The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1845-12-05

!. QUALITIES anu dQuiSiliOnn, uSCcitoih'
= ed by public examinations, are the
established road to distinction of al
F.. kinds; these examinations are oper
! to all the poor and the humble, as
well as the rich and the titled ; they
| are conducted by the government,
: and those candidates who prove
s themselves the most meritorious are
selected for appointments to the va
cant Offices of the first or the lowest
degree they attain promotion gra-
dually, through time and merit, just
as our officers in the army and navy:
and, if guilty Of improper conduct
are degraded sometimes through one
or more, sometimes through all the
degrees of political hierarchy, but
can again recover their position by
deserving it again. TO comprehend
this fully, suppose that in our navy a
captain who had incurred punish
ment, instead of being suspended or
deprived of pay for term of years,
should he be degraded to the rank OF
lieutenant or of midshipman, with,
however, the right to work himself
up, if he can, by merit of his former
rank. t.. .... ...-
This is the universal system of
government in China. The rank of
officers is denoted bv their costume,
and more especially by knob worn
on top of their hat, or rather cap.
The rank called Mandarin by us is
unknown in China, and is purely a
sport" word. The general term
among the Chinese is public officers.
Public opinion is regarded habitual-
ly by the government Of China as
much as in Great Britain or the Uni
ted States, and all public questions
are as much argued to by the peo-
pie. Newspapers abound, and it is
frequent to observe handbills post
ed on the walls containing elaborate
discussions and defences of impor-
tant public measures. They have
their red book, exhibiting, Ike our
blue book, list of all the public Of
Gcers, and the Trung ching-szc is
branch of the government specially
appropriated to the reception of
complaints against officers on the
part of the people. Besides all this
there are periodical addresses made
to the people by the sovereign in
culcating moral as well as political
duties, and some of the moaarchs
have been voluminous and success
full authors. Further to guard "a
gainst evil on the part of the rulers,
the Too chee-yuen, or censoratc, is
bound to watch and reprovc, if need
be, the sovereign as wei as all 9th
ers in authority.
One feature in the policy of the
country is the great annual agricul-
tural ceremony, at which the Empe-
ror takes the plough in the presence
of the assembled myriads of people
and great officers of state and army
to testify his respect for agriculture,
the primary art Of human life, and
the true foundation of the opulence
and power of the empire. The wri-
tings of ConGucius upon religion,
& c., consisting chiefly, however, of
moral and political precepts, are
univ ersally read by all scholars, and
cxpounded to those unable to read,
and they have, | think, even more
influence in China than the Bible in
Cbristen dom. Herein we may see
one efficient cause of the stability
and subordl nation which character
ize the social organization ofthe en-
pirc. The Chinese literature is We
ry copious. They publish as much,
and at as cheap a rate, as in the
United States. Al, men read and
write, far beyond what we find to be
the case in Europe; that is, there
arc very many more out OF every
thousand men in Europe. WHO can
not read and write, than in China.
The language is wholly peculiar.
Originally in part hieroglyphic, by
abridgement the picture character
of the language has entirely passed
away. Signs are to the eye arbitra-
ry in form as much as our letters,
but each sign represents a thing, or
rather an idea, and the primitive
signs are variously combined for
signs ofnew or complex ideas. There
is no alphabet--each character being
a word denoting an idea or a class
of ideas. There are said to be eigh-
ty thousand of these separate char
acters or combinations of characters
a knowledge of at least ten thousand
Of which is necessary to tolerablc
with the language.
Hence the vast labor Of learning to
read and write, which has converted
the whole empire into q great school
of education, and causes, as it were,
the rewards and punishments Of col
lege marks to continue through life.
4 Al