These public-service examinations are conducted with the greatest impartiality.  They were established about a thousand years ago, and have been gradually improved during the intervening time.  They form the basis of the whole system of Chinese government.  They make a good education universally desirable, as the poorest man may see his son thus advanced to the highest position.  All of the hundreds of thousands who prepare to compete are obliged to know the whole system of Confucius, to commit to memory all his moral doctrines, and to become familiar with all the traditional wisdom of the land.  Thus a public opinion in favor of existing institutions and the fundamental ideas of Chinese government is continually created anew.

What an immense advantage it would be to our own country if we should adopt this institution of China!  Instead of making offices the prize of impudence, political management, and party services, let them be competed for by all who consider themselves qualified.  Let all offices now given by appointment be hereafter bestowed on those who show themselves best qualified to perform the duties.  Each class of offices would of course require a different kind of examination.  For some, physical culture as well as mental might be required.  Persons who wished diplomatic situations should be prepared in a knowledge of foreign languages as well as of international law.  All should be examined on the Constitution and history of the United States.  Candidates for the Post-Office Department should be good copyists, quick at arithmetic, and acquainted with book-keeping.  It is true that we cannot by an examination obtain a certain knowledge of moral qualities; but industry, accuracy, fidelity in work would certainly show themselves.  A change from the present corrupt and corrupting system of appointments to that of competitive examinations would do more just now for our country than any other measure of reconstruction which can be proposed.  The permanence of Chinese institutions is believed, by those who know best, to result from the influence of the literary class.  Literature is naturally conservative; the tone of the literature studied is eminently conservative; and the most intelligent men in the empire are personally interested in the continuance of the institutions under which they hope to attain position and fortune.

The highest civil offices are seats at the great tribunals or boards, and the positions of viceroys, or governors, of the eighteen provinces.

The boards are:—­

  Ly Pou, Board of Appointment of Mandarins. 
  Hou Pou, Board of Finance. 
  Lee Pou, Board of Ceremonies. 
  Ping Pou, Board of War. 
  Hing Pou, Board of Criminal Justice. 
  Kong Pou, Board of Works,—­canals, bridges, &c.