At one time, as the following brief history will show, the Banaer-men claimed special privileges, included among which was that—of tribute rice. Now they can no longer demand those privi ges, and the era of railways in China has superseded, to. a large extent, the system of granaries throughout the Empire. It has been the custom for thousands of years to keep a huge granary, in which reserve grain was stored, at. Taianfu, in Shansi, and this was looked after by the Bannermen Now, however, the need for this supervision—if so it may be called—does not exist, and with the legation of the granary to an ordinary barn for reserve grain, and the stopping of the supply of rice to Bannermen after the revolution placed them in a most unfortunate position.
The history of the Bannerman, dating as it does from the very early days, forms interesting reading, and for the following facts we are indebted to Mr. Mayers, contained in his book dealing with the constitution of the former Chinese army.
Rank and Class.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.