i AND POLITICS.
1 hai, either native mam account of the students of the Nan-member of the who al enemies so ruth-Hessly attacked. The only party which has escaped is the foreign stall. Tt is not_my business here to defer ilanybody, for the case itself does not seem to deserve any [more waste of ink and paper. But the strike is an organised—movement and is political. It is with regard to this political movement that I wish to mako la few remarks.
are governed by a certain section of the As many people know, Chinese Politics Literati in Peking. This section is invariably known as the "Pure Stream." That is to say, those who hold different views are dirty and unclean. Now this party has a political history, which shall ibe told here in a few words, The first two or three Manchu Rulers were excel-Hent statesmen; they knew that they must reconcile the literati, so the literati carried the day. The reign of Nien-Lung is their golden age. After that: the Government had more literati than it could support, so they turned to etymo-Jogy and metaphysics, split into two hostile camps, and fought hard among themselves." Then came the Taiping rebellion, the invasion of foreigners, and the system of purchasing ranks. The lit-arati have had a bad time of it ever since. For the last forty years, most of the official positions hare been filled by the followers of the conquerors of the Taipinzs and by those who are rich enough to buy rank, With the development of commerce and the complication of international affairs, Chinese students from Hongkong, Europe and America gradually come to the front—the number of un-[employed literati keeps on increasing. _Ninety per cent of these English-speaking 'Seung men are. very sharp business men, as many can testify. But when they first' came out they were a failure. T {remember a first-rate Law student from!¥alo came back to China to mako $4a month. But their opportunity soon leave. It happened at that time that China should have ironclads, guns, rifles, \ete., and that Germany, England, ete., offered the lowest terms. The English-speaking gentlemen saw their chance and nade themselves rich. Then came the railway and mining concessions.—Some more of the Enzlich-speaking Chinesw meade themselves immensely rich and are now enjoying the fruits of their toil About the same time, two English-speaking Chinese were appointed Ministers to England and America. The literati took alarm. The so-called Reformers came to their rescue. The scheme of the reformers is a very clever one. They studied six months Japanese (come did it in ten days, as I was told by one of them a few days ago). They talked polities, patriotism, Bacon, Rous-earn, etc., ete—a most extraordinary jingo. The bait at once took. The more enterprising literati imitated the Reformers' example on the sly. They awake up one moraing and find that they also know all about Politics and can talk big. This fine crop of political intelligence out mere nothing takes China by surprise. After the Boxer trouble, the number of literati going over to Japan, for, six months, is increasing every day. Every other literatus goes to Japan now. Those who cannot go, study by themselves for six months. They are to be found in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.