to discover the cause of the general ruin, the universal corruption
which too surely is undermining all classes of Chinese society, we are
convinced that it is to be found in the complete abandonment of the
old system of government effected by the Manchu dynasty. It issued
a decree forbidding any mandarin to hold any post longer than three
years in the same province, and prohibiting any one from possessing
any official appointment in his native province. One does not form
a particularly high idea of the brain which conceived this law; but,
when the Manchu Tartars found that they were the lords of the empire,
they began to be alarmed at their small numbers, which were trifling
in comparison with the countless swarms of the Chinese; and they
dreaded lest the influence which the higher officials would acquire
in their districts might enable them to excite the populace against
their foreign rulers.

[Unidentified with country.] "The magistrates, being allowed to
remain only a year or two in the same province, lived there like
strangers, without acquainting themselves with the wants of the people
they governed; there was no tie between them. The only care of the
mandarins was to amass as much wealth as possible before they quitted
their posts; and they then began the same game in a fresh locality,
until finally they returned home in possession of a handsome fortune
gradually collected in their different appointments. They were only
birds of passage. What did it matter? The morrow would find them
at the other end of the kingdom, where the cries of their plundered
victims would be unable to reach them. In this manner the governmental
policy rendered the mandarins selfish and indifferent. The basis
of the monarchy is destroyed, for the magistrate is no longer a
paternal ruler residing amongst and mildly swaying his children, but a
marauder, who arrives no man knows whence, and who departs no one knows