To such an extent is the destruction of the Court carried, that the Law-making Houses are forced to interfere, or perhaps the Officers of Health. These may abate a _nuisance_, and sometimes mere filth and indecencies are removed. But nobody will improve a property to which he cannot have a certain and quiet possession. Therefore, when the evil becomes intolerable, the Law-making Houses make a Law by which a property of this sort is sold, under their _guarantee_ that the buyer shall have perfect possession. This is a thing next to an impossibility; and nothing less than a great public evil too great to be endured, will ever induce the Lawyers who control the Houses to interfere with the legitimate work of the Court. It is wonderful that the English Barbarians submit to this Court; but one must consider that, after all, it is not so inconsistent with Barbarian habits as it at first sight looks. Plunder is natural to all the tribes, and especially to the English. As nearly all plunder, the thing is normal. Lawyers must live; and the common English Barbarian makes a business to _keep out_ of their hands. The Higher Castes enjoy so large a share of the gains, and are, in fact, so largely interested in preserving the Court, that _they_ do not care to move. Then, to other causes, must be added the stolid conceit of the English Barbarians, who really think everything English so much better than what can be found elsewhere, that, in respect of this very Court, admitting some abuses, yet, after all, "Where else can you find such Judges--men who cannot be bribed?" On the whole, therefore, with that conceited stolidity of character, more remarkable in the English than in any other Barbarians, they come to regard even the worst of _their institutions_ as better than the best of the rest of the world! CHAPTER IV. UPON EDUCATION: A FEW REFLECTIONS. In our Illustrious and Central Kingdom, from times long before the Barbarians beyond the great Seas existed, or, at any rate, had any name or place in the earliest records, it has been the established rule that Learning (Li-te-su) should be the fountain of honour--that there is no nobility of birth. Under the Illustrious, the Son of Heaven, all were equal subjects--children--and that which made one more distinguished than another was _Wisdom_. This Wisdom, a knowledge of men and things; of the proper maxims [ri-te-es] of morality and government, and their proper application to human affairs. The _Central idea was to know oneself_, and thus to know others--to add to this, technical knowledge, and the knowledge of our Illustrious annals and customs. The mandarins, great officers of our Illustrious, have no rights of birth. According to their class in the Schools of Examination, they are selected to advise, to administer, to govern in the Provinces, and order the forces for the keeping of due order. They rank in the degree of the excellency of their registration in the great Schools of Examination.