Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/66

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHINA

requirements that a province need satisfy in order to be left in secure possession of administrative autonomy. During recent years a thin thread of mutual sympathy has been woven through this wide-meshed web of states by the finger of foreign aggression and by the electric telegraph, so that the metropolitan heart grows more visibly sensitive to the incidents of provincial life. The Throne now takes professed thought for the education of the local inhabitants, for the organisation of a national army, and for the protection of foreign life and property in distant regions. But these changes are operating very slowly, and on the whole it may be said that the eight viceroyalties and the three non-viceregal provinces (Shantung, Shansi, and Honan) constitute as many kingdoms, autonomous and autocratic.

It is by the thirteen hundred hien magistrates that the principal functions of active administration are discharged. Mr. E. H. Parker has written a succinct and graphic account of these officials and their doings:———

The hien magistrate is the very heart and soul of all official life and emolument, his dignity and attributes, in large centres such as Canton or Chungking, not falling far short in many respects of those of the Lord Mayor of London. His comparatively low "button" rank places him in easy touch with the people, whilst his position as the lowest of the yu-sz, or executive," clothes him with an imperial status which even a viceroy must respect. He is the lowest officer on whom the Emperor himself (at times) directly confers an

44

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.