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in commutation of punishments. But if this function of superintending jails be performed at all, its results are absolutely imperceptible. The sum of the matter is that while the machinery of government is admirably constructed, its working achievements are strikingly defective. "If," writes Dr. Wells Williams, "the administration of the law in China corresponded with the equity of most of its enactments, or with the caution taken to prevent collusion, malversation, and haste on the part of the judges, it would be incomparably the best governed country out of Christendom." A tribute of respect must at least be paid to the men who devised this system. It is one of the remnants of China's great past.

The Board of Works (Kung-po) is another illustration of Chinese capacity for organising administrative machinery. It has the direction and government of all public works throughout the Empire and the control of expenditures incurred on account of them. Among its bureaux there is one that superintends the manufacture of all war-like material; takes charge of arsenals, military stores, and camp equipage; regulates weights and measures, and, by a strange combination of duties, sorts and appraises the pearls obtained from fisheries, and furnishes death-warrants to governors and generals. Another bureau is responsible for the condition of city walls; of palaces, temples, altars, and other public edifices; for the furnishing of tents and utensils used on imperial prog-