CHINA. 



89 



26,744 tons burden, and 111 sailing vessels, of 

 40,363 tons. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 length of railroads in operation in 1898 was 2,662 

 miles, of which 1,223 miles belonged to the Govern- 

 ment. The Government railroads cost 84,902,425 

 pesos to build. The receipts in 1898 were 13,- 

 738,667 pesos; expenses, 12,788,749 pesos. 



The post office during 1898 forwarded 12,454,050 

 letters and postal cards, 16,020,957 packets of 

 printed matter, and 1,423,904 other packets. The 

 postal receipts were 953,128 pesos; expenses, 

 1,028,333 pesos. 



The telegraph lines, belonging to the Govern- 

 ment, had a length of 9,968 miles, with 11,200 miles 

 of wire, in 1898. The number of messages for the 

 year was 1,181,960. Railroad and private lines 

 had a length of 2,613 miles. 



Political Affairs. The dispute with the Ar- 

 gentine Republic with regard to the boundary in 

 Patagonia, which endangered the peace between 

 the two nations and led to the acquisition of ex- 

 pensive armaments, naval and military, on both 

 sides, was finally referred to the arbitration of the 

 British Government, which appointed arbitrators, 

 who met in February, 1900. The questions pend- 

 ing with Peru and Bolivia were still the subject 

 of negotiation. The Chilian Congress began its 

 session on June 2. The state of the country was 

 described by President Errazuriz in his opening 

 speech as satisfactory. A surplus of 1,000,000 

 sterling was on hand, besides a special fund for 

 the conversion of the paper currency, which had 

 been accumulated without difficulty. The Govern- 

 ment intended to bring in measures for an extraor- 

 dinary amortization of the public debt. 



CHINA, an empire in eastern Asia. The Gov- 

 ernment, as laid down in the regulations of the 

 Tsing dynasty, is based on the government of the 

 family, and in theory the Emperor exercises su- 

 preme paternal authority. The principles and 

 system of government were taken over by the 

 Manchu conquerors from the Ming dynasty, and 

 have been established since the age of Confucius. 

 The acts of government are largely regulated by 

 precedents running back thousands of years. Im- 

 perial affairs are under the direct control of the 

 Cabinet, called Neiko, consisting of 4 members, 

 2 of whom must be Manchus and 2 Chinese. They 

 are advised by 2 members of the Hanlin College, 

 whose function it is to see that all edicts and 

 proclamations conform in style and substance 

 with dynastic regulations and Confucian precepts. 

 All important questions are decided by the Grand 

 Council, the Chun-Chi-Chu, under the Ming em- 

 perors a purely civilian body, becoming a military 

 council after the conquest of 1644, and now again 

 civilian in its character and functions, but having 

 control over the Manchu army. Unless the Em- 

 peror is a strong and resolute ruler, this council, 

 composed of 5 or 6 of the highest officers of state, 

 both Manchus and Chinese, wields the real author- 

 ity of government. The business is transacted in 

 secret, usually in the presence of the Emperor. 

 Decrees and orders are issued in the Emperor's 

 name to the executive boards in Pekin and to 

 the provincial authorities, and the Emperor is 

 practically constrained to accept the decisions of 

 his council, which in recent years always includes 

 one or more of the princes of the royal family 

 who hold the highest commands in the Banner 

 army. Subordinate to the Cabinet are the boaixls 

 of administration, presided over each by a Manchu 

 and a Chinese. One board, called the Civil Office, 

 supervises the conduct and administration of the 

 officials, confers titles, and grants rewards and 

 precedence for meritorious conduct; another, the 



Board of Revenue, manages the finances; the 

 third, the Board of Rites, enforces the laws re- 

 lating to the ceremonies of the court and all 

 public functions ordered by the Emperor, and 

 regulates the rites called for by an eclipse or any 

 national calamity; the fourth, the War Board, 

 has charge of military affairs and directs the 

 movements of troops; the fifth is the Board of 

 Public Works; the sixth, the Board of Punish- 

 ments, is the high court of criminal jurisdiction. 

 A seventh board, the Admiralty Office, created in 

 1885, sits at Tientsin and directs naval affairs. 

 The board of censors, consisting of 40 to aO mem- 

 bers, presided over also by a Manchu and a Chi- 

 nese, is independent of the Government, the mem- 

 bers having the duty of watching over all branches 

 of the administration and the right to present re- 

 monstrances and memorials to the Emperor re- 

 garding any public need or evil or any relapses 

 from the ancient standards. Their duty is to 

 keep the Emperor informed of all that is going 

 on in any part of his dominions that is worthy 

 of his notice, and in particular to keep an eye 

 on malfeasance or oppression on the part of the 

 officials. The Tsung-li-Yamen, or Foreign Office, 

 is a modern body which since 1861 has conducted 

 all business with Western nations and with insti- 

 tutions directed by foreigners, such as the Mari- 

 time Customs and the Pekin University. It is 

 composed of all the members of the Grand Coun- 

 cil and about as many other high officials. 



The Celestial Empire and the Middle Kingdom 

 are names that the Chinese give to their own 

 country, which they believe to occupy the greater 

 part of the earth and to contain most of its in- 

 habitants. The Emperor of China is not only 

 regarded as the father of his people, possessing in 

 theory all the property and the power of life and 

 death over his subjects, but he is also the Son of 

 Heaven, the only human being who can mediate 

 with the celestial powers by sacrificing on the 

 altar of heaven. China does contain over a fourth 

 of the earth's population, but has long been the 

 fountain of Asiatic civilization. The rulers of 

 Asia have willingly acknowledged a formal vas- 

 salage to the Celestial court. When trade first 

 brought European governments into relation with 

 the Pekin authorities the envoys of Europe, partly 

 through ignorance and partly because they saw 

 no other way of facilitating their immediate busi- 

 ness of securing trading advantages for their coun- 

 trymen, accepted the position that was accorded 

 them, that of representatives of vassal states. 

 The Chinese, judging Europeans from their greed 

 of money and the grosser vices- exhibited by them 

 in the seaport towns, finding them, moreover, en- 

 tirely ignorant of the elaborate forms of respect 

 displayed by Chinese toward one another and of 

 all Chinese standards of culture and refinement, 

 regarded them as a low order of beings, outside 

 barbarians, foreign devils who brought ill luck. 

 While Europeans unwittingly offended Chinese 

 proprieties and roused superstitious repugnance 

 in countless ways, they were the unconscious ob- 

 jects of incessant insult and contemptuous deri- 

 sion. The treaty of Tientsin, signed after the 

 occupation of Pekin by British and French troops 

 in 1860, first recognized the right of European 

 governments to maintain embassies in Pekin, as 

 well as that of foreign traders to reside in Canton, 

 Amoy, Fuchau, Ningpo, and Shanghai. Russia, 

 for her friendly attitude toward China during the 

 war, obtained the cession of the Amur province, 

 and a few years later acquired the northern Man- 

 churian coast lands with the harbor of Vladivos- 

 tok. All eastern Siberia was Chinese until the 

 Russians occupied it in the time of Peter the 



