Ar the seventh lecture on friendly relations, delivered at the International Institute last Saturday afternoon, Mr. Chu Puo-san was expected to preside, but being Vice-Chairmin of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, he had to be present at special meeting of that body to consider the Mixed Court fracas, In his place Mr. Wu Shao-ching, compradore of Arnhold, Karberg C",, and a member ofthe Institute Commitree, took the chair, and, as one of the merchants of Shanghai, said he was interested in hearing discussed the subject of friendly relations between' the merchant class and the officials:
Dr. Gi.bert' Reid, speaking in mandarin, expressed his Inck of fitness to discuss the subject which related exclusively to the Chinese, but he hoped what he said would. draw out some of the gentlemen present to itnpart farther light.
the mandarin -cliss one period differed from another, In the teachings of Confucius, who for while was an official, the people would be submiss-ive when upright-officials were advanced and corrupt officials. removed, and would be ur-submissive when the opposite happened, If this rule had always been observed, merchants or any other' class would never find reason: for complaint. Later on in. China's history, scholarship according: prescribed rule became the basis or: criterion. of: Chinese <officialdom. Ambition in literary examinations was satisfied by opportunities become civil mandarins. Tlence of the four divisions into which the Chinese have been - divided—the scholar, the farmer, the labourer, the merchant,—it was the first that gained admission into official life. Learning was respected frum a utilitarian point of view. Essay writing became the criterion of official success, as integrity had been: the: criterion according to the maxims of the Sages, Since the Taiping rebellion: anew element has entered into official life,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.