vidual has been the victim, and the subversion of rights which are his in theory has been the invariable result. Oriental history. Of all Oriental nations, none can compare with Japan in her willingness to place herself under constitutional restrictions and adopt the principles of civilized government. The new Japan an exception in civil and penal codes which have been promulgated indicate an astonishing development in the direction of Western civilization, and the unanimity and dignity which have marked their incorporation into her system of government are greatly to the credit of the Japanese. Japan, however, is an exception in Oriental history. We have simply to cross the narrow sea to the mainland of Asia and we come at once upon the old traditional system of despotism. Korea follows the rule of spoliation. He In Korea the devices for robbing a man of his earnings or confiscating his possessions are both numerous and effective.1 Mr. Henry Norman has referred in some detail to this execrable feature of Korean maladministration. quotes from an official report as follows: "The rapacity and cruelty of the officials are not conducive to the accumulation of wealth. All stimulus or inducement to increase his possessions and give himself comforts is denied the middleclass Korean; for he is not allowed to enjoy the results of his labor and industry, never feeling sure that the little property he may have (or even his life) is safe from official despotism, and consequently the people have become dispirited and indifferent. Safety and security are found in obscurity only."2 The rights of ownership in property are not, however, the only ones that are violated. More sacred domains are ruthlessly invaded. It is not uncommon that confiscation extends to the wife and daughters, thus inflicting a gross and cruel wrong in violation of rights which are recognized throughout all human society.3 In China official robbery is by no means uncommon, and many are the expedients for accomplishing it under the guise of legality. Even foreign residents of China have had most vexaLegal rights the sport tious experience of the ability of officials to tamper with every property right, even to the extent of persecution and violence. In the Turkish Empire legal rights, even those fully acknowledged in Turkish law, are simply the sport of officialdom. The victims are usually natives of the empire, 1 The Missionary, October, 1894, p. 441; Gilmore, "Korea from Its Capital," pp. 28, 29. 2 Norman, "Peoples and Politics of the Far East," pp. 347, 348. 3 Ibid., pp. 349, 350; Gilmore, "Korea from Its Capital," pp. 29, 30. of officials in China, Turkey, and Persia. but of late foreign property has been destroyed or subjected to arbitrary and vexatious meddling.1 In Persia confiscation is usually one of the penalties of conversion to Christianity on the part of Moslems, and in some instances painful mutilation of the person, or death, has followed. The Persian agha will not only lay violent hands upon some young Christian woman, but upon the plea of her having embraced Islam will claim her property also.2 Mrs. Bishop, in her letters from Persia, touches upon the well-known facility with which official robbery is accomplished.3 Even in India, until quite recently, the losing of caste was held to involve also the forfeiting of property, and at the present time in some of the Native States conversion to Christianity imposes legal disabilities which are most unjust and vexatious. Insecurity in Africa. In Africa, unhappily, the native has been the victim not alone of the rapacity of local native governments, but the early history of colonization, especially in South Africa, has been marked by gross violation on the part of the Dutch of the rights of the natives. The great injustice and ill-treatment which attended the aggressions of the Dutch colonists have left an indelible stain upon their good name.5 Among native tribes the confiscation of property, and even of wives and children, is all too common. Nobody saves in Dahomey, lest the king should seize the savings. Where the witch-doctor "smells out" some supposed guilty party, although in most instances the suspected person may be absolutely innocent, the immediate confiscation of his property is in order, and he may be thankful if he escapes with his life.6 The recognition of the individual and respect for his legal rights are points in which there is much to be learned throughout the realms of backward civilization. 1 The Independent, May 16, 1895, pp. 14-16; The Missionary Herald, April, 1896, pp. 146-149. 2 Aurahan, "The Persia of To-day," p. 72. 3 "In Persia a reputation for wealth is the last thing a rich man desires. To elevate a gateway or to give any external sign of affluence is to make himself a mark for the official rapacity which spares none. The policy is to let a man grow quietly rich, to let the sheep's wool grow,' but as soon as he shows any enjoyment of wealth to deprive him of his gains, according to a common Persian expression, 'He is ripe; he must be squeezed.'"