after all to debate--to give voice to the uppermost thoughts in the
nation's mind; and how those thoughts are expressed is a continual
exposition of the real state of the nation's political beliefs.
Parliament is--or should be--a microcosm of the race; parliament is
never any better or any worse than the mass of the people. The rule of
the majority as expressed in the voting of the National Assembly must be
taken as a fundamental thing; China is no exception to the rule--the
rule of the majority must be decisive. But here another complexity of
the new Chinese political life enters into the problem. The existence of
a responsible Cabinet, which is not yet linked to the Legislative body
in any well-understood way, and which furthermore has frequently acted
in opposition to the President's office, makes for a daily struggle in
the administration of the country which is strongly to be condemned and
which has already led to some ugly clashes. But nevertheless there are
increasing indications that parliamentary government is making steady
headway and that when both the Permanent Constitution and the Local
Government system have been enforced, a new note will be struck. No
doubt it will need a younger generation in office to secure a complete
abandonment of all the old ways, but the writer has noted with
astonishment during the past twelve-month how eager even viceroys
belonging to the old Manchu regime have become to fall in with the new
order and to lend their help, a sharp competition to obtain ministerial
posts being evident in spite of the fact that the gauntlet of Parliament
has to be run and a majority vote recorded before any appointment is
valid.

One last anomaly has, however, yet to be done away with in Peking. The
deposed boy Emperor still resides in the Winter Palace surrounded by a
miniature court,--a state of affairs which should not be tolerated any
longer as it no doubt tends to assist the rumours which every now and
again are mysteriously spread by interested parties that a Restoration
is imminent. The time has arrived when not only must the Manchu Imperial
Family be removed far from the capital but a scheme worked out for
commuting the pension-system of so-called Bannerman families who still
draw their monthly allowances as under the Manchus, thanks to the
articles of Favourable Treatment signed at the time of abdication of
1912. When these two important questions have been settled, imperialism
in China wil