Chinese style. The Shanghai paper has quite a large circulation among the native population. It is owned and edited by an English firm, who also publish other papers.
The official organ, "The Pekin Gazette," is prepared in a manner rather amusing to our notions. There is in one of the departments or "boards" of the government a copying office for the promulgation of official matter. A large number of copyists are employed therein. Besides the copies of decrees required to be made, to be sent officially to all the higher mandarins throughout the Empire, the clerks are allowed to make copies for persons who desire to obtain them on the day of their publication, in this manner. Most of the embassies and foreign residents of Pekin subscribe to these copies, which are really the official gazette. Mr. Burlingame's secretaries inform me that, in all, not more than ninety persons thus subscribe. The subscription price for the manuscript copies is seven dollars per month. They are issued daily. The price obtained is really a perquisite of the copying office. Thousands of persons are employed throughout the provinces in making copies, in whole or part, of the contents of this organ. The printers of the "Gazette" obtain their copy from the office, and publish the same always two days after its publication in the manuscript form. Officially, nobody is supposed to know how the printer gets his matter, yet, at the same time, its publication is accepted as an official promulgation wherever received. Copies of the "Gazette" are made, by permission of the proper official, by printers in the large cities of different provinces. The "Gazette" office, as well as the provincial printing offices, occasionally issue bulletin slips containing some news regarding the rebellion, or similar matter, which is always bought with avidity by the people. The subscription price to the "Pekin Gazette" is about a half dollar in silver per month.
The "Official Gazette" has become a potent and useful auxiliary of the Imperial government, and every effort is made to increase its influence. An examination of its pages for any stated period will curiously illustrate the methods by which the Manchoo dynasty, as well as the Chinese administrative system, such as it is, has been able to maintain itself so long. It is a so-called paternal autocracy, tempered by criticism of its abuses. The traditions of the people authorize and demand this, and the safety of the dynasty compels its attention. Wendell Phillips will find his plainest words outdone by the censures and complaints which are continually sent to Pekin against the provincial and other local authorities. These are inserted in the "Gazette," and sent over the Empire to be met and confuted or proved, as the case may be. The actions of the Imperial dynasty, or the reigning member thereof, with his counsellors, by no means escape this censorious and critical spirit. It is a powerful manifestation of public opinion which the administration cannot ignore. These criticisms, as a rule, come from some member of the literary class, i. e., of those who, having passed the necessary examinations, have not thereafter availed themselves of the right thus given to enter on an administrative career, but who, living as private citizens, have, by virtue of their recognized abilities, acquired the personal character which justifies them in the voluntary exercise of the censor's functions.
It must not be supposed, however, that there is anything like political discussions among the Chinese. One of Mr. Burlingame's suite curiously illustrated the absence of this, by relating that a traveller, on his first arrival in China, being exceedingly anxious to know what the people themselves thought about their
