Government and rob them. The American people are honest and true at heart and are willing and eager to see justice done when once it understands, but if not watched and prevented by the friends of humanity and lovers of justice, organized rapacity would soon overwhelm these comparatively feeble communities. To the American people they appeal to see that the guarantees given to them in treaty after treaty, in pledges unnumbered and made as solemn and sacred as human language and circumstances can render them, be not violated. or dishonored.

I cannot believe that they will be, but the Cherokees have kept a standing lobby in Washington ever since the war, at an expense of at least $10,000 a year in apprehension of this very thing, and for the purpose of preventing it. Their petitions and memorials, urging the maintenance of the treaty guarantees, would make volumes of printed supplications; and they have had ample ground to fear such violation, a thing which might occur, as they well understand, in the rush of business in the American Congress, without the intention on the part of many who might support such measures, to do the least dishonesty. A great many Americans loosely but seriously entertain the opinion that the American Indian, who has bought and paid for 500 acres of land, has a right to have 160 acres of his own land and have the 340 remaining sold for his benefit at $1.25 per acre, although it may be worth much more in actual fact, and the Indian quite capable of negotiating the trade at these figures. If it is the desire and wish of the friend of the Indian to serve the five nations, let them see that these treaty guarantees are observed; let them give the youth a little. time in which to attain his majority, and do not, in impulsive haste to have him six good feet high, lay violent hands on the lad and pull him by main force to the desired length.

The wild tribes should be educated as an entirety so as to control in the education of the majority the sentiments and the opinion of the tribes, and they should be taught to support themselves. This can only be done by liberal appropriations which will not be passed till the American people ask it.

The chiefest virtue philanthropists need to show in dealing with the Indian is patience. A man with inherited qualities cannot at once overcome them. Let Congress increase tenfold the present appropriations for the education of the wild men, who unlike the civilized tribes have not the means to educate their children, and out of these people will grow in a few years a class of intelligent and useful

citizens, as many already have become. They will then be absorbed into the great body of American citizenship, where all the races of men can and do meet on the level of common right and eternal justice.

II-THE EDUCATION OF THE MONGOLIAN, OR CHINESE.

BY REV. S. L. BALDWIN,LATE MISSIONARY IN CHINA.

It is well that this great National Association gives a portion of its time to the consideration of the problem of Race Education in the United States; and, inasmuch as the Chinese are with us in considerable numbers (at one time somewhat over 100,000 now about 80,000), it is proper that the question of the education of that race in America should have a share in your discussions.

If the question be asked, Are the Chinese good subjects for education? there is no difficulty in arriving at a clear and satisfactory answer. We need only to look at the question historically, to be assured that they are a people every way worthy of education; for their history shows that physically, mentally, and morally, they are worthy of a high rank among the nations of the earth.

Their physical capability and power of endurance is abundantly shown in the construction of the Great Wall, which separates Tartary from the Eighteen Provinces, running in a general line from east to west, a distance of fifteen hundred miles; in the Imperial Canal, six hundred miles in length; in the speedy and successful completion of the Central Pacific Railroad in this country; and in many other works, which might be cited as monuments of patient industry and great physical endurance-showing also, in his own country, the Chinaman's skill, his mechanical ability, and his knowledge of engineering.

His intellectual powers are demonstrated by the Chinese Classics, and by the voluminous works on history, philosophy, and belles lettres, which require two hundred catalogues, in themselves volumes of considerable size, simply to enumerate them. Between the years 220 B. C. and 600 A. D., five successive conflagrations destroyed the Imperial Library, and in each instance the volumes were reproduced by copies made from those in possession of the scholars of the Empire. Such extraordinary efforts to restore and preserve this great library show not only great mental activity and energy, but intense and insatiable love of literature and learning. This Imperial Library has over 300,000 volumes; and there is a sort of cyclopædic digest of it,

in the preparation of which 2,169 clerks and copyists were employed, and which contains 22,937 books in about half that number of volumes.

