Therefore it is not strange that schools are to be found everywhere, in small hamlets as in large towns, although the government appropriates no funds for the establishment of common schools; and although no such thing is known as “compulsory education,” there is a general desire, even among the poorest classes, to give their children “a little schooling.” Schools of the lower grades never boast more than one teacher each. The combination system of a head-master and several assistants does not work well in China. The schoolmaster in China must be absolute. He is monarch of all he surveys; in his sphere there is none to dispute his rights. You can always point him out among a thousand by the scholar’s long gown, by his stern look, by his bent form, by his shoulders rounded by assiduous study. He is usually near-sighted, so that an immense pair of spectacles also marks him as a trainer of the mind. He generally is a gentleman who depends on his teaching to make both ends meet;—his school is his own private enterprise—for no such thing exists in China as a “school-board” and if he be an elegant penman, he increases the weight of his purse by writing scrolls; if he be an artist, he paints pictures on fans. If he has not taken a degree, he is a perennial candidate for academic honors which the government only has a right to confer. A tuition fee in China varies according to the ability and reputation of the teacher, from two dollars to twenty dollars a year. It varies also according to the age and advancement of the pupil. The older he be, the more he has to pay. The larger sum I have named is paid to private tutors. A private tutor is also usually invited to take his abode in the house of the wealthy pupil; and he is also permitted to admit a few outsiders. During festivals, and on great occasions, the teacher receives presents of money, as well as of eatables, from his pupils. And always he is treated with great honor by all, and especially by the parents of the pupils. For the future career of their children may, in one sense, be said to be in his hands. One who teaches thirty or forty boys at an average tuition fee of four dollars, is doing tolerably well in China; for with the same amount he can buy five or six times as much of provisions or clothing as can be bought in America.