recollection, he said, owing to the press of affairs on his attention consequent on his entering on possession of the estate. He did enclose a post-office order for a crown, and for a crown only. He had apparently forgotten his offer of three hundred pounds, and also his offer of himself.

The receipt of this letter a little discouraged Theresa. She was too sensible to allow that she had a right to feel real disappointment, and yet under the depressing atmosphere of Drumduskie this did somewhat weigh on her spirits. She had built no sort of hopes on the offer that had been made her, but she felt that she had a right to be hurt at the frivolous and inconsiderate manner in which she had been treated-an offer made her, though through a carriage window, and he who made the offer never troubling himself to know whether it were accepted or not, and apparently not concerning himself whether it had been taken seriously or as a joke.

After a while Theresa was able to use her left arm again. The nearest surgeon was called in to advise when she might discard the sling. 'But you understand,' said Mrs. Boxholder, 'he will send in his account for professional attendance to you, Mrs. Lambert. We do not pay the bills of our governesses, or they would be always shamming sickness, and running up tremendous accounts. They cost us enough as it is.'

Some trouble arose occasionally from Mr. Boxholder being discovered in the schoolroom, or from his exchanging a few words with Theresa, whom he insisted on designating Miss, though corrected repeatedly by his wife. He went into the schoolroom to see his favourite child, kiss her and encourage her; and he spoke to Theresa when he had an opportunity, out of kindliness of heart. At table at meals he might not look across at her, or in any other direction than his wife, or address any observations to Theresa. To do so provoked unpleasantnesses.

Theresa was surprised at first to find that the servants in the house were English. By degrees the reason came out. Mrs. Boxholder so worried her domestics that no Scotch girls would remain with her, and she was obliged to obtain her servants from England, and from a great distance, so as to ensure their remaining in their places. By this means she had them at her mercy, or, to be more correct, at her disposal, for at least six months, owing to the expense of the return journey to England. The two girls, Rose and Flora, had, moreover, gone through the hands of

a succession of governesses, who had had the moulding of them each for a very brief space; either Mrs. Boxholder had made life at Drumduskie unendurable to the ladies, and they had thrown up the situation, or the lady had bundled them off because they did not prove tractable under her objurgations. The systems under which the girls had been taught varied with their governesses. One held by 'Mangnall's Questions' and Blair's Compendium of the Sciences;' another followed the last approved methods of the schools. One grounded and another topped; one went upon the system of making all instruction palatable, teaching history through James's and Scott's Novels, and geography through imaginary voyages; another by reducing all instruction to bare bones, making of it a hard list of names and dates and unpalatable and indigestible facts.

Theresa found that the fresh air of Scotland was restoring her strength, her spirits, and that vigour of mind which had carried her through life hitherto, but which had given way temporarily under sickness and disappointment. Her blood began to circulate faster, her eye resumed its fire; and as her health was restored, with it came a combative spirit that ill-brooked the overbearing manners of Mrs. Boxholder. That lady little knew how nearly she drove her governess to an outbreak; but Theresa had acquired self-control in her professional career, and she was able to restrain herself under provocation, and await her own convenience for leaving Drumduskie. She was well aware that if she departed before six months were up Mrs. Boxholder would withdraw from her salary the sum that the journey had cost from Liskeard to Perth.

(To be continued.)

364

THE PEERAGE IN CHINA.

CHINESE titles are regarded as a species of office, qualifying the holder to draw pay from the treasury, but requiring from him at the same time the performance of certain duties. In our own more civilised land the peers need do nothing (they need not throw out the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill); but then neither do they receive anything, unless they have the good fortune to be descended from the Merrie Monarch. In China a title can only be gained by success in war. No amount of quibbling at the bar, no brewings, however excellent, of draught stout will make a man a peer. The most persuasive of special pleaders this backward people would, in the figurative language of the third emperor of the dynasty, describe as a bare stick,' and, if they followed literally his late Majesty's advice, soundly drub. Even the makers of samshoo, the national (and nasty) drink, are held in no great repute. You must, if you would be ennobled, either take a town from the rebels, or, what is equally efficacious, commit suicide when the rebels are taking it from you. The Chinese of all nations perhaps have the most vivid realisation of a future existence-for, as a rule, it is the heroic ghost who gets the title, his son succeeding him after three years or so as second peer. In the In the pages of the Peking Gazette, that exhaustless storehouse of quaint facts, are many accounts of this ennoblement of dead heroes. The sequel to one such story throws so much light on the position and prospects of a Chinese peer (albeit a peer of low degree), that it is worth transcribing in full. It is in the form of a petition to the censorate at Peking :—

