There is almost in-

variably a close connection between rebel lions and these associations, and the reasons are not far to seek. The government of the

country presents two striking characteristics.. In the first place, it is übiquitous, owing to t'ae thorough system by which power is devolved from one grade io another of its vast literary bureaucracy. The people feel like flies in the spider's web; they cannot escape from the meshes of official super vision. In the second place, the key to the Manchu policy in home affairs has ever been isolation. One great officer of State is always set to watch another. In the provincial governments Manchus and Chinese are joined in the highest posts. | No officer is ever allowed to hold a sub stantial appointment in his native province, and officers serving m the same district are encouraged to spy upon one another, and report .their discoveries to the Viceroy or the Central Government at Pekin. , This policy is carried beyond the mahdarinate. and the common people also are prevented, as fai ns possible, from combining in groups other than the family or the clan. The conse quence is that mutual suspicion is rife, the officials distrust one another, and" the people realise the impossibility of concerted'action unless their designs are kept secret. Public opinion on political matters must be formed and expressed in such a way that it cannot attract notice until it is time to strike a How for the cause. Hence it is iha-fc secret societies are the nurseries' of rebellion. In

free countries like our own a man can air his grievances in'public, and seek to have them redressed by appealing to the electors and their representatives. In China there is no legal and organisation for a com mon object must take the shape of a secret society. At their best secret societies are the engines for the removal of abuses and the protection of the people. So long as the present regime lasts such, societies will con tinue to spring up all over the Chinese Empire. But there is another side to these

secret societies. In the hands of unscru pulous schemers, they become dangerous political organisations, pandering to the ambitions and avarice of officials and cour tiers, many of whom are alleged to be con nected with one or other of these brother hoods. 