The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-03-25
Some Anomalies Of the Chinese Gov.
ernment.

The North China Herald, in an article
on the constitution of the Chinese En-
pire, referring to some of the anomalies
which puzzle foreigner, says:
GAS long as there are no hereditary
legislators, so long will China present to
European eyes an inconsistent picture.
The constitution is a hybrid thing be-
tween republic and despotism. Some
of the theories which underlie the Chi
nese Government are essentially republi-
can. Every man Except some degraded
casts, such as BARRIERS and stage players
can rise to the highest Offices of the State,
and this rise is possible not to the acci-
dental winners of imperial favor, as in
Turkey, but to the man who shows most
proficiency in that learning which is es-
teemed the best training for Office. Then,
again, there is the recognition of the right
of ftyrannicide laid down by Mencius, and,
as the late Thomas Taylor Meadows
pointed out, there is the right of rebel
lion when the acts of the sovereign reach
a certain pitch of cruelty; the final safe.
guard of liberty and the last argument of
the oppressed. But if China has some of
| the blessings of the republic, it has also
some of its banes. 1t has been often said
that the course of the middle kingdom is
its oficialism. Mr. Bagehot pointed out
that the existence of an order of nobility
saves a nation from two idolatries. First,
from the idolatry of mere money. Now,
China, not having anything answering to
a House of Peers, is at the mercy of mere
wealth. Hence, servility, meanness, dis
honesty, and 3 hundred kindred vices
corrode the national character. And,
unfortunately, the Chinese are unprotec-
ted from n worship more perilous to the
individuals self-respect than that of
wealth. The existence of house of
hereditary legislators would save the
Chinese from the idolatry of Office. To
quote Mr.. Bagehot: The basest deity is
a subordinate employee, and yet just now
in civilized governments it is the CON-
monest. In France and all the rest of
the continent it rules like superstition.
tits to no purpose to prove that their
! pay is smaller than mercantile pay, and
their work is more monotonous than mer-
camille work; that their mind is less use
full and their life more tame. They are
still thought to be greater and better.
They are decores; they have little red
on the left breast of their coat, and DO
argument will answer that These re-
marks, made when France was under
Napoleon III, are terribly true of Ger
many now, and they may be extended to
China. The worship of oficialism is as
damaging to national character as the
corruption of officialdom. In England q
clerk in the public service is nobody :
and you could not make common Eng.
lishman see why he should be anybody.
In China the commonest and smallest
clerk with a button is parsonage, and
the people who are brought into contact
with him are degraded by compulsory
cringing to authority without any nobili-
ty or even wealth behind it. Respect is
compelled because the Magistrates clerk
has the power to delay the, acceptance Of
claims and to obstruct justice in its pro-
gress toward the unfortunate individual
who has to sue in forma pauperis for that
which in any European country Except
Russia) would be regarded as right In
this consists the hardships of the China
mans lot. He is oppressed by those
whom he cannot for q moment respect"