Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/104

94 house for so many centuries. True, that country has been the scene of many bloody civil conflicts in her history. At the time of Confucius the country was not, as now, one united empire, but was divided into many smaller jurisdictions. The political unity of China was brought about several centuries after his death, and was the result of a long period of tribal or provincial conflicts.

Then later the Tartars subjugated China, and absorbed the original China proper, as it is spoken of, into the present boundary, and the Tartar dynasty has held the control of the government ever since. The only attempt of any importance made since that conquest to restore Chinese rule was the Taiping rebellion. This revolt promised to be successful, until the British and French Governments interfered in aid of the Tartars, and under Chinese Gordon put down the rebellion. Now every precaution is taken to prevent another rebellion. Guns and gunpowder have been declared contraband, and are not permitted to the ownership of the natives.

The Chinese contingent in the army is equipped with bows and arrows, spears, and old-fashioned muzzle-loading blunderbusses of the most primitive pattern. All native regiments are also officered by Tartars, and Tartar regiments are equipped with modern rifles, and drilled under European tactics, to give them an advantage in the event of any future uprising.

Local magistrates and governors of provinces and districts are all appointed by the Emperor, from the Tartar contingent, and hold their offices at the discretion of the throne. They assume to judge of what is beneficial, and decide the policy of the Government entirely on their own judgment, without consulting the wishes of the populace. There is no appeal to the people for approval or disapproval of the Government's action on any subject. The masses submit to the inevitable, not apparently so much from any recognition of wisdom in its administration, but rather as an inevitable result of their inability to help themselves. Taxation is laid in a most summary and arbitrary manner, and collected by the officers appointed for that purpose, and there is a continual struggle between the tax-collectors and the tax-payers to try to outwit each other. Duty is assessed upon every article of domestic production, as well as all imports. Farm products have to pay duty at every thirty miles they may have to traverse to reach a market. A cargo of tea leaving Hankow for the seaboard for export, if carried in native bottoms, must pay taxes every thirty miles of the distance. Under treaty stipulations, cargo carried under foreign flags is assessed only at the point of departure. This has created a lucrative business for many Americans and others, who ostensibly buy boats and cargoes, and fly