yet believed, during the ancient days of monopoly,
now happily departed, to be able to realise
one hundred thousand pounds a year. The
greater part of these officials are in attendance
at the advent of the literary examiner.

We looked earnestly in the face of the grand
functionary, on the occasion now recalled. It
seemed as if it could never have been
disturbed by a smile. It was fitted to inspire
the scholar with awe and reverence for the
great master. There was in it an imperturbable
gravity, a concentrated unruffled dignity,
as of a judge of appeal upon whom a
responsibility lay greater than that of awarding
life and death; for life and death are nothing in
the eyes of a Chinaman when compared with the
hopes and fears, the joys and the agonies which
attach to triumph or defeat in the great literary
conflict. In proportion to the disappointments
of the rejected many, will be the delights of the
chosen few. Strange that, amidst all the
discords and desolations, the strifes and the
slaughters, the anarchy, the revolts, and the
revolutions which have agitated, and still
agitate, "the central flowery land," the "heaven-
canopied empire," this educational machinery
has performed its functions almost uninterruptedly:
the only institution which has not been
shaken to its foundations, the only general and
popular influence which has been able to maintain
itself amidst the wrecks and the ruins of
authority, the only ark which, in the eyes of a
whole nation, has ever been regarded as holy,
while the other representatives of imperial rule
have been again and again overthrown and
trampled into the dust.

Canton takes its designation from Kwan-tung
(Extent East), the province of which it is the
chief city. Every locality in China is known by
some significant word. Hong-Kong, our British
colony, means Fragrant Streams; and Cow-loon
(nine dragons), which we have lately added to
our dominions from the neighbouring continent,
associates with its name an ancient popular
legend. In large districts of Kwan-tung,
intestine wars have raged for many generations
between the Pun-ti (original land) and the
Ha-ka (house settlement), a war which the Tartar
government sought to turn to its own account,
by encouraging now one and now another set
of malcontents, in order to help the subjugation
of both, though both frequently combine
successfully to resist imperial taxation. These
clans speak separate languages, though they use
the same written signs. But the fighting is
now suspended, and they are equally desirous of
finding among the combatants any who may
venture into the competitive field when the time for
the great pacific contest arrives.

The newspapers have announced its arrival.
No other matter is thought about, or talked
about, in the gay mansions of the rich, or the
dirty hovels of the poor. In every shop, in
every warehouse, among the paupers in the
streets, among the groups in the public places,
there is but one all-absorbing topic, which gives
unwonted vivacity to speakers and to listeners.
Everybody knows somebody who is about to
enter the lists in the great hall of examination.
The names of the different candidates are
discussed among those acquainted with their
respective merits. Each orator has a tale to
tell of men whom he has seen, or of whom he has
heard, who through the portals of the Kung-
yuen have risen to fortune and to fame, ennobling
themselves, and throwing the splendour of
their own reputation over all their kindred.
The busy city is stirred with a busier life. The
imperial commissioner is come. When will
the lists appear of those who have won the
prizes? and what are the names which will be
resplendent in those lists? Every district in
the province has its representatives, and the
history of the celebrated men of each is familiar
to the whole community. Are not their titles
written in the ancestral halls?

Canton is indeed crowded with visitors. The
elementary schools of a province of twenty
millions of inhabitants have sent forth their most
advanced pupils, and there are more than eight
thousand candidates who have been selected for
examination. The influx of strangers, students,
and their attendants, exceeds thirty thousand.
Many youths of the opulent classes, who have
had the advantage of special domestic education,
and have been under the training of experienced
teachers, come not only with their parents and
relations, but with suites of servants, who may
be seen wandering about admiring the wonders
of the Yang-Ching (Ram city), the name by
which the Cantonese are proud to distinguish
their birthplace. They have a legend that in
ancient days, when the place was beleaguered
and menaced with starvation, five rams found
their way through the gates, each bearing a sheaf
of corn, an augury of relief and plenty. The
besieging enemy was dispersed, the wants of
the people were abundantly supplied, and, in
perpetual memory of the great salvation, the
rams were turned into stones, and a temple was
erected in celebration of the event. These
stones we have seen on the sacred edifice which
bears their name. They may have been worn
by time, but they are now only rude rough
blocks, in which no resemblance can be traced
to their supposed ovine origin.

Strange are the contrasts which the streets
at Canton now present. Many a poor student
may be seen, ill clad and exhausted, whom the
alms of the charitable, the hardly-earned
contributions of the family or the clan, have enabled
to reach the provincial city. Many, unable to
pay the expenses of transport, have to perform
long and wearying journeys on foot; multitudes
arrive by the canals and rivers, whose passage-
boats are now overcrowded; some come in
vessels roomy enough to furnish all the
appliances of comfortable life, with abundance of
attendants; the very wealthy are conveyed in
sedan-chairs carried by four servants, the
bamboo supporters resting on the shoulders
instead of being sustained by the hands of the
bearers. Messengers are sent before to make
ready for their coming, and there is an unusual