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English: John Thomson: THE Government of China may be divided into central, provincial, and extra-provincial. The first division comprises the holders of high office in Peking; the second the governors of the eighteen provinces in which China proper is comprehended, and of the three provinces of the district loosely termed Manchuria, which stretches north-eastward of Peking. In the third class we may place the officials resident in those vast regions known as Inner and Outer Mongolia, in the country between Mongolia and Thibet, and lastly In Thibet itself. Every Manchu mandarin of high standing has military as well as civil rank. The Manchu army, which conquered China in 1644, was divided originally into four corps, distinguished by the white, red, blue, and yellow banners under which they respectively fought. Four bordered banners of the same colours were subsequently added, and, in course of time, eight similar corps of Mongols, and eight of Chinese who had sided with the invader were established.

The chief commands of these (which it must be observed are of a mixed civil and military organization, where all are liable to bear arms, but by no means all are paid as soldiers) are shared among high officers of the three nationalities, the Manchu on the whole being the predominating class. Prince Kung is general of one banner, Wen-siang of another, Paou-keun and Cheng-lin of the third and fourth. Each of these officials, however, is also the head of some principal department in the central administration. As for the Great Council, it is an excrescence on the original establishment, but still it is the chief among the courts, for it confers upon its members the highest rank attainable in the civil service. The Grand Secretariat is made up of four chief and two assistant chancellors or secretaries, these posts being shared in equal proportion between the Chinese, the Mongols, and the Manchus. Wen-siang is an assistant Grand Secretary, but it is only lately that he has been appointed to that post. Membership of the Secretariat, as will be seen elsewhere, does not render residence at the capital obligatory, indeed distinguished provincial governors are often raised to that dignity, only so, however, when vacancies occur. Next in degree to this office, and of far more practical importance, are six boards representing as many departments in the administration. These are the Board of Civil Service; the Board of Finance; the Board of Rites, Obligations, and Observances (including public institutions and state worship); the Board of War, having charge both of the military and naval services; the Board of Criminal Jurisdiction; and, lastly, the Board of Public Works. Each of these six boards has two chief officers, or, as we should style them, Presidents, at its head, one of them is always a Manchu, and the other a Chinese. The ministers of the Tsungle Yamen possess a fair proportion of these appointments. Thus Paou-keun is the Manchu President, and Tung-sean the Chinese one over the Board of Finance. Shen-kwe-fen is the Chinese President over the Board of War. Maou-cheng-he (properly the Chinese President over the Board of Works) is acting for an absentee on the Board of Civil Office; while Chung-lun, now eighty years of age, is the Manchu President of the Board of Works, and at the same time President over a court by us termed the Colonial Office, though really having charge not of tributaries like Corea and Cochin China, but of dependencies such as Mongolia and Thibet. The ministers Wen-siang, Paou-keun, and Shen-kwe-fen enjoy, however, a position even higher than any of the above roll, for, like Prince Kung, they are all of them members of the Great Council. This Council, in which the real power of the central government may be said to reside, has been already described as an excrescence upon the regular establishment. In point of fact it was introduced shortly after the foundation of the dynasty, and is composed of Manchus selected not on the recommendation of the departments of state, but by the emperor's own choice. The number of its members has never been a fixed one. At this moment, Prince Kung included, it contains no more than five. The fifth is the emperor's private tutor, while the other four, as has already been stated, are all members of the Tsungle Yamen. It will thus be perceived that what is really the central government is thoroughly identified with the administration of Foreign Affairs.

In the provinces the civil and military establishments are more distinct than at first sight they might appear to be in the capital. A province usually has a governor at the head of its affairs; but there are some exceptions to this custom. Thus we find in two instances a Governor General, or Viceroy, but the title translated as governor is borne by an official who has two, or, in one case, three provinces under his rule, and governors below him to conduct the affairs of each province.

