establishment of such an office emanated from the "Foreign Board" at Pekin, which addressed a memorial to the Imperial Government, of which the two important passages are: It has occurred to your servants that the appliances of foreigners, their machinery and fire-arins, their vessels and carriages, are one and all derived from a knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. Attention is now being directed at Shanghai and in Chekiang to the construction and management of steamers of different classes; but, without a bona fide study of the principles on which they are built and managed from the very foundation, what is learned will be merely superficial, and as such of no real utility. Your servants, accordingly, having deliberated together, propose to establish another school in addition to that for languages, and to in

vite all Mantchoos and Chinese who have taken their

degree of licentiate, together with those who have obtained the same degree by act of grace, or as twelveyear men, or as senior bachelors, or as licentiates of the supplementary list, or as bachelors of merit, being men possessing a thorough knowledge of Chinese literature, and not under twenty years of age, to present themselves for examination at the Yamen with the guarantee (of settlement, pedigree, etc.) duly sealed by an official, native of the same province as the candidate, and employed in the capital, or (if the candidate be a banner-man), with the usual certificate of his banner corps; also to authorize all officials, whether Mantchoo or Chinese, of the fifth grade or above it, in the capital or the provinces, being men of the literary degrees above particularized, and young and able, if they wish to study in the school, to hand in the necessary particulars and to present their banner certificate or the sealed guarantee of an official from the same province as themselves, in which case they will be admitted with the rest of the preliminary examination. When the names of those accepted as students shall have been entered by your servants, teachers from the West will be engaged to instruct them in the school; thus it is confidently expected they will become thoroughly grounded in astronomy and mathematics; theory being made perfect in the beginning, it follows that its appliance (lit. the art, handicraft it will teach) will be equally perfect in the end, and in the course of a few years a successful result will be certain. The three schools already established will be carried on as heretofore, and now, without doubt, the entrance to a career being thus widened, men ingenious and capable above the common cannot fail to be produced. The Chinese are not inferior in cleverness (or ingenuity) and intelligence to the men of the West, and if in astronomy and mathematics (lit. forecasting, as of eclipses, etc., and calculation), in the examination of cause and effects (8. c. in natural history, manufactures, etc.,) in mechanical appliances (lit. the construction of articles and successful imitation of models), and prediction of the future, students will so earnestly apply themselves as to possess themselves of all secrets, China will then be strong of her own strength.

66

The native party made to the project a violent opposition, and even one of the censors" raised his powerful voice against the innovation, but without avail. An imperial decree established the college. Triennial examinations are to be held, and prizes and appointments conferred upon the best students. The candidates for public offices will henceforth be required to show their proficiency not only in the philosophy of Confucius, but in modern physics and mathematics, the laws of steam, and the construction of machinery. The appointment of Pin-ta-jen to be president of the

college was regarded by the foreigners in Pekin as a very fortunate selection. One hundred and ten scholars were reported to have presented themselves for admission immediately upon the establishment of the college.

With regard to another question, this same Board showed, however, less liberal sentiments. Annoyed at attacks upon their officials in a Chinese paper published under foreign editorship at Canton, it procured an imperial decree forbidding the printing of Chinese newspapers by foreigners. This document is as follows:

Dispatch of the Board for foreign affairs concerning the foreign commerce in all the open ports. Foreigners are printing newspapers in which they are repeatedly reviling officials of the middle kingdom, whereas the English ambassador Peh (Sir й. Parkes) in consultations with us agreed to forbid such (as reviling of officials). Now all the treaties concluded with foreign countries contain an article on the reviling of officials, making it a heavy crime for Chinese as well as for foreigners, wherefore it is at once strictly to be forbidden. In accordance with this, every court has to issue a prohibition, and therefore we declare to those whom it concerns and may they know it: henceforth let every one attend to his own business, and try to earn money in his proper sphere, and dare not henceforth print any newspaper in Chinese characters; moreover, every block which has already been used for printing newspapers is to be destroyed. Disobey not; respect this manifest. TUNG-CHI VI., 3, 21.

The results of the census of Hong Kong taken in 1866 show a population of 115,098, of whom 2,113 are Europeans and Americans, the rest Chinese. The number of Europeans and Americans in Hong Kong is steadily increasing, while that of the Chinese decreases, as the following table shows:

An imperial decree, dated November 21, 1867, announces that the government has selected the United States minister to Pekin, Mr. Anson Burlingame, as its special ambassador to the treaty powers, and the acceptance by the latter of the appointment. The purpose of the embassy is to revise the treaties between the great powers and the empire of China, and to settle the many complicated and delicate questions which have arisen under the treaties. Mr. Burlingame left Pekin in December, intending to visit first the United States.

Both the Roman Catholic and the Protestant missionaries report considerable progress of their missions and bright prospects for the future. The Roman Catholic missionaries estimate the Chinese population connected with their church at about 700,000. According to the "Directory of Protestant Missions in China," issued in June, 1866, from the press of the American Methodist Episcopal Mission at Fuh-chau, the statistics of Protestantism in China in 1866 were as follows: