108 



SCIEN'CE. 



[Vol. VIII , No. 183 



every ten miles. The tax at each station is small, 

 but, when the distance traversed is great, it may 

 reach fifty per cent of the gross value. No definite 

 control can be had over the income of these sta- 

 tions, as there is little or no check upon them. In 

 fact, the officers in charge generally get what they 

 can from the transporter, whose willingness to pay 

 depends very much upon whether he can evade 

 the tax by going round the station. Often the 

 carrier and collector wrangle over the price, and 

 finally settle upon one much less than first de- 

 manded. The data for estimating the sums derived 

 from this tax are more reliable than those of any 

 other. The minister at Pekin gives between seven- 

 teen and eighteen million taels as the annual in- 

 come from this source, and his figures are probably 

 nearly correct. Of this amount, about one-half is 

 derived from likin on salt and opium, the remainder 

 from various other goods. 



The entire amount of all the taxes which have 

 been spoken of reaches the sum of sixty-eight mil- 

 lion taels, or ninety-seven million dollars. The 

 amount which each province has to furnish is 

 estimated annually by the minister of finances. 

 Should some extraordinary necessity, as famine or 

 war, require larger contributions than are laid 

 down in the annual budget, those provinces most 

 likely to respond are called upon for additional 

 amounts. When the last cash is exhausted from 

 these sources, then recourse is had to extraordi- 

 nary means, appeals to wealthy citizens, requests 

 couched in such urgent terms that a disregard of 

 them is perilous. 



Not many reforms can be expected in China's 

 financial systems. The absolute monarchical gov- 

 ernment, the hordes of mandarins who find their 

 living in the present systems, and the yet general 

 distrust of foreign advice and counsel, all hinder 

 the empire from throwing off the shackles that 

 now impede her every movement. S. W. 



DRAWING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



For many years past, those who are most inter- 

 ested in improving the elementary education of 

 this country have been agreed that far more atten- 

 tion ought to be bestowed upon the art of draw- 

 ing. Those especially w^io are interested in schools 

 for manual training and in scientific schools have 

 been firm in demanding that all young scholars 

 should be encouraged, if not required, to attain 

 some proficiency in this useful art. Many have 

 insisted that drawing should be placed next in 

 importance to reading, writing, and arithmetic. 



Industrial and high art education in the United States 

 By I. Edwards Clarke. Washiugton, U. S. bureau of edu- 

 cation, 1885. 



and have regretted that the children in public 

 schools have been forced to give so much time to 

 acquiring a familiarity with geographical nomen- 

 clature, when an equal amount of labor would 

 have trained the eye to observe with minute ac- 

 curacy, and the hand to delineate with truth that 

 which the eye has seen. Notwithstanding this 

 unanimity of opinion among those who are quali- 

 fied to give advice, the schools of the country are 

 in general far from doing what they ought, to 

 provide instruction in drawing. Great advances 

 have been made within the past fifteen or twenty 

 years ; and in certain schools, and even in certain 

 groups of schools, good results have been attained. 

 It is now most important that the experience 

 which has been acquired, and the methods which 

 have been successfully employed, should be ascer- 

 tained, compiled, and promulgated in such ways 

 as will secure the widest consideration. 



For many years past, Mr. Isaac Edwards Clarke, 

 of the Bureau of education, has been engaged in 

 compiling such a report. Two or three times his 

 work has been made ready for the printer ; but its 

 issue has been postponed for the lack, we believe, 

 of adequate appropriations from congi'ess. At 

 length we have before us a volume of a thousand 

 pages, distributed in four parts. There is, first, a 

 series of papers by the author on ' The democracy 

 of art ; ' then an account of the efforts which have 

 been made to secure instruction in drawing in the 

 public schools ; third, a series of statistical tables 

 illustrating the condition of art schools and muse- 

 ums ; and, finally, an appendix, occupying four 

 hundred pages, and including a great variety of 

 reports, lectures, and schedules pertinent to the 

 subject of art education. The work is very com- 

 prehensive, being evidently designed for very dif- 

 ferent sorts of readers, — those who are interested 

 in the historical aspects of the subject, those who 

 need to be persuaded of the importance of art edu- 

 cation, and those who require to be enlightened 

 in respect to methods of instruction which have 

 been employed. By the use of the elaborate in- 

 dex, readers of all these classes may derive from 

 this volume much useful information not other- 

 wise accessible ; but the author would have ren- 

 dered an additional service if he had added with 

 greater freedom his own critical comments upon 

 the various plans which have been adopted. His 

 preliminary essays reveal the mind of one who has 

 long been familiar with the progress of the fine 

 arts, and who has been accustomed to reflect ui:)on 

 their relation to the progress of society. He points 

 out with clearness the influence of taste and skill 

 upon the enjoyments, the trade, and the prosper- 

 ity of the people. He touches with facility upon 

 all the indications which are to be seen, especially 



