The principle that no man is entitled by birth to rule over them is better known to the three hundred and sixty millions of China than to the twenty-seven millions of Great Britain that they have a right to a trial by their peers.[23] The principle of Chinese government is to persuade rather than to compel, to use moral means rather than physical.

This rests on the fundamental belief in human goodness.

For, as Mr.Meadows justly observes: "The theory that man's nature is radically vicious is the true psychical basis of despotic or physical-force government; while the theory that man's nature is radically good is the basis of free or moral-force government." The Chinese government endeavors to be paternal.

It has refused to lay a tax on opium, because that would countenance the sale of it, though it might derive a large income from such a tax.

The sacred literature of the Chinese is perfectly free from everything impure or offensive.