Page:Horæ Sinicæ, Translations from the Popular Literature of the Chinese (horsinictran00morrrich, Morrison, 1812).djvu/13

Rh ers; and the rudiments of learning may be had, in some cases, at so low a rate as two dollars a year; yet, either from the poverty of the people, or from difficulty of attaining the written language, or from both causes combined, not more than half of the community are able to read and write. Government supports schoolmasters for the children of the soldiery, but not for the children of the poor, generally. Nor are there any charity-schools supported by voluntary contribution. Indeed, I have not been able to find that there exist any voluntary associations among the people for charitable purposes.