Thus Li-hung-chang is Governor-General of Peichihli, the province in which Peking lies. Tseng-quo-fan (who is but lately dead) was Governor-General of Kiang-su, Ngan-kwui and Kiang-si, while Jui-lin is Governor- General of Kwang-tung and Kwang-si. Of the officers just referred to the first is a Chinese, and is an assistant Grand Secretary; the second also a Chinese, and the third, of Manchu blood, are both Grand Secretaries. The GovernorsGeneral and Governors have each a small body of troops at their disposal, but they do not command the naval or military forces of the provinces. In particular places, generally the provincial capitals, as well as in the maritime and inland frontier provinces, permanent Manchu garrisons, under Manchu officers of very high rank, are established. In Canton, Chang-fang, brother-in-law to the Princess Kung, commands the Manchu garrison, whereas the Chinese forces of the province are under a separate general officer, after whom comes a series of subordinates, with ranks as numerous as those of our own army if we count from ensign to major-general. These officials all draw pay, but the troops or constabulary assigned to them exist principally on paper.

The civil functionaries play a part that is much more real. A province is divided into a number of districts, each about the size of a small English county, and officered by magistrates and assistant magistrates, with the occasional aid of the literati and people of character and substance. A group of districts forms a department, and this is ruled by a prefect, or sub-prefect. A number of these departments again makes up a circuit, of which there may be two, three, four, or five in a province. There are again under-intendants, but the working officers are the prefects and magistrates, the bulk of the work falling more especially on the latter. Add to the above list a commissioner of finance, who is also a sort of dean of the civil establishment, one of criminal justice, one of the commissariat, and one of the salt revenue (the latter with a large staff to help him), and you have, without pretension to minute accuracy, a fair risume of the machinery by which the government of China and its dependencies is supposed to be carried on.

The Board of Foreign Affairs holds its meetings in the Tsungle Yamen, which corresponds to our English Foreign Office. This new department of Chinese administration sprang out of the close and important treaty relations now existing between China and Western nations. Its creation was one among the train of events which followed the ratification of the treaty of Tientsin, in 1858. Up to that time all foreign diplomatic correspondence had been conducted through the Colonial Office to which I have already alluded, and, in consequence of this circumstance, the great powers were practically placed on a level with native dependencies. An able writer in the New York Herald claims for Mr. W. Reed, at that time American minister to China, the credit of having been the first to protest against the indignity offered to his nation by classing it with such lands as Corea and Lewchew. Be that as it may, the establishment of the Tsungle Yamen, in 1861, was an important and startling concession on the part of the Chinese, more especially when we consider that its members are ministers of the highest rank in the Empire, and as it implied a permanent recognition of the independent sovereignty and equality of the treaty powers. Prince Kung presides over this council, and is ably supported by the following members : —

Wen-siang, a Manchu, born at Mukden in 1817. He ranks next to Prince Kung on the Board of Foreign Affairs, and has held the position since 1861. He is also a member of the Grand Council, President of the Board of Civil Service, and member of the Imperial Cabinet (plurality of offices is, therefore, by no means disapproved of in China). His rare intellectual powers (Sir F. Bruce pronounced him one of the strongest minds he had ever encountered), coupled with his long experience in the functions of high office, cause Wen-siang to be looked upon as the most influential statesman in China. Formerly he was esteemed exceptionally liberal in his views, but of late years he has discovered symptoms of a reactionary tendency. His portrait is given in No. 2.

Paou-keun (No. 5), a Manchu, and member of the Grand Council, is one of the Presidents of the Board of Finance. He is now sixty-five years of age.

Cheng-lin (No. 4) is the youngest member of the Foreign Board, being not yet more than forty-five. Three years ago he, occupied for a short time, the post of superintendent of trade, vacated by Chung-hau during his mission to France.

Shen-kwe-fen (left figure in group, Plate 1), President of the Board of War, and member of the Grand Council, is a Chinese, fifty-six years of age. He was lately governor of the province of Shensi, where he distinguished himself by an effort to suppress the growth of opium.

Tung-sean, Chinese President of the Board of Finance, is a celebrated scholar, and the author of numerous works, notably one of an historical and topographical character. His last publication (a treatise in forty-eight volumes) on the Hydrography of Northern China, was iust issuing from the press when I left Peking. Tung-sean (central figure in group, Plate r), is sixty-one years of age.

Maou-cheng-he, a Chinese, is fifty-six years of age, and President of the Board of Works. Formerly he held

the position of First Vice-President of the College of Censors (right figure in group, Plate 1.)