200 REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 



method is somewhat complicated, and in the words of Dr. Parker 

 it "would puzzle the shrewdest firm of chartered accountants." 



The Republican government is in the throes of transition. It 

 hasn't got as far as the Imperial power in its financial arrangements 

 yet, for the provincial authorities are inclined to pocket everything 

 and not even prepared to compromise by sending a lump sum to 

 Peking. And the poverty-stricken capital is forced to the method of 

 embarrassing loans which threaten to bring the country to the verge 

 of ruin. 



Possibly the phase of government that most troubles the Re- 

 publicans is one involving order and freedom. Order if possible, but 

 freedom at any rate. Whether both can be won and maintained is a 

 question. For one thing the standard of the people must be fairly 

 high to gain such an end ; and whilst the Chinese people have been 

 trained in the past in a certain amount of democratic government, — 

 yet it has been a self-control always under the overhanging sword of 

 a despotic authority. And it is doubtful whether the substitution of 

 such by ideals in the mind is yet strong enough to give them self 

 constituted order and the freedom so much desired. 



Some other questions of finances is the one of exchange and the 

 standard of the tael. An English traveller once said that in travelling, 

 a hundred taels would soon disappear simply by loss of exchange. 

 These topics are luminously handled by Dr. Morse ; and his description 

 of the different natures of the tael in Shanghai alone is appalling. 

 It makes one's head ache to try and understand it. It is a tale that 

 has no end apparently. The method of exchange works havoc and gives 

 endless opportunities for malpractices ; and the system is undoubtedly 

 the cause of China's weakness. 



This book is written in a judicial spirit. The subjects are treated 

 without bias and impartially. In this respect we think especially 

 of the chapters dealing with weights and measures, extraterritoriality, 

 and the opium question. 



There is one thing about this book which we like very much. 

 It is its happy comparisons ; such as the acute contrasts between the 

 democracy of the IT. S. and China (pp. 36-37) ; that of the limitations 

 of monarchy with that of England (p. 16). These and other comparisons 

 throughout the book are stated with great perspicacity. And so is 

 the statement regarding the word taboo. We don't remember ever 

 seeing the matter so felicitously presented. 



Dr. Morse shows how foreign intercourse has tended and helped 

 to centralize authority. He traces each event in its final result towards 

 this end. This is a very important point and often lost sight of. But 

 here we have a relation of these unseen and often imperceptible forces 



