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high position in China without suffering occasional degradations en route, not only because of this system of minute reports, but also because the functions nominally assigned to each public servant are so multitudinous that failure at some points is almost inevitable. Such degradations, when they involve only one or two steps of rank, do not carry with them any disgrace or constitute any bar to subsequent promotion. The degree of an offence, not the moral guilt, is primarily considered. If a man has been guilty of bribery, his punishment is in proportion to the amount of the bribe, and whether he has committed a crime, or erred in judgment, or been deficient in zeal, he is liable to be sentenced to a beating with the bamboo, commuted, of course, to a fine in the case of an aged or exalted official. Moral guilt, in short, is of less importance than its effects. On the other hand, though oppression, extortion, venality, and corruption are freely and almost universally charged against Chinese officials by the foreign critic, it is too often forgotten that none of these men are fully paid agents of their employer, the Government. They are expected to eke out their wholly insufficient stipends by levying commissions upon the business that passes through their hands, and if their license is large, their responsibilities are proportionately heavy. The people, too, are tolerably happy and contented under their sway. As a general rule, so long as a man avoids collision with the law, he