Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/102

resses and for supplying ship-building timber as well as porcelain and glassware for use in the Palace. A third bureau is charged with the direction of matters relating to riverine conservation, to irrigation, to canals and bridges, to roads and sewers, and to the building of arsenals. A fourth attends to the condition of imperial mausolea, to the erection of sepulchres and memorial tablets for persons honoured with a state funeral, and to the interior decoration of temples and palaces. Finally, there is a special office for the management of the mint and another for the manufacture of gunpowder. This recital suggests a body of officials thoroughly efficient for all purposes of public works, but when the results are examined, it is seen that incompetence and perfunctoriness everywhere characterise this branch of state affairs. Rivers are not controlled, canals are not kept in a navigable condition, roads and bridges are not repaired, sewage is not removed, and public edifices are left in a state of dilapidation and decay. Such is the common rule in China to-day: a system irreproachable in theory, but wretchedly defective in practice.

An important branch of the central government is commonly called the Censorate, but in reality, as its Chinese name (Tu-chah-yuen, or tribunal of general examination) signifies, it may be more correctly described as an administrative court having also functions of inspection. Combined with the Board of Punishments and the