The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-17

viii China Also Have a Constitution?

INfNlANl lANNA NNh'sh ~
his subjects a constitution based on the
fundamental principle Of representative
government, than a report was sub
mittcd to the Emperor of China by the
commission appointed to inquire into
the internal condition of the Empire and
20 report as to the expediency Of insti-
tuting executive reform. The report,
which, after Investigations in the United
states and Europe, was signed by nine
tenths Of the members of the commits
sion, recommended the Throne to ac-
Ccpt a system of constitutional govern
ment identical in many respects with
that now operative in Japan. The de-
tails of the proposal have been expounded
in the London Tribune, by Mr.. l.. H.
CHEZ, a Chinese student in the British
metropolis, who was associated with the
members of the commission during their
visit to England last summer.
Il seems that the commission begins
with advising that the State Council,
nominated by the Emperor, by which
at present China is governed from Pekin,
80 far as it is centrally governed at all,
should be converted into n kind of Brit
ish Cabinet, in which the heads of all
the State departments should be included.
1t Is not at present proposed that the
members of the State Council should be
subject 10 direct election. If, however,
the provincial parliaments, which con-
stitute the most important feature Of
the scheme, should prove successful, each
province would send from its Parliament
q nominee TO the central executive in
Pekin. If the wishes of the commission
are carried out, each of the eighteen
provinces into which China proper is
divided will have a constitution of its
own providing for an elective Parlia-
ment, which will choose the provincial
executive, who, however, will be subOrdi-
nate to a Governor nominated by the
Emperor in the place of the existing
Viceroy. Whether this Governor would
have only the limited powers exercised
by the official of that name in a British
se~lf-governing colony, OF whether his
functions would rather correspond to
those of a Governor in a British Crown
Colony, seems not as yet to have been
determined. IL is settled, however,
that the qualification fer a vote in each
of the eighteen provinces will be solely
educational, property counting for moth
ing. This, of course, is in conformity
with the traditions of China, where for
upward of two thousand years the sue
cessful passing Of a series of literary
examinations has been the sole means
of 'acquiring high public Office.
The conviction was expressed by Mr..
CHEZ that a part of the commissions
report, that, namely, which provides
for a reorganization of the State Coun-
Gil, will be adopted at no distant day,
particularly as the most powerful sub
ject in China, YUAN CHI KAI, the Vice
roy of Chih-li, though originally OPP
posed to the movement for "a cOnstitu-
tion, is now willing to cooperate with
the progressive members of the commits
sion, Whether that part of the report
which proposes provincial paTliaments, to
be elected on an educational franchise,
will also be carried out, depends, it is ad-
mitted, on the strength of the popular de-
sire for representative institutions. Here
It may be useful to point out two OF the
differences between the condition of
the Chinese people to-day and that Of
the Japanese in 1868, when their new era
began. There is no doubt that from
one point Of view the Chinese situation
Is less favorable to the introduction Of
sweeping political reform. The social
and political reorganization of Japan
was backed by the authority Of the
MikadO, the descendant Of an imme-
mortal native dynasty, who was re-
garded with trust and generation by
his subjects. In China, on the other
hand, the reigning Manchu dynasty is
an alien family, having gained the throne
by conquest, and having held it only
about two and a half centuries. 1t is at
present distrusted and disliked, and its
Endorsement of political reforms might
cause these to be suspected by the Chi
nese, unless they we're such al strongly
TO commend themselves to the good sense
OF the native population.
That they would so commend them
selves, however, is a fair deduction from
a fact often overlooked, namely, that
from a certain point of view the Chinese
are much better fitted for self-govern-
ment to-day than we're the Japanese
in 1883. Up to its overthrow in the year
just named, the feudal system had been
firmly planted for many centuries in
Japan, whereas in China the feudal sys-
ten had been demolished in the third
century B. c. When we speak of the
present Chinese Government as effete
and corrupt VIZ mea the central ad-
ministration and its delegates in the
provinces. But il these we're the only
agencies Of government, it would be
impossible to account for the peace
and order which undoubtedly prevail
throughout most of China, and amid
which its agricultural and manufacture