Morning journal and courier., 1893-06-12
A Mat-and-BedquiIt Government

lrfom the Lonoon Hines
 The North China Herald of Shanghai, in a recent leading article. describes what it calls "the mst-sud- -bedauilt theory of gov ernmenr in that country. It says that the traveller who is strollIng about the principal tboroughfsres of Pekin Is liable, at crossing of two main streets, to find huge screen of patch work cloth suspended from poles in such & way as to obstruct the view from all sides, only 6 narrow opening being left for carts and pedestri- ans. Pursuing his way, he notices that the entrance to all the many alleys is bar ricaded with rush. mats, and that the same kind of screen is placed in front of ruined temples and vacant lots which have been
 used as the places of deposit of filth or rubbish. Whenever the emperor Is about
 to make his exit from the city, or is about to return, criers announce that fact
 to the people, who then disappear, not 10
 emerge until the invisible monarch has
 psssed, when things go on as usual until
 the next occasion of like nature.
 There are two main benefits supposed to
 be attached to this charscterlstically Ori-
 ental prooeeding-it helps to preserve the
 fiction of the sacredness of the person of
 the emperor. and of his being something other than an ordinary mortal, and it is .
 valuable check upon reckless sssAssins of
 tho Guiteau type. whom China could easi- ly furnish in unlimited numbers. A third resnlt Is incidental As the people see nothing of the emperor, so he sees noth- ing of the people. He is probably the only man in China who Is unable to form any idea of what the Chinese are like ol what they are about. What is seen in the imperial court Is no type either of Chins l or of the Chinese, but 1t must be a literal impossibility for the emperor to get any. | thing else upon which to base a notion ot his empire. What does the emperor
 think, how much does he know, what does
 he think that he knows, does he think al | all, what is the specific gravity of the darkness in which he perpetually sbides, him though the opaque oyster -shells known ss "bosrdsf"
 This mat-snd- -bedquilt theory of govern ment Is not confined to the emperor, but runs all the way through the ranks of off | cisldom- The district magistrate Is SUD- posed to be the man that knows his dis | trict, and the prefect the man that knows hie prefecture; but these are mere figures of speech used in & purely ideal way. No ons.in district knows less of what is go- | ing on within its boundaries than the chief officials; no one would have more trouble | in finding out what is going on, supposing he really desired to know. As rule there is no one who really cares less to know, or who considers 1t less his business to know, provided the taxes are paid and the peo- | ple are .'tranquilized-" It is very diff cult for most Chinese officials to come to any useful conclusion as to their duties, | for the reason that they generally have too | little interest in the matter, and are in re- aIity almost ss much pinioned in shsckles as the prisoners at the doors of their ya- mems wearing wooden platforms about | their necks, but with this difference, that | the sentence on the prisoner Is for 6 dsf- | nite term and end, while that of the off cisl is too often limited only by his life. | Chinese officisldom is largely shut up in e
 shell. just as it w1s 6 generation ago, and | if we hear the hammsfing within 1t Is much more likely to be a defence against
 those outside to prevent their breaking in
 than an effort on the part of the impriE- | onsd to get out.