92 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



announcing that the Emperor had resigned 

 power to the Empress Dowager, who has since 

 retained the direction of affairs. 



Local Government. Each of the? is provinces is 

 ruled by a Governor or Governor General, who is re- 

 sponsible to the Emperor lor the entire administration, 

 political, judicial, military, and fiscal. He is assisted 

 by a council and various other officials, such as the 

 Treasurer, the sub-Commissioner, and the Literary 

 Chancellor. Each province is subdivided into depart- 

 ments ruled by prefects, and each department into dis- 

 tricts, each with a district ruler. Two or more depart- 

 ments are sometimes united into a tail, the ruler of 

 which is called a tcnitai. Each town and village has also 

 its governing body, and among the various rulers there 

 is regular gradation of rank, each being responsible to 

 his immediate superior. Political office in the gen- 

 eral administration of the Empire is less sought 

 after than the position of viceroy or povernor in the 

 provinces, where the opportunities of ac^ 'ring wealth, 

 not from official salaries but from gifts, etc., are abun- 

 dant. 



Religion. Three religions are acknowledged by the 

 Chinese as indigenous and adopted ; viz., Confucianism, 

 Buddhism, and Taoism. 



The Emperor is considered the solo high priest of the 

 Empire, and can alone, with his immediate representa- 

 tives and ministers, perform the great religious cere- 

 monies. No ecclesiastical hierarchy is maintained at 

 the public expense, nor any priesthood attached to the 

 Confucian religion. The Confucian isthe State religion, 

 if the respect paid to the memory of the great teacher 

 can be called religion at all. But distinct and totally 

 separate from the stated periodic observances of respect 

 offered to the memory of Confucius as the Holy Man of 

 old, and totally unconnected therewith, there is the dis- 

 tinct worship of Heaven (t'ien), in which the Emperor, 

 as the "sole high priest," worships and sacrifices to 

 " Heaven " every yearat the time of the winter solstice, 

 at the Altar.of Heaven in Peking. With the exception 

 of the practice of ancestral worship, which is every- 

 where observed throughout the Empire, and was fully 

 commended by Confucius, Confucianism has little out- 

 ward ceremonial. The study and contemplation and at- 

 tempted performance of the moral precepts of the 

 ancients constitute the duties of a Confucianist. Bud- 

 dhism and Taoism present a very gorgeous and elabo- 

 rate ritual in China, Taoism originally a pure philos- 

 ophy having abjectly copied Buddriist ceremonial 

 on the arrival of Buddhism 1,800 years ago. Large num- 

 bers of the Chinese in Middle and Southern China pro- 

 fess and practice all three religions. The bulk of the 

 people, however, are Buddhists. There are probably 

 about thirty million Mahometans, chiefly in the north- 

 east and southwest. Roman Catholicism has long had 

 a footing in China, and is estimated to have about 1,- 

 000,000 adherents, with 25 bishoprics besides those of 

 Manchuria, Tibet, Mongolia, and Corca. Other Chris- 

 tian societies have stations in many parts of the coun- 

 try, the number of Protestant adherents being estimated 

 at 50,000. Most of the aboriginal hill tribes are still 

 nature worshipers, and ethnically are distinct from the 

 prevailing Mongoloid population. 



Instruction. Education of a certain type is very 

 general, but still there are vast masses of adult country- 

 men in China who can neither read nor write. There 

 is a special literary class who alone know the literature 

 of their country, "to the study of which they devote 

 their lives. There are boarding schools and day schools 

 for boys and young men, the latter being held in the 

 entrance halls' of temples and in the spare chambers of 

 guilds, and in all the important cities there are colleges 

 for training candidates for degrees. Examinations, 

 mainly confined to moral philosophy and literature, are 

 held in the prefectorial cities of each province twice in 

 three years for the lower degree necessary as a passpori 

 to the public service, but of the six or seven thousand 

 candidates who come forward, not more than sixty can 

 be admitted to the degree by the Literary Chancellor. 

 For the higher degree, examinations are held in each 

 provincial capital once in three years, and the success- 

 ful candidates are subjected to a third and fourth ex- 

 amination, those who finally emerge being divided into 

 four classes to wait for appointments to offices of dif- 

 ferent grades. There are, however, other means (e.g. 

 military service) by which such appointments may be 

 obtaine'd. In 1887, for the first ,ime, mathematics were 

 admitted with the Chinese classics among the subjects 



of examination, and schools for the propagation of 

 Western science and literature are now on the increase 

 The " Tung Wen Kwan." or College of Foreign Knowl- 

 edge, at Peking, is a Government institution, where the 

 English, French, German, Japanese, and Russian lan- 

 guages, and mathematics, chemistry, physiology, etc., 

 are taught by European, Japanese, and American pro- 

 fessors, while the Chinese education of the pupils is 

 entmsted to Chinese teachers. There are. i 

 numerous Catholic and Protestant mission schools and 

 colleges at Shanghai and other ports, where the Eng- 

 lish language and lower branches of Western science 

 are taught. The Chinese Government has of late years 

 established naval and military colleges and torpedo 

 schools in connection with the different arsenals at 

 Tientsin, Nanking, Shanghai, and Foochow. iu which 

 foreign instructors are engaged to teach such young 

 Chinese as intend to make their career in the army or 

 navy of their country Western modes of warfare, he- 

 sides Western languages and literature. Ten Cliinc-c 

 newspapers are published at Shanghai, and the success 

 they have achieved has led to the establishment of others 

 at some of the other treaty ports. 



FRANCE. 



Since the overthrow of Napoleon III., on Sep- 

 tember 4, 1870, France has been under a Re- 

 publican* form of government, confirmed on 

 February 25, and June 16, 1875, by an organic 

 law (Constitution Wallon), which has been 

 partially modified in June, 1879, August, 1884, 

 June, 1885, and July, 1889. It vests the leg- 

 islative power in the Chamber of Deputies and 

 the Senate, and the executive in the President 

 of the Republic and the Ministiy. 



The President is elected for seven years, by 

 a majority of votes, by the Senate and Cham- 

 ber of Deputies united in a National Assembly, 

 or Congress. He promulgates the laws voted 

 by both Chambers, and ensures their execu- 

 tion. He selects a Ministry from the Cham- 

 ber, appoints to all civil and military posts, 

 has the right of individual pardon, and is 

 responsible only in case of high treason. The 

 President concludes treaties with foreign 

 Powers, but cannot declare war without the 

 previous assent of both Chambers. Every act 

 of the President has to be countersigned by a 

 Minister. With the consent. of the Senate he 

 can dissolve the Chamber of Deputies. In 

 case of vacancy, the two Chambers united im- 

 mediately elect a new President! 



The Ministers or Secretaries of State, tin- 

 number of whom varies, are usually, but not 

 necessarily, members of the Senate or Cham- 

 ber o'f Deputies. The President of the Coun- 

 cil (Premier) chooses his colleagues in concert 

 with the President of the Republic. Each 

 Minister has the direction of one of the great 

 administrative departments, and each is respon- 

 sible to the Chambers for his acts, while the 

 Ministry as a whole is responsible for the gen- 

 eral policy of the Government. 



The Ministry is constituted as follows : 



President of the Council and Minister of the 

 Interior. 



Minister of Finance. 



Minister of Foreign Affairs. 



