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revenue for the support of their less fortunate neighbours, and in cases of great emergency (as, for example, on the occasion of the Mohamme- dan insurrection in Yunnan fifty years ago) several provinces are laid under monetary contribution for the direct succour of the jeopardised region. Sometimes, too, a group of provinces combine to memorialise the Throne on a subject of common interest. But in the main the provinces are separate states. Their relations with the imperial metropolis, too, are limited. They have to make to the central exchequer yearly contributions the amount of which is fixed by the Board of Revenue in the capital, and they have to send up their annual contingent of students to compete for the prizes of the civil service. But for the rest Peking does not interfere with them. It neither harasses them with new laws nor makes, as a rule, any troublesome scrutiny into their affairs. The fundamental principle is that so long as a province lives at peace within its borders, the central government leaves it in peace. There must not be any insurrection, nor any discontent sufficiently strong to disturb the serenity of the imperial atmosphere in Peking, nor any complaint loud enough to reach the Throne, nor any flagrant neglect of time-honoured duties, nor any abuse of established customs, nor, above all, any excess of official zeal. Uninterrupted

calm, respectability at least superficial, and solvency for public purposes,- these are all the