remit as little as possible to Peking. Things are made to appear what they are not; a considerable portion of the revenue never finds its way into the official returns, while many of the large items set down for military and naval expenditure are so manipulated as to leave a large residue in the pockets of the provincial rulers and their numerous retainers. For this the Government is in some measure responsible, as the official salaries of Mandarins are merely nominal. That, for example, of the governor-general of a province about equals the salary of a city clerk, while his supplementary allowances are indefinite and elastic, affording ample scope for the exercise of predatory habits. It is indeed difficult, and, from the oriental point of view, impossible, for the official to carry on his administration with clean hands. Besides, his tenure of office is short, while his present and prospective wants are immeasurable.
The safeguarding of a system that tolerates this state of official corruption accounts in part for the native dread of innovation, and their intolerance of foreigners and foreign intercourse.
The one branch of the Imperial service carried on with honesty is, as I have noticed, the Imperial Maritime Customs, under the direction of Sir Robert Hart. This yields an ever increasing revenue. The average annual return is over 23,000,00 0taels, while the native Customs, with many more stations and irregular imports, produce about 10,000,000 taels an amount which always remains about the same, irrespective of war, famine, pestilence, or fluctuations of trade. In the Kwang-tung province the foreign Customs collect at four ports 3,000,000 taels, while the native Customs returns from forty ports and stations less than half a million taels.[1] The work accomplished
- ↑ Far Eastern Question.—Val Chirol.
