ciety and
made their following very exiguous. Do our Chinese friends wish
to be looked on as Quakers, or do they desire to fraternise freely
with the people of the great West?

Their cap of ceremony hides a shaven pate and dangling cue, and
here lies the chief obstacle in the way of the proposed reform
in style and manners. Those badges of subjection will have to be
dispensed with either formally or tacitly before the cap that conceals
them can give way to the dress hat of European society. Neither
graceful nor convenient, that dress hat is not to be recommended
on its own merits, but as part of a costume common to all nations
which conform to the usages of our modern civilisation.

It must have struck the High Commissioners that, wherever they
went, they encountered in good society only one general type of
costume. Nor would it be possible for them to advise the adoption
of the costume of this or that nationality--a general conformity
is all that seems feasible or desirable. Will the Chinese
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cling to their cap and robes with a death grip like that of the
Korean who jumped from a railway train to save his high hat and
lost his life? As they are taking passage on the great railway of
the world's progress, will they not take pains to adapt themselves
in every way to the requirements of a new era?

2. POLYGAMY

We have as yet no intimation what the Reform Government intends
to do with this superannuated institution. Will they persist in
burning incense before it to disguise its ill-odour, or will they
bury it out of sight at once and for ever?

The Travelling Commissioners, whose breadth and acumen are equally
conspicuous, surely did not fail to inquire for it in the countries
which they visited. Of course, they did not find it there; but, as
with the question of costume, the good breeding of their hosts would
restrain them from offering any suggestion touching the domestic
life of the Chinese.

The Commissioners had the honour of presentation to the Queen-Empress
Alexandra. Fancy them asking how many subordinate wives she has
to aid her in sustaining the dignity of the King-Emperor! They
would learn with surprise that no European sovereign, however lax
in morals, has ever had a palace full of concubines as a regular
appendage to his regal menage; that for prince and people the ideal
is monogamy; and that, although the conduct of the rich and great
is often such as to make us blush for our Christian