Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/68

trouble with rebels and Europeans; even now, though higher office can no longer be bought, the office of hien may be purchased, and many even higher brevet-titles are on sale. But, putting aside questions of bribery and jobbery, most hien magistrates obtain their posts either because they have passed brilliant examinations, or because their parents have served the State well, or because they themselves have "earned their turn by special services or efforts of some kind, which "services" include patriotic offerings" (office purchase) in different shapes and sizes. Whether the officer has obtained his post honorably or otherwise, his first care is (unless he be an enthusiast or a crank, in either of which cases he promptly comes to grief) to repay the expense of working up for his post, and of getting to it; his next care is to feather his nest, keep on the soft side of the Treasurer and the Governor, and prepare the way for future advancement. This is how he does it. His most important, or at least his most profitable duty, is the collection and remission of the land-tax, for which purpose he pays a liberal salary to a highly trained conveyancer kept permanently on the premises. The Board at Peking never asks for more than the regulation amount of this, and is uncommonly glad to see even "eight-tenths" of it paid. But by means of juggling with silver rates and "copper-cash rates; drawing pictures of local disasters and poverty; by legerdemain in counting and measuring; charging fees for the receipts, notices, tickets, attendance, and what not; it has come about in the course of time that the actual amount of the land-tax collected is anything

between twice and four times the legal amount, whilst under no circumstances is the full amount even officially due ever admitted to be in hand. Say the land-tax of the district is 10,000 taels, a profit of this sum, or (at the old silver exchanges) £2,000 to £3,000 a year,