REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 199 



logical and detailed statements that will tax his brain and demand 

 real study. We cannot too highly praise the contents of each chapter. 

 The arrangement and expression are excellent and the language simple 

 and direct. There are no unnecessary words. Notwithstanding the 

 dryness of the subject it makes pleasant reading. Much of this 

 is due to treatment and style. 



Dr. Morse must have kept careful note books and made many 

 investigations. We have the results of these studious explorations 

 placed before us in a clear and succinct form. It is a book that the 

 student of Chinese affairs must keep by him as a necessary instrument 

 of reference. 



It is a volume for the general reader on Chinese things as well 

 as for the specialist on the subjects treated, the statistics of trade 

 and the method of administration in particular. 



Here we have the perennial question of government presented to 

 us in a lucid way. It does us good to be reminded what a difficulty it 

 is to govern and be governed. We don't always realize this. The 

 successive chapters on Imperial and Republican governments show the 

 contrast in ideas and methods. It would be unfair to the new to 

 compare it in results with the old. The Imperial was settled 

 and fixed for centuries ; apart from occasional devastating rebellions 

 it ran its course smoothly and on definite lines. Coin-promise was the 

 cardinal rule and we clearly see its working in the finances of old China 

 in the relationship between the Central and Provincial authorities. 

 The Central government had to be satisfied with an annual, com- 

 pounded sum from each province. Whether there ever existed another 

 method in China whereby the detailed receipts' of the revenue were 

 transmitted to the Central government every year like the method in 

 vogue under the Inland Revenue in England is unknown. Though 

 we have the impression that Kang Hsi attempted to get some such 

 methods, and thereby increased the revenue considerably. But con- 

 sidering the state of the country, its wide extent, and the primitive 

 communications, as well as the corruptibility of the human heart, the 

 Imperial power has always compromised and accepted a lump sum. 

 Experience must have early taught them the advantage of this method. 

 Even a provincial governor found it almost impossible, as the 

 governor of Shansi once told the writer, to get a satisfactory itemised 

 return from the various departments. "There is ample revenue," he 

 said, "but where it goes to I failed to find out, clothed as I was 

 with authority." How much more difficult it would be for the 

 Central Authority to get such returns from 21 provinces is clear. And 

 this compromise, the Farming out of the Revenue, is treated by Dr. 

 Morse in a clear and concise manner. Even thus simplified, the 



