Mao. 28.
Some time ago it was good fortune io have as a travelling companion on a river steamer an official holding the rank of district magistrate in an inland city. He was an intelligent and genial man and we had many talks on the difficulties facing China to-day. When we had become sufficiently friendly to agree to disagree on some subjects he said: ''there is one thing which always amuses me when discussing Chinese affairs with men from the West.
Invariably, you praise the sterling qualities of the' Chinese people, their industry, honesty and veracity, but words fail to express your condemnation of the Chinese official for his absolute lack of all those qualities which make the people so admirable."' We had to confess that we had often spoken in the strain referred to, but supposed that every one agreed that the Chinese people really had the virtues attributed to them whereas the officials as conspicuously lacked them. '"But, protested our friend, don't you see that we officials are also people? We are not born officials. We attain our positions by study and effort. Were it possible for you to sweep out of existence all those who at present hold office in this country and replace them by men drawn straight from the soil, the men you would put in office would have exactly the same faults as you now find in us." We had to confess that this was very likely. A stream will not rise higher than its source and every government must be, in great measure, the reflexion of the people it represents. It is, therefore, a truism that every country gets, in the long run, the kind of government it deserves and no other. If the government is better than the mass of the nation, it will either raise the people nearer its own level or it will sink to their's. It is not possible that one standard of conduct should prevail among the people and another rule the actions of those who direct the affairs of state. It is for this reason that we have ever welcomed such manifestations of a spirit of nationalism in China as have come to our notice.
An enlightened public opinion is the best guarantee of good government in any country. But the corruption of the best makes
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.