Tests of scholarship and qualifications for office have undergone a complete change.  The regulation essay, for centuries supreme in the examinations for the civil service, is abolished; and more solid acquirements have taken its place.  It takes time to adjust such an ancient system to new conditions.  That this will be accomplished is sufficiently indicated by the fact that in May, 1906, degrees answering to A. M. and Ph.  D. were conferred on quite a number of students who had completed their studies at universities in foreign countries.  As a result there is certain [Page 214] to be a rush of students to Europe and America, the fountain-heads of science.  Forty young men selected by Viceroy Yuen from the advanced classes of his schools were in 1906 despatched under the superintendence of Dr. Tenney to pursue professional studies in the United States.  That promising mission was partly due to the relaxation of the rigour of the exclusion laws.

The Chinese assessor of the Mixed Court in Shanghai was dismissed the same year because he had condemned criminals to be beaten with rods—­a favourite punishment, in which there is a way to alleviate the blows.  Slicing, branding, and other horrible punishments with torture to extort confessions have been forbidden by imperial decree.  Conscious of the contempt excited by such barbarities, and desirous of removing an obstacle to admission to the comity of nations, the Government has undertaken to revise its penal code.  Wu-ting-fang, so well known as minister at Washington, has borne a chief part in this honourable task.  The code is not yet published; but magistrates are required to act on its general principles.  When completed it will no doubt provide for a jury, a thing hitherto unknown in China.  The commissioners on legal reform have already sent up a memorial, explaining the functions of a jury; and, to render its adoption palatable, they declare that it is an ancient institution, having been in use in China three thousand years ago.  They leave the Throne to infer that Westerners borrowed it from China.

The fact is that each magistrate is a petty tyrant, embodying in his person the functions of local governor, [Page 215] judge, and jury, though there are limits to his discretion and room for appeal or complaint.  It is to be hoped that lawyers and legal education will find a place in the administration of justice.

Formerly clinging to a foreign flagstaff, the editor of a Chinese journal cautiously hinted the need for some kinds of reform.  Within this lustrum mirabile the daily press has taken the Empire by storm.  Some twenty or more journals have sprung up under the shadow of the throne, and they are not gagged.  They go to the length of their tether in discussing affairs of state—­notwithstanding cautionary hints.  Refraining from open attack, they indulge in covert criticism of the Government and its agents.

Social reforms open to ambitious editors a wide field and make amends for exclusion from the political arena.  One of the most influential recently deplored the want of vitality in the old religions of the country, and, regarding their reformation as hopeless, openly advocated the adoption of Christianity.  To be independent of the foreigner it must, he said, be made a state church, with one of the princes for a figurehead, if not for pilot.