by the Throne and drawn from certain privileged classes, including thirty-two high officials and ten distinguished scholars, together with the same number of delegates from the provinces.  Those who obtain seats are to serve for three years, and to have their expenses defrayed by the state.  It is a consultative and not an executive body; its function is to discuss such subjects as taxation, the issue of an annual budget, the amendment of the law, etc., all of which subjects are to be approved by the emperor before being submitted to this assembly, and also to deal with questions sent up for decision from the provincial assemblies.  Similarly, any resolution to be proposed must be backed by at least thirty members, and on being duly passed by a majority, must then be embodied in a memorial to the Throne.  For passing and submitting resolutions which may be classed under various headings as objectionable, the assembly can at once be dissolved by Imperial edict.

There are, so far, no distinct parties in the National Assembly, that is, as regards the places occupied in the House.  Men of various shades of opinion, Radicals, Liberals and Conservatives, are all mixed up together.  The first two benches are set aside for representatives of the nobility, with precedence from the left of the president round to his right.  Then come officials, scholars and leading merchants on the next two benches.  Behind them, again, on four rows of benches, are the delegates from the provincial assemblies.  There is thus a kind of House of Lords in front, with a House of Commons, the representatives of the nation, at the back.  The leanings of the former class, as might be supposed, are mostly of a conservative tendency, while the sympathies of the latter are rather with progressive ideas; at the same time, there will be found among the Lords a certain sprinkling of Radicals, and among the Commons not a few whose views are of an antiquated, not to say reactionary, type.

With the above scheme the Chinese people are given to understand quite clearly that while their advice in matters concerning the administration of government will be warmly welcomed, all legislative power will remain, as heretofore, confined to the emperor alone.  At the first blush, this seems like giving with one hand and taking away with the other; and so perhaps it would work out in more than one nation of the West.  But those who know the Chinese at home know that when they offer political advice they mean it to be taken.  The great democracy of China, living in the greatest republic the world has ever seen, would never tolerate any paltering with national liberties in the present or in the future, any more than has been the case in the past.  Those who sit in the seats of authority at the capital are far too well acquainted with the temper of their countrymen to believe for a moment that, where such vital interests are concerned, there can be anything contemplated save steady and satisfactory