in front of ruined temples, and vacant lots which have been used as the laces of deposit of filth or rubbish.
honeyer the Emperor is about to make his exit from the city, or is about to return, criers announce that fact to the public, who, then rat' into their holes, not' to. emerge until the invisible Being has passed, when things at once go on just as usual until the next occasion of a like nature. There are two main benefits which are supposed to inure in this characteristically Oriental proceeding. In the first place, it helps to preserve the fiction of the sacredness of the person of the Emperor, and of his being something other than an ordinary mortal. In the second place it is a valuable check upon reckless assassins of the; Guiteau type, whom China could easily' furnish in unlimited numbers. A third result' is incidental. As the people see nothing of the Emperor, so also does he see nothing of the people. He is probably the only man in China who is uriable to form any idea of what the Chinese are like, or what they are about." That what is to be seen in the Impotial Court, is no. type either of China or of. the- Chinese, goes without the, saying, but it must be a literal forthe Emperor to get anything else. upon which to base a notion of his empire.. The. traditions of the divs when Emperors went about in disguise, upon the-plan of Haroun-al Raschid, have faded into an almost forgotten past, and there are excellent ial weighty reasons against their renewal. ~The old: Jesuits and" other Catholic Fathers ave left interesting accounts of Court life in Peking as they saw it two or three hundred years ago. But entertaining as their narratives are, similar ones relating to the reign of Kuang Hasti would be much more so. What does he think? How much does he know?. What does he think that he knows? -Does he think at all? What is the specific gravity of the darkness in which ig perpetually abides, and. how maw bgat rays of light reach him through' the opaque oyster shells known as 'Boards'? of the nineteenth: century, it is a per-mats and. the old -bedqi petual marvel to us that such a system Light It. never can be. done can endure. We: have long passed that foreigner., It; never. will, bei done by: a: stage of human development. With native alone.' It will be done, in.due us the real King must be the man who time by the Zeif-geist, by the Spirit-can', or else he..will not. improbably of-the-age... His, coming is long: over have to step down and out. Even if due, but eventually he will come. he should be one of the best men in the. world, but should not be so much interested in details of his: government as in matters of nonce, or philosophy ieee acetates or literature, the fate of poor Dom) ware pRENCH MAIL P.
Pedro shows what will become of him. In short, what is absolutely. needed, and ity ively required as wel, is the best talent in the land, devoted wi ith all its might to the welfare of, the Phe Chinese mat and bedquilt theory of government is not confined to. the Ewperor, but it runs all the way through the ranks of officialdom. The district Magistrate -is undoubtedly called the man that knows his district, and. the Prefect the man that knows his Prefecture, but everyone is aware that' these are mere figures of speech used in a purely ideal way. Is there any man in a Asien district who knows less of what is going on within its boundaries than the Chih Hsien? Is there any one who would have more trouble in finding out what is going on, supposing he really desired to know? And, as a rule, is there anyone who really. cares less to know, or who considers it less his business to know, provided the taxes are paid, and the people are tranquillized'?
The hearing of these observations, as has so often been the case since the days of the late Captain Cuttle, lies in their application.. Every well wisher of China must desire that the Chinese officials, from the Emperor downward, should feel their way to a better system, or at least to a better practice of government than we now witness, But how is this to come about? It has been wisely said, that the knottiest problem can be resolved, if one can only answer three questions, ' What is it?" ' Why is it?' and What then? As to the first of these inquiries, it is very difficult for most Chinese officials: to come to any useful conclusion, for the reason that they generally have too little interest in the matter, and.are in reality almost as much pinioned in shackles, as the prisotiers at the doors of their yamens wearing wooden platforms about. their necks; but' with this -difference, that the sentence on the prisoner is for a definite term and end, while that. of the official is too often limited only by his life. It is frequently an act of kindness to an imprisoned chick which has cracked his shell, but seems unable to break it, to scale off a piece, and help him out. Chinese officialdom is largely shut up in a shell, just as_it was a generation Bat if we hear the hammering within, it is much more likely to be a defence against those outside to prevent their breaking in,
prisoned to get out. Who will break than an effort on the fe of the im-
Tse General Election at home. did. not take place without previous bickering. Sir William Harcourt, who is' nothing if not,
any pomibility take place in any borough shifty, oom Be Della of having deli rately al at polling could not: the United Kingdom on a Saturday, sot' nat the working man was prevented from vot' ing. Mr. Balfour was able to show conclus' very the absurdity of Sir William Hare' jurt's contention, as the polls: being open ' until p.w., very few workmen were.de'burred from voting if they wished' to, and' in the letter he addressed to the Lontion Trades Council on this subject, he aftiryned that it was a fundamental. principle common to both sides that the elections sh ould be fixed for a day which would enable the greatest sible number of voters tu.' exercise the nehise. If the polling wus fixed for Saturday, it would entirely disfranchise inly entitled-to working mi Abject the Duily Telegraph is plain spoken It is to be hoped that, cater Mr. Balfour's eminently convincing explanation offastnight, and the very precise annoancernent that fol: lowed it, we shave heard tae last of the somewhat puerilesquable whir-h the opposition have attempted to raise aber the datetof the Dissolution. 'The First Lor: d of the Treasury showed to the satisfaction ¢, f every reasonable mind, that it would be it' possible, with duo regard for the common" Secencies of Parliamentary' life, to hurry t brough outstanding legislative business at ssu ch a rate as to enable the Dissalution to to ko place during the present, Wweek; and be has now definitely announced that Panis ment will be both proed and dissolved on Tuesday next, the first day on which {he House "can with meoariey ook forward to having finished the ment is one which will satisfy tthe that romaine t 0 be done. a, arrange, heard of at any pre vious election—in favour that sin gular Srpeet deft iver of polling on a part icular day of the.week, It is certainly a 1 new view of the British elector—and one wh ich the Radical, we should have thought, woul, Ibe the last ta entertain—to assume that he i s too. indolent or too preoccupied to record his vote at a poll which Femaing open, anti 1 eight o'clock at night, unless he has half-t holiday provided him for The Ulster Umi ionist Convention held in Belfast on 17th J: one passed off without the slightest disorcie:, though nearly twelve thousand deleg: at es, from.all parte of the Province met t+ -revord their determination to resist the e etublishment of a National Parliament at Dublin. The Liberal papers endeavour to s neer at this monster meting as being mer ely an Orange Convention, and accuse t) use who met at Belfast of threatening d disorder, violence and. bloodshed, but as a, mutter of fact no: threat was proclaimed 1 ly the assembly, who only warned their fellow-countrymen of Baigland and $ cotland of the evils that would result; from an. Irish Parliament Priesthood. being forced. on " Protestant under the di jmination of Roman—Ostholie Ulster. 'Th 6 Times saye:—3 In no-do: artful or faltering accents} the men of Pro' testant Ulster placed on' record lut nol; ise or submit' the schemes of politicians who, under the seduce
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.