(1) With the opening up of general in: tercourso with the various nations of, the earth, the question of having able meu to represent this Empire.in the Courts of the world becomes one of the greatest impor. tance at the present Wo therefore. hereby command tha various, Viceroys and Governors of the Empire to select the men they think hest qualified for such psts, who, by their general conduct, have shown their education and. abilities to be of a practical and high order, and who ate not enveloped in the narrow circle of bigoted consorvativm, and a clinging to obsolete and uiipéactic: custom. "Thesv selected men' we yo mand shall be recommended to the Tsuingli Yamen, irrespective of the rank they may be possesse'l of, and they shall be examined by the ssid Yamen which shall then inittoduce them to us in audience for appointment abroad, (2 For the few wars past many of our officials in the capital and in the provinces have been dabbling with the subject. of keeping up with the ti og, and strengthening the country and reforming the, institutions of this empire consequent upon this we issued several, editors,, granting such.mexsures as..: special, Metropolitan examinations for the purpose of advancing men of ability; the eliminating of the present personnel of. the Imperial armies, substituting.iustend m.dern arms and western organisation; changing.the currie colum of military examinations for the rules governing the s-lection of.military officers according to Western methods of military education;. the iustirution, of high and elementary seliou'n and. cole leges of literary instruction in accord. ance those which obtain in foreign countries, and such like modern. innova-. tions all for the; sake of.starting our country on the great road of Progress. We confess to having carefully gone over and considered these matters, once and. "mes over again, in'order' to fix upon the best methods nf bringing these projects to a triumphant' conclusion; but seems our ofliciuls, scholars, and Literati have not yet-had the..knowledge ans education necessary to receive such innovations in the way desired, in consequence of which we have been the recipient of all manner of ceinorials written on behalf of* or against, our.new measures.
Some, of our aged statesmen who have grown grey in the service of the State ind whose. fidelity is unquestioned, in their anxiety for the Empire have atwued that we ought to stick to the very letter of our' ancient institutions; aid, cast away from' us the suggestions in favour of a new résime, In fact, all sorts of suggestions have been made by any number of memorialists most of which are empty and., vxin and impracticable. ". Let.us ask what other. country except our own. there ie that is labouring under such. difficulties,. because, of, being behind the times? \Vhat, would our condition be if we do, not set xbout at once to drill and atm' our armies after modern methods Will we be able to cut down such "expétises 2 "Our "scholitis: now - are without' solid "and - practical' education
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.