of paternal authority that forms the basis of the Chinese System, while others attribute its continuity to the traditional method followed in selecting officials. "It is solely owing to a principle which the policy of every successive dynasty has practically maintained, in a greater or less degree,—viz., that good government consists in the advancement of men of talent and merit only, to the rank and power conferred by official posts."
This view Mr. Meadows supports by the authority of Confucius, who says:—"Good government depends on obtaining proper men. Justice is what is right in the nature of things, its highest exercise is to honour men of virtue and talent."[1]
But other maxims are not wanting in the works of Confucius to prove that good government, to be enduring, must be based on the duties of universal obligation between "Sovereign and minister, between father and son, between husband and wife, between elder brother and younger brother, and those belonging to the intercourse of friends."[2] It would appear, therefore, that the persistency of the Chinese system of government must be attributed to more causes than one, in some measure to the patriarchal system, as well as to the principle embodied in selecting the most accomplished scholars for the service of the state. Be that as it may, the reader is probably aware that the system of government examination for civil and military preferment is one of the most ancient institutions of the Empire. All official posts, theoretically, are open as the rewards of distinguished scholarship. Examinations are periodically held in the chief cities of the Empire, and the subjects for examination, and methods followed by the examiners, are practically the
