The account in the Times of the recent reform edicts of the Emperor of {China forms an interesting though melancholy document, explaining at one and the same time the singular position of the Emperor and the reason why he was at once defeated. by the energetic and reactionary Dowager Empress. A recent portrait of the Emperor affords to keen observers an insight into his character, and go enables us to get at his mind' when he issued this scheme of reforms. The face is that of a woman rather: than a man, or of a mau with an essentially feminine nature, thoughtful, delicate, refined, probably imaginative, but ching force and will. It is not Chinese at all, it is too spiritual for the average exceptional Chinese alike; it might be the face of a mystic or a philosopher, it is not the face of a° man' who can' deal roughily and practically with the complicate ed issues of Chinese life. Here is aman, one says, of considerable intellectual power and moral insight, who will be able from the purely intellectual and moral point of view, to see the urgent needs of his ce try and to suggest remedies for her poli tical and social disorders. But he is not of the stuff of which practical reformers are made; if his schemes are thwarted—as they" inevitably will be—he will not know what to do. The great reforming Monarchs have always been men of vigorous character. Peter the Great not only knew what Russia needed two centuries ago, but he was determined to enforce his reforms by the knoutand the sword, and woo betide any reactionary who dared to stand in the way. Frederick the Great did not content hi self with reading philosophy and specul on politics; he gave it to be under st that those who resisted his authority would be punished without mercy. But the Chinese Emperor is not a reforming Monarch in this sense; he isiore resembles a political philosopher reporting to a Sovereign his own purely speculative conclusions, He sees, but he cannot act.
One edict was addressed to the high Mandarins all over China, exhorting them to earnest ce-operation with the Emperor in reforming Chins. It speaks of the "techicaliti and obsolete usages," and the "high importance of keeping up and educating ourselves with the procedure of modern times," and refers with scarcely veiled contempt to the ancients of the Sung and Ming eras." "The bane of the country," says the Emperor, has been the deep-rooted system of inertness, and a Jinging to obsolete customs. This, indeed, it should be the true duty of each and every officer to shake off, in defiance of the hostile attitude of the uneducated majority." From all this we see that the Emperor has sufficient clearness of vision to survey China, as it were, from the outside, to look at it without prejudice as a cultivated European would look at it, and that his hope for the reforms he considered needful Lay in un educat-d bureaucracy who would use'the force at their disposal without paying court to theiznorant conceit of the Chinese masses. InChina, as in Russia (as in every country, in short). it is the great overwhelming majority which would arrest progress, which is satisfied with things as they are. Evidently the "Emperor saw in the possible rallying to his side of the intelligent few the one prospect of carrying out reforms from within, and so effecting the deliverance of China from either violent revolution or from conquest and partition at the hands of foreign nations; and, as evidently, he has been disappointed. 'Whether a sufficient "remnant" exists in China, or whether the reforming Mandarins, if such there be (and the Times' correspondent thinks there are such), were cowed by the instant display of reactionary force, we do not know. What we do know is that the' Imperial pur. poses remain mere aspirations, and that the Emperor is practically a prisoner.: The edict is not confined to general statements, it "condescends" to particulars. Literary essays on "ancient topics" were to be abolished in the examinations for the public service, and ' practical essays" on modern subjects to be substituted. Little time was to be wasted on fine penmanship great obj-ct of attainment in China), **as calligraphy is but an empty secomplishment." Modern drill and modern military schools were to be set up all over the Empire, and the frauds hitherto prevalent in the Army were to be got rid of. Mining schools on approved Western methods were to be established, and competent Chinese engineers to be so educated us to develop the vast mineral resources of China.' It'was also suggested that the example which had been productive of so many striking resulta in Japan should. be imitated, by sending Princes and nobles abroad to study in foreign capitals and Universities, while at the same time a college of foreign science and literature was to be established' in Peking. It is evident, by the way, that the superiority of Japanese science inthe late war has impressed the Emperor, and led him to see that what Japan attained by her revolution and her willingness to listen to the teachings of the Western world must now be secured by China if she is not to break up and dissolve into chaotic fragments,. All through, in a word, we find the recommendations' of a thoughtful and reflective mind, who has seriously weighed recent -experience, and who. perceives clearly what should be'done, Think of the: infinite pathos.in. the. situation of this young, thoughtful ruler who can devise but not enforce, shut up in his Palace, barred round by the rigid etiquette of an unchanging Court, knowing that his country is sinking under the burden of ancient superstition and the senile prejudices' of thousands of years, ani yet as helpless as the meanest of his subjects! Few more tragic fures ave appeared on the stage of history. 3 'The writer in the Times thinks' that "the young Emperor has gone to the root of the causes of the decadence of China. 'The reverence for antiquity, for obsolete customs, for exploded precedent, andthe all-pervading corruptions are the topics of his denunciation, the objects of his reforms." We do not' think this is quite accurate. Apart front the corruption of the official class, the adherence, to exploded customs and obsolete precedents must be referred to a deeper cause, for these deep-seated traits of Chinese character are effects rather than causes, The very, cause of Chinese mental aid me pat stagnation is ancestor-worship, the "ce completely organised system of Ar uni the world has ever known. As-all Jiniom, and knowledge attained, accord op to the Chinese. theory, their "perlee om! in the remote egos of the past, oF back.to that past for into te ge must look guidance. Under the' io' yuenwo of euch a belief, a really moral "\ife ig all but possible, for 3 <y degenerates into slavish submission rule imposed. from without rather tha'. 'a free. acceptance of law of conduct The. arvented development" of China means, in fact. that the Chiv'.se, in spite of their ancient classics and odes, are a people wit out active ples of morality. This does not mean that they steal or murder in any UD usual degree, or that they work injus¥.ce: for in the' teen villages of the interior much happiness, prosperity, and Gord social order are said to exist. But Tiankind cannot live in the harvests of the past, it needs renewal of life day'by-day on pain of moral and spiritual starvation. The deepest source of Chinese stagnation that the people are spiritually dead; they need awakening to a new ud real moral life, which "means eniancipation from the dead hand of the past. Wher
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.