THE  GOVERNMENT

59

Tung-cheng  Sze,  “  Office  of  Transmission,”  deals
with  memorials  to  the  Throne.
Ta-li  Sze,  “  Court  of  Revision,”  exercises  a  general
supervision  over  the  administration  of  the  criminal
law.
Han-lin  Yuan,  “  College  of  Literature,”  exercised
control  over  the  education  of  the  Empire  until  superseded ­
  by  the  Board  of  Education,  and  continues  to
exist  as  a  memorial  of  a  glorious  past.  It  is  also
charged  with  the  custody  and  preparation  of  the
historical  archives  of  the  dynasty,  but  many  of  its
records  were  burnt  in  1900.

III.  The  Provincial  Administration
It  has  been  explained  that  the  provinces,  in  actual
practice  in  the  past  and  in  theory  to-day,  occupy  a  semiautonomous
  position  vis-à-vis  the  Imperial  Government  \
m  some  aspects  they  may  be  said  to  be  satrapies,  in  others
to  resemble  the  constituent  states  of  a  federation.  Either
comparison  is  too  sweeping,  however,  without  careful  study
of  the  differences.  The  comparison  with  states  would  be
more  exact  if  for  “  state  ”  were  substituted  “  territory,”
such  as  those  of  the  American  Union,  which  have  their  executive ­
  and  judicial  officers  appointed  by  the  central  power
and  removable  at  its  pleasure,  but  have  local  autonomy  for
the  levy  of  taxes  and  the  administration  of  the  law  ;  but  in
this  comparison  the  difference  must  always  be  remembered
between  the  Occident,  which  insists  on  local  self-government, ­
  and  the  Orient,  which  is  always  governed  by  the
strong  hand.  The  provinces  are  satrapies  to  the  extent
at  (speaking  of  the  past),  so  long  as  the  tribute  and
matriculations  are  duly  paid  and  the  general  policy  of  the
central  administration  followed,  they  are  free  to  administer
en  own  affairs  in  detail  as  may  seem  best  to  their  own
provincial  authorities.  But  no  satrap  has  existed  under
the  present  dynasty  since  its  first  half-century,  when  Wu
San-kwei  was  given  the  satrapy  of  Hunan  and  Kwangsi