The Municipal Council is composed of men who appear to be intimately acquainted with every wickedness of vihich the human mind is capable; for they guard against lawlessness with an ingenuity only possible to those of ripe experience.

Of course, this only shows what keen observers they are; no one would suggest that they have been wicked tbemselves.

For the services they render the town, they do not, I understand, receive payment-though one of their number has recently been awarded four months' imprisonment-neither are they knigbted, but on the other band they are slanged sufficiently to satisfy even the most ambitious politician.

The opinion of the ratepayers is obtained at the annual ratepayers' meeting from those who are not there. This opinion, thus obtained, is acted upon for the rest of the year by the Council so far as they consider advisable, if it meets with the approval of the Consular Body.

The Consular Body is a mysterious power that dwells in Shanghai, and everything we do here has to meet with its approval. rt is called the Consular Body because Consuls do not need any minds. Consuls who have minds almost invariably get into trouble with their Foreign Office. Foreign Offices of any nationality, as you are aware, deal only with tabulated forms and precedent, and strongly object to being worried; so the home officials employ bodies for work abroad to fill in the forms that have been in use for centuries.

Ratepayers who pay less than 50 taels per annum are not allowed to vote, but men who bought land which has advanced in value by reason of other people's work are entitled to several votes, in order to enable them to keep the people who did the work in their proper place, and teach them to regard property and money with that respect and veneration which is its due-when it is in. the possession of those who frame the laws.

When you have made sufficient money bere out of the men who are unable to pay more than 50 taels per annum in rates because you have taken most of their ready cash, you can go home and leave your power to vote with a good old crusted taipan, instructing him to plump against every alteration which may imperil your interests.

Thus the government of the setflement has passed into the bands of a few men who repre- sent the "best business interests," that is to say, a few of the old-established h6ngs or firms whose innate modesty and retiring disposition have both been sacrificed to public duty. When you consider the matter you will admit their claim, viz., that the " best business interests are invariably one's own interests,

This system has evolved our form of govern- ment by the people for the PEOPLE.

I must confess that plural voting seems to me a singular way of obtaining the opinion of the majority.v Then there is the Watch Committee. The members of this body go about at night dis- guised as ordinary people, listen behind doors, and look through keyholes.

The police force is composed principally ot Indians, who also supply a great deal of the cnme. They are of two castes, viz., Malwais and Manjhas. The force is further recruited from English, Scotch, Irish, and Chinese.

Last Sunday I took a trip up river in a motor- boat with some ladies, and I have stunk of gaso- line ever since. It got in my boots, down my neck, and into my hair. I met one of the ladies yesterday in Nanking Road, and she said: "Ah, Mr. Denhy, I didn't recognize you in that sun- hat, but knew it was you directly, by the smell; how are you? Phew!"

We went up to a place they call Minghong, but as the staple industry there seems to be the manufacture of smells from fish; we didn't stay long, for we had our own stench with us and couldn't stand any more.

We therefore turned down river a bit and stopped at another and smaller village, where the people make another kind of smell which isn't quite so bad. Here we saw spotted babies with indecorous noses, who wore dirt hstead of clothes because they couldn't afford the latter, and screamed "Foreign devil! " at us. One feels that being a foreign devil has its corn- pensations.

If China has the oldest cinlization in the world, it is either suffering from senile decay or is in its second childhood. It certainly has never been washed.

When I compared the dainty frills and laces worn by our ladies with the filthy rags and mutilated feet of these poor women, I marvelled at the attitude taken up by the latter The villagers stared at us for a few moments, and then resumed their occupations, but there was a look about them as much as to say: "You may be better dressed than we are in a kind of way, but after all we are the people that count, and we do not wish to concern ourselves with you."

After a glance at the women in this village, one can only assume' 'that the habit of binding their feet has been forced upon them in order to allow the men to escape when run after by such horrible apparitions.

The Chinese have an extraordinary way of keeping their dead in remembrance, Instead of erecting a stone with a lot of sniffy poetry upon it they put the corpse in a coffin, which they lay out in the sun near the house. After two or three years the dear departed commences to get thoroughly ripe, and his memory clings round the place and comes stealing in through every crack and crevice in the walls, unless there happens to be a strong wind the other way.

This is surely the most effective method to adopt in order to ensure a deep and lasting regret for one's death being felt by onets surviving relatives and the surrounding In- habitants generally.

It cannot cost these villagers much to live, but, however little that is, the money is worth far more than the life. I presume that one of these peop]e could live for six months on the price of a bottle of good champagne. If I were given my choice, I would choose the champagne.

Notwithstanding the disadvantages under which their lives are spent however, our civilization doesntt appear to better them, despite the fact that we do all we can to improve their lot. We sell them millions of cheap cigarettes which smell like a wet dog that has crawled under the stove; they take over most of our Australian horses that bave got spavins or string halt, and our provisions that were stored too close to the ship's boilers.

We send them missionaries who would do far more good at home, we sell them rifles in order that they may kill themselves like civilized beings, and build them war ships so that we may have something to sink if we go to war with them, The Municipal Council takes numbers of them in hand, and teaches them useful trades, such as making coconu-flbre matting, road-mending, stone-breaking, &c., and is so considerate as to chain them together in case they might get lost.

We allow them to come into the settlement and trade, spit on the floor of our offices, and give us both aural and ocular demonstrations as to the ridiculous way we waste our money in the purchase of handkerchiefs We lend them money Upon land at the absurdly low rate of 12 per cent., taking upon our own shoulders all the risk of that land being stolen during the night.

We allow them the privilege of mixing socially with our Indian police, and, in short, do all that we can to show them that our aims are not selfish, and yet these ingrates call us "foreign devils."

But maskee! we will continue the good work in the hope that some day we may be able to save enough to go home and live quietly on two or three thousand a year, with the knowledge that we have done our best to introduce the blessed gift of civilization into China, and in the hope that its acquisition will be as profitable to them as its disbursement was to us.

Good night.

Your affectionate son,
JIM

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