-Bishop, "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan," vol. i., pp. 100, 101. 4 Horne, "The Story of the London Missionary Society," p. 279. 5 Ibid., pp. 56-59; Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," p. 51. 6 Work and Workers in the Mission Field, September, 1894, p. 368; Illustrated Africa, June, 1895, p. 9. 4. CORRUPTION, AND BRIBERY.-Crookedness in official life and gross betrayal of trust in public service have been so manifestly implied in much that has been already said that only a brief reference to these aspects of maladministration in heathen society is needed. China seems to be facile princeps in the rôle of official corruption. There are no doubt some men of integrity in public service in the Chinese Empire, but they are rare and refreshing ex of Chinese officials. The characteristic role ceptions to the general rule. There would be no improper emphasis given to the simple facts of the situation to say that the most characteristic thing in Chinese officialdom, from the highest mandarin to the lowest "bully" in a country hamlet, is the misuse of official position, either by the taking of bribes, or the imposition of blackmail, or the accumulation of private gains by the betrayal of public trust. As far back as the eleventh century, in connection with the temporary trial of a populist experiment in Chinese government, when special opportunity was afforded to the people to enter the realm of public service, the rapacity, peculation, and corruption of the administration brought into permanent disrepute the populistic schemes of a noted reformer of that age.2 The traditional system, however, from that day to this, has preserved and exemplified with unbroken continuity the transformation of official opportunity into a means of private emolument as the indisputable prerogative of public office.3 The result is disastrous to the governmental service. Office becomes the goal of unscrupulous venality, and is the prize of low cunning, intrigue, and bribery. Not that all mandarins are always bad, but the system is so incorrigibly corrupt that it is almost sure to ruin even a good man. It is next to impossible to secure 1 The Rev. W. Muirhead, D.D. (L. M. S.), Shanghai, China, in a letter to the author, mentions as among the prominent social evils of China the prevalent official corruption, referring especially to the magistrates. His words are as follows: "Though the officials are trained in the ethics of the country, and are chosen for their literary and intellectual ability, and supposed to be most highly influenced by moral and humane considerations, they are looked upon generally as selfish, rapacious, and only in few cases governing for the best interests of the people. They are a byword everywhere, and the crowds of scholars aiming at similar positions in life have the same ends in view and in due course act accordingly." 2 Cf. an article on W Chinese Populism," by William Elliot Griffis, D.D., in The Independent of September 24, 1896. 3 "The financial support of the administration of the Government thus rests upon a deliberately adopted policy of allowing each official to fleece his subjects. The game, then, with nearly every one of them, is how to do this fleecing in the best way, and how to judge shrewdly just where the limit of endurance is on the part of an appointment to the public service without purchasing it, either directly or indirectly, and once in office, whatever may be its grade, private advantage becomes the guiding principle of action. This is especially true of all underlings and minor officials, who in many instances receive no regular salary, but are expected to live by what they can extract from the people in the discharge of their function or by the misuse of their authority. In some of the cities of China there are as many as a thousand unpaid police, who have no visible means of support except the extortion which their position renders possible.1 It is a notorious fact that justice is a marketable commodity in all Chinese courts. Every complaint, every effort to secure the interposition of the law, as well as every attempt to escape ruption in China. its penalty, is a business proceeding and a matter The enormities of corof finance, pure and simple. "The amount of money given to the underlings of the court determines the speed with which the complaint reaches the hands of the magistrate; and then if there be no personal gain in the case the magistrate gives the plea no attention, plaintiffs being many, and lucrative business pressing." Thus writes Miss Fielde in "A Corner of Cathay " (p. 122), and she goes on to describe in considerable detail what is involved in the further prosecution of the case, and the wonderfully ingenious methods by which all legal ventures in China are made to yield lucrative gains from both plaintiff and defendant to the magistrate and court attendants. Current proverbs illustrate the popular estimate of all legal processes in China.2 So serious is the moral bankruptcy of Chinese officialdom that the sense of honor, the consciousness of pub the people. They know as well as any one that a general enlightenment of the people would be a death-blow to their corrupt gains, and therefore they will fight against the new civilization' until they are themselves either morally regenerated or overpowered."