The watchfulness of the special police surrounding the Parliament of
1916-1917 and the great number of these men also tells a story as
eloquent as the location of the building. It is not so much that any
contemplated violence sets these guardians here as the necessity to
advertise that there has been unconstitutional violence in the past
which, if possible, will be rigidly defeated in the future. Probably no
National Assembly in the world has been held up to greater contempt than
the Parliament of Peking and probably no body deserves it less. An
afternoon spent in the House of Representatives would certainly surprise
most open-minded men who have been content to believe that the Chinese
experiment was what some critics have alleged it to be. The Chinese as a
people, being used to guild-house proceedings, debates, in which the
welfare of the majority is decided after an examination of the
principles at stake, are a very old and well-established custom; and
though at present there are awkwardnesses and gaucheries to be noted,
when practice has become better fixed, the common sense of the race will
abundantly disclose itself and make a lasting mark on contemporary
history. There can be no doubt about this at all.

Take your seat in the gallery and see for yourself. The first question
which rises to the lips is--where are the young men, those crude and
callow youths masquerading as legislators which the vernacular press has
so excessively lampooned? The majority of the members, so far from being
young, are men of thirty or forty, or even fifty, with intelligent and
tired faces that have lost the Spring of youth. Here and there you will
even see venerable greybeards suffering from rheumy coughs who ought to
be at home; and though occasionally there is a lithe youngster in
European clothes with the veneer he acquired abroad not yet completely
rubbed off, the total impression is that of oldish men who have reached
years of maturity and who are as representative of the country and as
good as the country is in a position to-day to provide. No one who knows
the real China can deny that.

The Continental arrangement of the Members' desks and the raised tribune
of the Speaker, with its rows of clerks and recorders, make an
impression of orderliness, tinged nevertheless with a faint
revolutionary flavour. Perhaps it is the straight black Chinese hair and
the rich silk clothing, set on a very plain and unadorned background,
which re