nine o'clock in the evening, nor are any workmen permitted to labour during the holidays proclaimed by the guild. Not long since, at Wênchow, the carpenters were called upon by the mandarin to contribute more than the recognized work of one day in the year for the repairing of public buildings. The men struck, and the mandarin, fearing a popular tumult, was wise enough to give way. Perhaps, also, the recollection of a terrible retribution which was, in 1852, meted out to a magistrate near Shanghai, for blindly ignoring the just demands of the people under him, may have encouraged a yielding disposition. In this instance the people, in an access of rage such as that to which Chinamen are occasionally subject, and which in an instant converts them from peaceful citizens into brutal savages, invaded the magistrate's yamun, and, having made the wretched man their prisoner, bit off his ears, each man taking his part in the outrage to prevent the possibility of a separate charge being brought against any particular rioter.

An even more brutal display of violence took place at Soochow, about twenty years ago. It happened that more gold leaf was required for the use of the emperor's palace than the trade as stituted at Soochow could supply. In this difficulty the master manufacturer took the unwise step of asking the leave of the magistrate to engage extra apprentices. Possibly with the knowledge that no one had been punished for the atrocity described above, which, having occurred in the neighbourhood, must have been well known, they determined to inflict an even more brutal punishment on the erring manufacturer. 'Biting to death is not a capital

L

offence," was proclaimed amongst them, and, acting upon this dictum, they captured the offender and literally bit him to death.

On being admitted as an apprentice a lad has, as a rule, to stand treat to the workmen, and in the more skilled trades he has to serve five years before he is admitted to the rank of journeyman. Though the conduct of these societies is generally beneficial, they are occasionally apt, like all similarly constituted bodies, to act tyrannically. Barbers, for example, are in many parts of the country forbidden to add the art of shampooing to their ordinary craft, it having been determined by the union that to shampoo was beneath the dignity of the knights of the razor. During the last six days of the year, when the heads of the whole male portion of the empire are shaved, barbers are forbidden to clean the ears of their customers, as it is their wont to do during the rest of the months. Any one found breaking this rule is liable to be mobbed, and to have his tools and furniture thrown into the street.

By a long-established custom, barbers and the sons of barbers used to be reckoned among the pariah classes who were disqualified for competing in the competitive examinations. Though complaints of this deprivation had been long and loud, no formal action was taken in the matter until the union took up the question. In their collective capacity the members appealed to the governor of Chehkiang, who, approving of the spirit of the memorial, presented the matter to the emperor, and obtained for the barbers the removal of the disability. It is too much to expect that the unions

should always refrain from bringing to bear the influence which they collectively possess for their direct financial advancement. Strikes are of frequent occurrence, and victory is commonly with the workmen, except when their claims are manifestly unjust. The mandarins recognize that they cannot flog a whole trade, and the poverty of the men secures them against those exactions which would probably be demanded from their employers were they to appear in court. These facts are fully recognized by the masters, who prefer rather to yield to the demands of their men than to fall into the clutches of their rulers.

As in all primitive and uneducated states of society, the Chinese have a rooted objection to machinery of all kinds. Just as they now oppose steam navigation in the inland waters of the empire, so, until, quite lately, they rebelled against the importation of all labour-saving contrivances. Some years ago a Chinaman, imbued with Western ideas, landed at Canton a machine for sewing boots, and especially the leather soles worn by the natives. At this innovation the cobblers at once took alarm. They rose in their thousands and destroyed the new-fangled machine. In the same way the promoters of the first steam cotton-mills were compelled to submit to the destruction of machinery which, if it had been allowed to work would have given employment to many thousands of people.*

The contrast between the society constituted as above described, and that of this country, is at once

* "Chinese Guilds, or Chambers of Commerce and Trades Unions." By D. J. Macgowan, M.D. Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xxi., 1886.

apparent. The absence of an hereditary aristocracy deprives the Chinese of a most useful and potent link between the crown and its subjects. We have learnt from our own history how great is the protection afforded to the nation by the presence of a body of powerful nobles who are strong enough to resist the encroachments of the sovereign and to moderate and guide the aspirations of the people. In China no such healthy influence is to be found, and the result is that there is a constant straining and creaking in the social machine, which has many a time ended in fierce outbreaks, and not infrequently in the overthrow of dynasties. It was remarked by a Chinese statesman, at the time of the T'aip'ing rebellion, that two hundred years was the normal length of a Chinese dynasty, and this bears substantial evidence to the want of some such mediating influences as an hereditary aristocracy and representative institutions are alone able to afford. The voice of the people finds no expression in any recognized form of representation. Politically they are atoms whose ultimate power of asserting their claims to justice lies only in the sacred right of rebellion.

CHAPTER VIII.

MEDICINE.

It may be asked in surprise why no mention has been made of the professional classes-the doctors, the lawyers, and others; and the answer may be returned in the words of the celebrated chapter on the snakes in Iceland, "There are none." That is to say, there are none in the sense to which we are accustomed. There are plenty of doctors, but they can only be described as belonging to a professional class in the sense in which itinerant quacks, who profess to cure all the ills which flesh is heir to by bread pills, can lay claim to that distinction. They are the merest empirics, and, having no fear of medical colleges or examination tests before their eyes, prey on the folly and ignorance of the people without let or hindrance. The physicians who are privileged to prescribe for the emperor are the only members of the profession to whom failure means disgrace. When the late emperor was attacked by small-pox, an improvement in his symptoms with which the doctor's skill was credited, brought a shower of distinctions on the fortunate physicians. Unhappily for them, however, the disease took a fatal turn, and when his imperial majesty "ascended on a dragon to be a