Tu the realm of polities we all now that constitutional government.
in China is admittedly a product of western contact and intercourse and not an indigenous growth. For centuries absolute monarchy was the traditional and accepted form vf government for the Chinese. As a Hconsequenee of foreign contact, the {traditional system of absolute monarchy and paternal autocracy was weighed in the balance and {found wanting. Urged by necessity, the instinct of self-preservation Nindieated a change in political system as a means of survival and A new political system cannot be planted and take root on a foreign soil in a brief interval. The older {generation has been trained and [accustomed to a monarchical system government, and can be expected {to operate a' republic only with great difficulties if at all. The Founger generation needs time to [educate themselves in the theory! and practice of constitutional go fernment and can hardly be expect-fed to be masters in the difficult art The Basis -of Society The entire fabric of Chinese s0- ciety has rested upon classical authrity. Intellectual life was cir cumseribed by the belief that everything worth knowing has been reasoned out and settled by ancients. Social custom vas determined by the precepts of sages, and political preferment came to those who had best mastered the classical of parliamentary government. With the exception of participation in village government, the Chinese have had, under the old regimes Tittle opportunity in participation in governmental affairs. As long' as the people little understand the art of constitutional government, do not caro much about public affairs, and are not experienced in fulfilling their share in a popular govern-
There had been created in China unifying psychological force, which in itself was the bond that held the nation together by assimilating the fous elements on its population. In the conduct and destiny of the Chinese nation, the decline and fall of that unifying psychological force, that classical authority has an importance far transcending all cthers; for it involves fundament permutations of social and political conduct as well as complete oriental of religious and moral conceptions.
To some it must be a sorry sight lave to witness literature, art, religion, morality, government, customs—all that is' most important récumé of Chinese affairs. Its influence cannot be measured. The Jquate, so long will the leaders of the factions strive for the presid-croy under the mask of patriotism the cloak of constitutionalism.
In view of these difficulties, we! fare not surprised that many' get discouraged in the task of building of the democracy. And yet on the lether hand there is no going back to the pre-republican days. The' oid. system has irrevocably passed away and there. is no hope of its restoration. Thus one Chinese thinker write "The course of the Republic for the next generation of so ts fraught: with E2°S republic', Thus we are bro Brave dangers, and" yet China. must
fee" to face with. a. paradox Ess: "china must "be "North China" is 62 years old, as young and energetic fas ever. By continuing—its policy of service to its readers and giving an exact presentation of the news, there is guaranteed for it an even greater future. The "North China" worthily upholds the best tradition of British journalism, and J, for one, can only hope that it will continue to stand unmoved by all the contemporary changes in the Journalistic world. To the men who have worked and to the men who are jerking to make the "North what she is, all Chinese and ners alike owe a debt of gratitude which cannot be measured eithe= in money or in any other manner, for The Old Grandmother still stands sentinel at the gate of what in another G2 years will assuredly have become one of the greater industrial and commercial centres in the two hemispheres.
Knowing the spirit of Tse Ling, we may rest assured that she continue to "carry on.
Along this dark road there is but Jone sure guide, courage. No mar, kaying put his hand to the plough, and looking back is fit for this task, What fs Humbug?
The decline of political authority is abundantly manifest and it this makes Mr. Rodney Gil that "the Chinese Republic is Jeross humbug." A humbug is a pretence or imposition, professing to be what it is not. Every democracy, must be, at one time or other, a. humbug in some degree. To make practice coincide with theory after: all is a test in which many of us fail A republican form of [government is a very high ideal und cannot be attained in a day. The change from paternal autocracy. to a republic is so sudden and fundamental that apart. from changes in the outward form it necessitates a total orientation of ideas and conceptions of government. It is this change of ide inculcating of new hopes and Jaims and the realization of new rethe above too compliment-Jory article one slight misapprehen-_ [sion may be caused. The "North China Daily News" ig 62 years old, the "North China Herald" is-76.—
[sponsibilities become rightly the supreme task of this generation of Chinese, In the days of paternal autocracy, the responsibility of government lay with one man or small group of people, The one duty for the comzon citizen was to obey. Personal obedience was required of all good and faithful subjects. So politics im their modern signification were practically unknown. As one distinguished American observes, "the changes which China is undergoing st present_may be expressed. by Saying that Chinete society is becoming political, "Hitherto it" has fived from generation to generation by custom, with no consciousness of political aims or purposes; nor has the government itself been fluenced in its action by definite policies."
