An afternoon spent in the House
of Representatives would certainly surprise most open-minded men
who have been content to believe that the Chinese experiment was
what some critics have alleged it to be. The Chinese as a people,
being used to guild-house proceedings, debates, in which the
welfare of the majority is decided after an examination of the
principles at stake, are a very old and well-established custom;
and though at present there are awkwardnesses and gaucheries to be
noted, when practice has become better fixed, the common sense of
the race will abundantly disclose itself and make a lasting mark
on contemporary history. There can be no doubt about this at all.
Take your seat in the gallery and see for yourself. The first
question which rises to the lips is--where are the young men,
those crude and callow youths masquerading as legislators which
the vernacular press has so excessively lampooned? The majority of
the members, so far from being young, are men of thirty or forty,
or even fifty, with intelligent and tired faces that have lost the
Spring of youth. Here and there you will even see venerable
greybeards suffering from rheumy coughs who ought to be at home;
and though occasionally there is a lithe youngster in European
clothes with the veneer he acquired abroad not yet completely
rubbed off, the total impression is that of oldish men who have
reached years of maturity and who are as representative of the
country and as good as the country is in a position today to
provide.
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