in practice, open to the man who is fit, no matter what his
antecedents; and the poor boy has quite as good a chance to make himself
fit for all save the highest posts as in America. Nor is there always
much to choose between the American and Chinese standard of fitness. To
regard success as commander in a small war as qualifying a man for the
civil headship of a great industrial state does not seem much more
reasonable than to make skill in writing a literary essay the test for
a high military post. And one thing more, the Chinese, in so many things
essentially democratic, abases himself before the power of riches as
much as the American, and far more than any other Asiatic.

Now, since the Chinese expects little of the government, he has learned
to rely upon himself and his fellows. Like the Englishman and the
American, and unlike the Frenchman and the German, he takes the
initiative. The Government is weak, the individual or group of
individuals strong; the Government does little, so the other side does
much. All over the East,--in Burma, Indo-China, the Malay States, the
Philippines, wherever he can force an entrance,--you find the Chinese
merchant and the Chinese coolie, and it is no state-managed enterprise
that takes them there. Just as the British workmen emigrate, or the
British merchants seek out new markets, so the Chinese make their way
without leading or assistance. And they succeed; throughout all that
territory that lies between the China Sea and the Bay of Bengal, whether
under British or French rule, unless actually barred out, the Chinese is
entrenching himself and prospering. Heavy poll-taxes alone keep him from
controlling trade and the labour market in Indo-China; in the Malay
States he is ousting the native and running the British merchant and
banker hard; in Burma he is getting more and more control of trade, and
has even succeeded in convincing the Burmese woman that he makes a
better sort of husband than her charming but indolent countryman.

To turn to smaller matters. I am sure I had once known, but I had
certainly quite forgotten, that the Chinese, like ourselves and unlike
other people of the East, sit on chairs in preference to sitting on
their heels. For it gave me a little comfortable shock of surprise when
I saw my coolies at dinner sitting on benches around the table, "just
like folks," instead of squatting on the ground after the fashion of my
Indian servants. It is a small thing, but