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which does not repine at the consequences of an unfortunate contract. Judicial procedure being an abomination to respectable Chinese, their security in commercial dealings is based as much upon reason, good faith, and non-repudiation as that of Western nations is upon verbal finesse in the construction of contracts." Other writers have endorsed this appreciation, though in soberer language. Thus the Rev. A. H. Smith, for twenty-nine years a missionary in China, says: "If there are any spheres of activity for which the Chinese race appears to be by nature specially fitted, they may be comprehensively classified under the terms production and exchange. A Chinese knows how to make the most of materials which he has, and he knows how to carry the products of his industry to the places where he will be likely to receive the greatest return for his pains. He is ready to go on long journeys, submit to inconveniences and hardships of every kind for long periods together, and do it as a business for the sake of small rewards. He is a producer, and he is an instinctive and highly skilled trader. Yet, for all this, the Chinese do not place a high value upon trade as such. Attention has often been called to the instructive fact that, of the four classes into which they divide the inhabitants of the Central Empire, scholars are named first, farmers second, workmen third, and traders last. Chinese officials have always adopted the tone of lofty contempt for the trading