Page:L. Richard's ... Comprehensive geography of the Chinese empire and dependencies ... translated into English, revised and enlarged (IA lrichardscompreh00rich).pdf/13

Rh the alphabetical list, the aspirated characters follow immediately the unaspirated, and these latter are followed in turn by those of the short abrupt final vowel sounds. Throughout the work, every proper name, romanised in English, has beside it its equivalent Chinese character or pictograph, a valuable improvement, which will help to avoid confusion especially in words which are similar in sound.

It is thus hoped that this system, which embodies the best elements of Morrison, Williams, Wade, Giles and of the recent Postal List, will meet with the approval of all competent Sinologues, and go far in solving the yet unsettled question of uniformity, at least so far as the English language is concerned. Mr H. B. Morse, the learned Statistical Secretary of the Imperial Maritime Customs, to whom the work has been communicated as the sheets left the press, appreciated its system of orthography in the following terms : "as scientific romanisation, I fully approve of your system, and I have serious fault only with your ngan." (Letter to the Author, 13 August, 1907).