We must not forget, in this connection, that the Chinese are a people who, for thousands of years, have made education the test of fitness for civil office, who have sought to secure men of ability for the service. of the Government by competitive examination; and who expect of the officers thus secured, that they will instruct as well as govern the people. And, in fact, nine-tenths of all the new books that are issued, are written by these men, whose after-dinner speeches, instead of chatty small talk, consist of impromptu poems. These officers of the Empire do not come to their position by descent, like the members of the House of Lords, nor by the working of party machinery which so frequently carries men into the House of Representatives, but earn the places they hold by superiority in intellectual contests. No country in the world is so democratic in its method of filling its offices as this ancient monarchy, into whose arenas for promotion every man may enter, except certain classes which are prohibited for reason. wonderfully interesting sight to behold 10,000 students entering the Examination Halls. Here are sons of the wealthiest and proudest families of the province, and side by side with them sons of the poorest peasants, and even of the beggars upon the street. I was accustomed to pass, in one of my country trips in the Fookieu province, a mandarin grave, with its granite pillars, indicating official rank, which was the last resting place of a beggar. His son, by success in the competitive examinations, had become a mandarin, and in accordance with Chinese ideas of propriety, posthumous honors had been bestowed upon the father, who thus, although a beggar while living, reposed in a mandarin's tomb after death. Into these examinations, the old man of sixty or seventy, who has been entering the lists every year for forty or fifty years, and the lad of sixteen or eighteen enter, side by side. The mandarin's son has no better chance than the beggar's; age has no advantage over youth. The only question to be answered here is, Who stands highest in his studies?

Most justly does the Rev. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, say, in his work on "The Chinese- their Education, Philosophy, and Letters":

"Here at least is one country where wealth is not allowed to raise its possessor to the seat of power; where the will even of an Emperor cannot bestow its offices on uneducated favorites; and where the caprice of the multitude is not permitted to confer the honors of the State on incompetent demagogues."

Let us bear in mind, too, that this system is not a thing of recent origin. Over 4,000 years ago, the great Emperor Shun examined his officers every third year, and either promoted or dismissed them, as the result. A thousand years before the Christian era, candidates as well as officers were examined, and were obliged to show their acquaintance with the "Six Arts," music, archery, horsemanship, writing, arithmetic, and the rites and ceremonies of public and social life. About the time of the Christian era, the District Magistrates were enjoined to send up to the capital men who had acquired a reputation for filial piety and integrity; and besides the "six arts," the examinations. were extended to include civil law, military affairs, agriculture, the administration of the revenue, and the geography of the Empire, especially in regard to the state of the water communications. A thousand years later, further advancements were made, and the graduates were arranged in three classes, and the officials in nine, a system which remains to this day.

The examinations commence with candidates for the grade of Sintsaithe Chinese A. B.-in the district capitals, which are about equivalent to our county towns. Here about 2,000 students enter, under the presidency of the Literary Chancellor, who is appointed by the Emperor, for the Province. Shut up for a night and a day, each in his narrow cell, they must each produce one poem and two essays on themes assigned by the Chancellor, to test their knowledge of the Classics. The examination by the Chancellor and his assistants of the themes thus produced has reference to penmanship, style, and matter. About 20 of the 2,000 receive the degree. Once in three years these graduates from the districts go up to the Provincial Capital -answering to the state capital with us-to compete for the second degree Chu-jinor A. M. In the large provinces, there are about 10,000 competitors, under special examiners sent from Peking. They are shut in as before-only that there are three sessions of two and onehalf days each; and at each of these sessions poems and essays must be written on themes assigned at the time. There is no going to libraries to "cram," no opportunity to consult a "chum" who has more brains, or has made better use of such as he has. In this examination, not regard is shown for penmanship; only the extent and accuracy of scholarship are taken into account. Every essay is copied by a scribe, so that no possible clew as to the author can be obtained from the handwriting. Possibly 300 of the 10,000 students may obtain the degree. They are then "Promoted Scholars," but not yet officers.