Dr. H. M. Field tells us of the Examination Hall that, in the eastern quarter of Canton, is an inclosure of many acres, laid off in a manner which betokens some unusual purpose. The ground is divided by a succession of long, low buildings not much better than horse-sheds around a New England meeting-house in the olden time. They run in parallel lines, like barracks for a camp, and are divided into narrow compartments. Once in three years this vast camping-ground presents an extraordinary spectacle, for then are gathered in these courts, from all parts of the province, some 10,000 candidates, all of whom have previously passed a first examination, and received a degree and now appear to compete for the second. Some are young, and some are old, for there is no limit put upon age. As the candidates present themselves, each man is searched, to see that he has no books, or helps of any kind, concealed upon his person. He is then put in a stall about three feet wide, just large enough to turn round in and as bare as a prisoner’s cell. There is a niche in the wall, in which a board can be placed for him to sit upon, and another niche to support a board that has to serve as breakfast-table and writing-table. This is the furniture of his room. Here he is shut in from all communication with the world, his food being passed to him through a door, as to a prisoner. Certain themes are then submitted to him in writing on which he is to furnish written essays, intended generally, and perhaps always, to determine his knowledge of the classics. It is sometimes said that these are frivolous questions, the answers to which afford no proof whatever of one’s capacity for office, but it should be remembered that these classics are the writings of Confucius, which are the political ethics of the country, the very foundation of the government, without knowing which, one is not qualified to take part in its administration. The candidate goes into his cell in the afternoon, and spends the night there, which gives him time for reflection, and all the next day and next night, when he comes out, and after a few days is put in again for another trial of the same character, and this is repeated a third time; at the end of which he is released, and his essays are submitted for examination. Of the 10,000, only 75 can obtain a degree--not one in a hundred! The 9,925 must go back disappointed, their only consolation being, that after three years they can try again. Even the successful ones do not thereby get an office, but only the right to enter for a third competition, which takes place at Peking, by which of course their ranks are thinned still more. The few who get through this threefold ordeal take a high place in the literary class, from which all appointments to the public service are made. Here is the system of examination complete. No trial can be imagined more severe, and it ought to give the Chinese the best civil service in the world.