'I am 32 years of age and come from Linch'ing in Shantung. In the year 1854 my father, who was a trainband captain, lost his life at the attack on our native town made by the rebels, and so distinguished himself that he was created a yün chi-yü. As his eldest son I succeeded to the title, and in 1871 I joined the garrison at Linch'ing to learn my military duties. The major in command, whose one idea was self-enrichment, paid me only 11 crowns (558.) at the end of nearly a year's service instead of the 19 crowns (5.) to which I was entitled; and, again, only paid me 12 crowns as my salary for the spring and autumn. A fellow yün ch'i-yü was treated in the same manner, and we made a joint

complaint to the major, who took a dislike to us in consequence, and falsely declared that as our papers had not arrived he was not allowed to issue full pay to us. The mother of my colleague complained to the provincial treasurer of these deductions in her son's pay, and he referred the matter to the prefect of Chinan. The major, knowing well that his excuses were false, got hold of my colleague and kept him in hiding, so that he could not appear at the inquiry; finally he forced him to poison himself. The major again issued reduced pay to me in the year 1874, and at last turned me out of the garrison on the ground that I had delayed in presenting myself at a certain military review.'

6

A yün ch'i-yü is the eighth of the nine ranks into which the national-as distinguished from the imperial-nobility is divided. Chinese names are a weariness to Western ears; but it really is very difficult to avoid them altogether when treating of Chinese peers. The first five ranks may be rendered, and commonly are rendered, by our 'duke,' ' marquis," earl,' viscount,' and 'baron'. The sixth rank, which literally translated is that of 'light-charioted city-warden,' might by parity of reasoning be turned by baronet'; but as no successor of the most high but rather hard-up prince, King James, has followed his example and created hereditary knights, squires, or, shall we say? squireens, it is not easy to find fitting equivalents for the last three grades. These, the 'mounted city-warden,' the cloud mounted-warden,' and the 'mountedwarden by grace,' are perhaps best expressed, on paper, by their quaint if unpronounceable originals, ch‘i tu-yü, yün ch'i-yü, and ên ch'i-yü.

There are only two Chinese kung, or dukes, not of the imperial blood. These are the Yen-sheng Kung, the 'Duke Transmitter of the Sage,' the representative of Confucius; and the Hai-cheng Kung, Purifier of the Seas,' the descendant of Huang, conqueror of Formosa for the Manchus. The latter title is some two centuries old, the former was instituted in 1233. The Confucian Duke,' as he is commonly styled by foreigners, enjoys a prestige which no change of dynasty affects; yet perhaps a native essayist two or three years ago took too audacious advantage of this fact. He had noticed that the ostensible unity of the Roman Catholics gave them an amount of power which he, as a Confucianist, could not but deprecate; he urged, therefore, that there be established throughout China a Confucian hierarchy (with Confucian bishops in partibus), and at the head of that hierarchy be placed the Transmitter of the Sage, as an orthodox Chinese Pope.

The present Purifier of the Seas, Huang Pao-ch'êng, is a colonel in the provincial army of Fukien, his native province. It is indeed obligatory on every Chinese noble to serve in some military capacity, unless he has reached a certain rank in the civil service, or is content, as was a remarkable yün ch‘i-yü last year, to forego his allowance. That, we should think, would be no great hardship, if all he could draw was some 5l. a yearthough 51. a year would almost feed a family in China. These allowances, like all Chinese official salaries, were cut down in the troublous times of Hsien-feng, when the Taipings held Nanking and the Allies were bombarding Taku; but they were to be paid in full from and after New Year's Day (Feb. 3) 1886. They are provided out of the provincial funds, and the consequence is a rooted objection on the part of provincial treasurers to the creation of new peers. In 1884 the Governor of Kiangsi petitioned the throne on the subject. Already,' he wrote, there is an annual call of over 50,000 crowns to meet the salaries of the hereditary nobles, and unless some means are adopted of reducing the expenditure under this head, it will be impossible to continue to meet the call. Other provinces, and prefectures in those provinces, have had limitations laid down as to the number of holders of hereditary nobility. In Hunan, for instance, the number is limited to 400; in Nanking to 348; in Soochow to 150; in Anhui to 176. In Kiangsi there are already 483, which is more than anywhere else; still, as it would not be humane to cut down the number abruptly, I would propose to reduce the salaries paid by a certain percentage, and to limit the recipients to the present number, viz., 483.' Peers were not over well paid in Kiangsi as it was, for the Governor's figures give to each an average salary of but little more than 103 crowns, or some 25l. a year. A similar memorial from Fukien, in 1887, makes the average only 57 crowns for 360 recipients. What is the total number of nobles in China does not, in the absence of a Chinese Burke, appear; but from the memorials we may take it to be between two and three thousand for the eighteen provinces. This absence of a Burke, by the way, is sometimes felt even by Peking. When Tso Tsung-tang was engaged in the recovery of Kashgar he recommended one of his generals for promotion in the peerage. The Court, in a very good humour at the signal success of the Chinese arms, had already made Tso a marquis, and his righthand man and future successor in the governorship of the reconquered country, Liu Chin-t‘ang, a Baron. They acceded promptly