52 Memorandum on Education in China. [No. 1. 



latitude always being allowed, justice rather than equity being 

 looked for in their Courts, aud a surplus, rather thau a nicely 

 adjusted balance, in their accounts. 



They have no industrial, agricultural or Art-Schools, sons, gener- 

 ally following in the footsteps of their fathers, thus rendering these 

 unnecessary, for though, says the Ex-Commissioner their establish- 

 ment might lead to improvement, they are not required, things going 

 on very well as they are, and no improvement being wanted. 



The study of languages is also neglected, for, as Teh says, all 

 foreigners who go to China learn Chinese, and what is the use of 

 our taking all the trouble of learning foreign languages, to no end, 

 for he ignores or disbelieves the fact, that foreign literature could 

 give him many new ideas ; in short, all knowledge, save of the 

 writings of the wise men of China, is considered useless and 

 unprofitable. 



But although the area is so circumscribed, it takes a long time 

 travelling over, so slowly do they progress, and some are thirty or 

 forty years at their books, before they can take even the first degree, 

 it is possible, however, to take them all at an early age, an instance 

 being mentioned of a boy of sixteen gaining a chair in the Imperial 

 College, while Yeh was only nineteen when he took his first, and 

 nine and twenty when he took his last degree, — knowledge being 

 the sole qualification required. 



The final examination, that for the degree of Hanlin, is held by 

 the Emperor himself, assisted by the wisest members of the College, 

 that for the next or Doctor, is also held at Pekin, the expenses of 

 the successful candidates from and back to their villages, being 

 defrayed by Government even for the next, that equivalent to the 

 English Master of Arts examination, it is thought necessary to send 

 special Examiners down from Pekin, who, while on their Mission, 

 rank with the highest provincial authorities, the last degree alone 

 being conferred by the Literary Chancellor, an Official equal in 

 rank to the Lieutenant-Governor of a Province. 



Such is a brief sketch of male education, which, widely spread as 

 it is, exercises a powerful influence over the Chinese mind, but 

 which, ignoring as it does religion, as Yeh confesses, merely checks 

 upen vice and utterly fails in its great object to make men good. 



