" The next day a supplementary
decree ordained that
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the provincial chancellors or examiners who, like Othello, found their
occupation gone, should have the duty of examining and inspecting the
schools in their several provinces; and, to give the new arrangement
greater weight, it was required that they "discharge this duty in
conjunction with the viceroy or governor of the province."
An item of news that came along with these decrees seemed to indicate
that a hitherto frivolous court has at length become thoroughly in
earnest on the subject of education. A sum of 300,000 taels appeared
in the national budget as the annual expense of a theatrical troupe
in attendance on the Court. At the instance of two ministers (Viceroy
Yuan and General Tieliang) Her Majesty reduced this to one-third of
that amount, ordering that theatricals should be performed twice
a week instead of daily; and that the 200,000 taels thus economised
shall be set apart for _the use of schools_. How much this
resembles the policy of Viceroy Chang who, exempted from raising
a war indemnity, set apart an equal amount for the building of
schoolhouses! An empire that builds schoolhouses is more certain
to make a figure in the world than one that spends its money on
batteries and forts.
In addition to adopting the new education there are three items
which Chang proclaims as essential to a renovation of Chinese society.
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