-Rev. Henry V. Noyes (P. B. F. M. N.), Canton, China. 1 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., p. 476. "In the misappropriation of public funds and peculation of all kinds in materials, government stores, rations, wages, and salaries, the Chinese officials are skilled experts, and are never surprised at any disclosures."— Ibid., vol. i., p. 477. Cf. also Martin, "A Cycle of Cathay," p. 333; Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 33, 86-91; Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," pp. 266–268, 282-285. 2 Among them are the following quoted by Miss Fielde: "It is better to live on garbage than to go to law"; "To win a lawsuit reduces one to penury"; " If you consort with beggars you may have a handful of rice given to you, but if you go among lawyers you will lose your last coin" ("A Corner of Cathay," p. 127). lic trust, and the demands of patriotism are alike powerless to stay the habitual rascality of the average Chinese office-holder. Even the recent struggle with Japan seemed to afford an opportunity for gross betrayal of the Government by some of the highest authorities. Wellinformed observers of Chinese methods have expressed the opinion that her collapse was due, more than from any other cause, to the dishonesty of her administration.1 The facility with which the scales of justice can be turned by the timely casting of a coin upon either side is well illustrated in a description by Dr. MacKay of the method of procedure in a Chinese yamen.2 There is one department of Chinese revenue which claims special notice as an exception to the usual course of procedure. It is the Maritime Customs Service for the collection of the revenue derived from foreign customs, under the supervision of an English official as Inspector-General. The Chinese revenue system as a whole is complicated and cumbersome, and is the happy hunting-ground of a 1 The North China Herald of Shanghai printed the following indictment in an editorial upon China's humiliation : "With wealth practically unlimited, with soldiers simply innumerable, with fortresses believed to be impregnable, and with a strong navy, her defenses went down like a house of cards, as soon as they were puffed on from the outside. . . . Here is a problem not only well worth solving, but of which a correct solution is a vital necessity. To us Europeans it is, as we have shown, simplicity itself. It seems to be fully comprised in one word, Quoted in The Missionary, July, 1895, p. 299. ... 2" From Far Formosa," pp. 105-107. ... dishonesty."— A resident missionary in another section of the empire writes as follows: "It is a common saying that ' right does not avail in courts-only money avails.' In most cases it is true that the man who pays the biggest fee to the magistrate or the one who has most influence in the community gains the suit. Rogues escape the clutches of the law by sending a bribe to the constables. If this is liberal enough, the constables will allow the rogue to escape even at the risk of a beating for their failure to catch him. If he is caught and tried and sentenced, the degree of severity with which the punishment is inflicted depends upon the amount of money he is willing to give the constables and lictors. The magistrates will all take bribes, and so will all the officials, from the lowest to the highest, and nobody is ashamed to do it. Theoretically, office is conferred for scholarship, the third degree rendering a man eligible for office; but the degrees may all be bought, and are, in fact, openly purchased constantly. It requires money and influence to get into office after one has obtained his degree, and promotion in office comes also only by the use of money. The legitimate salary of all officers is unjustly low, and the chances for bribes and squeezes are very many. It is a rare man who will not make the most of them. Indeed, the chief motive in seeking office is 'to get rich,' and it is almost the only avenue to wealth. By law a man has a right to appeal to a superior officer if he thinks his suit has been unjustly decided, but in case of an appeal the judge who has tried the case has only to send a present of money to his superior, and the appeal is ruled out |