But the people must now realize that they, and they alone, are the masters of the house. They must assert their authori and, more than that, they must feel their responsibility. If it is not their busines it is nobody else's All this may sound mere platitude to the cars of my countrymen and yet T cannot emphasize and insist on the importance of such a realization too strongly; for we have Iinown i to our cost that it is not enough just to know that we are masters and to. know. that our Fesponsibilty is there. It will not do to realize all this after a con-
Scious effort the whole idea must be go familiar that it becomes an Instinctive habit and a second natare, Instead of the habit of obey-{ng and irresponsibly, there must hea new habit of political responsibility. Te is only then that genuine and unselfish public spirit fay. appear, without which no' republic will be a success. A great deal of China's visible shortcomings—from the problem of military dictatorship to that of Shanghai Chapet Waterworks—ie due to th volta trepponsibiity of the peo Responsibility Unknown Not only have the Chinese people rot acquired that habit of thought political responsibility, they are unaccustomed to the proper manner of accepting that, respon sibility. Tu the olden days when the relation between the ruler and the ruled was personal, morality and law wore oftentimes one and same thing. The distinction between public and private virtue Tractically unknown. As I have Shown in an earlier article, there has been an over-emphasis on a per. sonal aspect of things at the expense of public virtue and duty to Such an extent that the latter almost amounts to a niece abstraction. Public virtue consists in the respect for the majesty of the law which forms. the cornerstone of modern constitutional governments, If you take away from Western deriveracies the whole legal. edifice, everything will tumble to the dust, 'The question, which our foreign friends ask with righteous indigna-; tion in their grand editorial, "Where is the duc process of Inw?" is lost upon deaf ears of the men to whom' the question is put, These men simply do not appreciate the points itis too much a western subtlety. To them a right is always a right end a wrong is always a wrong and there are not two ways of proving: a right er a wrong, one moral and nother legal, The Dominion of Law But to our western friend, law in fits general and abstract conception an eternal star guiding him from birth to death. The reign of law ix absolute to the point of sacredness. It becomes so much a second nature to him that he can hardly imagine a society where law docs not hold its sway. Modern jurisprudence may be a fiction and the, great reverence paid to law may be a superstition or hypnotism. But is this more than anything else, that is holding modern democracies together, regulating all social and political' activities. Nothing is too small or great to escape the exten-ive dominion of law; it extends to 1 human relationships, and their relationships to the state, the final jand grand legal abstraction. In the; past we knew of 2 common superior in the person of the emperor whose. authority we recognized. Instead of that authority there is law. This respect for law which I call constitutional morality must be inculated and fostered till it, like their obedience of the old, becomes structive and a second nature.
In the field of politics and government there then is the need of discarding the ancient habit of irresponsibility and of acquiring a new sense and habit of responsibility; there is a necessity of forgetting that old obedience and taking on a new habit of respecting law. This change of habit both in thinking and acting is fundamental. I. wish Dr. Paul Reinsch's statement were true for the whole of Chinese iatBow all of a sudden, the pal EEEAGT of the" Chinee. neon, impaine i szronglyawal "They them the nations Tehich, are consciously guiding their policy from the paint of ational life and interests." And let our leaders listen and pond-ex over his concluding sentence "rhe intellectual and respons among the Chin lo ae feline arden, heed for for national poley, a ireful and" long-headed. foresight, well te calm firmness, in, the inonsgee of their national altairs:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.