ludicrous. Since the institution of female post-office clerks in England, how many complaints (doubtless quite groundless) have there not been from would-be purchasers of stamps who have been kept waiting at the counter while the postmistress and her assistant compared notes on last Sunday's fashions? In China this deplorable state of things is reversed. There each post-office has its touts, who go round at very short intervals to each place of business to beg for the privilege of forwarding their letters. The bankers are the best customers, and as post-time draws near (posttime is fixed at the open ports by the departure of the local steamer) you will see a tout enter a bank and interrupt the clerks with an entreaty to be allowed to convey the letters they have not yet copied. He is dismissed for half an hour, and meanwhile two or three rivals will appear with the same request. The lucky man is he who happens to come in as the letters are sealed.

Prepayment is optional, no fine being levied on unpaid letters. Postage is known euphemistically as 'wine allowance,' and on the cover of the letter is always noted the amount paid, or due. Postage stamps have never, apparently, been thought of. Some day it will dawn upon one of these benighted firms how vast are the benefits of our stamp system. He will then hasten to supply himself with a varied and picturesque series, which he will dispose of to Western timbromaniacs at a highly satisfactory profit. Meanwhile his native customers, as a rule, do not prepay their postage, partly because a Chinaman hates to pay out money when he can possibly avoid it, and partly because he considers that his letter is far more likely to be carried safely and speedily to its destination if the carriers have an interest in its prompt delivery. The question is not, as was the case in England fifty or sixty years ago, in any way a sentimental one; no Chinaman is so unreasonable as to feel insulted at having nothing to pay on his letters. Custom only requires two classes of correspondence to be prepaid in full-letters to indigent relatives, and begging epistles.

But where valuables are conveyed the sender must declare them, and must pay a small premium of insurance. Premium or no premium, however, the post-office is responsible, and compensation for property lost in the mails can always be enforced by appeal to the district magistrate. Not only does the Chinese sender get in full what our own post-office has only grudgingly granted in part, but when he has to pay a premium it is exceed

ingly small-often less than a farthing in the pound. It may be worth noticing that the Chinese have, for I am afraid to say how many years, employed postal notes for small remittances.

say,

Every letter sent or received is entered in a book—that is to

is practically registered. And for this registration you have no twopenny fee to pay, or any vexatious regulation to observe in the matter of your envelope. Furthermore, the post-office will give you credit. An account will be opened with you, which you need only settle once a month, or at longer intervals still if your credit be good.

So far, who shall say that our State monopoly is an advantage as compared with the freely competing private post-offices of China? But are these trustworthy? it will be asked. Foreign missionaries living in the interior declare that they are, and gladly make use of them. A Chinese firm of any standing is not less honest in its dealings than a similar firm in England, and it should be remembered that these post-offices pledge their credit. It is true that highways in China are not always safe-though they are safer than was Hounslow Heath last century. The argument would tell equally against a State post; but, as a matter of fact, it is of comparatively little consequence, for the post-offices arrange things so as to give everyone concerned, gentry of the road included, the least possible trouble: they pay a regular subsidy to the highwaymen.

The only advantage that a State post could offer would be a reduction in the rates between distant points in the empire; but even that would be gained by an increased cost in local delivery. Some day, no doubt, China will be prevailed on by her foreign advisers to assert her right to control the people's correspondence; but the day seems far distant. Perhaps, when it dawns, we in the West will have come round to the present views of the Chinese public on this point, and have decided that it is pleasanter to feel that we are conferring a favour by sending our letters through a grateful post-office than to have to worry a postmaster-general into doing badly what a private company could do better. Why should we not imitate the Chinese, and educate our postmasters into going round to beg for our letters? It would be far more agreeable than posting them ourselves, and there would be, literally, no call for boy messengers.

A FORGOTTEN RACE.

'I SWEAR to make everyone happy,' was the royal oath taken by the King of the Guanches on ascending the throne-the King of that strange and forgotten people who, in the midst of the Atlantic, in the sunny climes of the Fortunate Islands, remained untouched by civilisation, and who lived in the happy innocence and careless joyousness of the stone age into the fifteenth century.

The secret how to secure the happiness of a whole people died with the Guanches; but now that the Happy Islands are being visited by those whom care or disease have robbed of health, the records, the customs and the character of the ancient race who once peopled these islands are becoming daily of more general interest.

The tradition runs that nine, ten, perhaps even twelve thousand years ago, a great continent stretched where now rolls the Atlantic Ocean. This was the fabled country of Atlantis described by Plato, the cradle of the race of the Atlantides who civilised the ancient world. It is alleged that this vast continent was overwhelmed and destroyed by a cataclysm combined with a volcanic outburst, after which nothing remained but a few isolated mountain peaks above the ruin of the waters: these mountain heights are to-day the islands of the Canaries, Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verd, all of which rise precipitously and in an isolated manner from the ocean. The same cataclysm covered the Libyan plain with sea, which on retiring left the desert of Sahara. The memory of a terrible catastrophe which overwhelmed a whole continent is still preserved in the fables and traditions of all European nations.

The Guanches, the inhabitants of the Canary Islands, are said to have been the remnants of the ancient race who 10,000 years ago peopled the drowned continent of Atlantis. In support of this view it is contended that the inhabitants of the seven Canary Islands had no intercommunication by means of boats, for they, like all ancient people, had a great dread of the sea; yet, though thus isolated, they all spoke dialects of the same language and had the same customs and religion. Their language resembled that spoken by the Berbers of the Atlas range of mountains, and

it is hence argued that the Canary Islands were an extension of this range and were at one time continuous with it.

In the fifteenth century these isolated and forgotten remnants of a lost continent were rediscovered. The people were still living in a stone age, and had no implements but hatchets made of hard obsidian, and weapons which consisted of stones thrown from slings, of darts made of wood with the points hardened in the fire, and of shields of the wood of the dragon-tree; but so accurate was their aim with these darts and slings, and so indomitable was their courage, that Europeans with the advantages of ships and firearms, and the resources of civilisation, spent nearly 100 years in effecting the conquest of the islands.

Their government, as the records of their Spanish conquerors attest, was a kind of aristocratic communism. Each island was ruled over by kings or menceys. When a king ascended the throne he kissed the sacred bone, the insignia of royalty, and said, as already stated, 'I swear to make everyone happy.' Truly these were the Happy Isles where the aim of the king was not power and conquest, but the happiness of all. The mencey was then crowned with flowers, and a banquet followed. Next in rank to the king were the nobles, who were strictly limited in number. Noble rank was hereditary, but a son, on claiming to inherit his father's title, had to give proof of a blameless life, otherwise he was disinherited by popular acclamation. A nobleman could also be disinherited and degraded for base deeds, and nobility was granted for great and courageous acts. The king's vassals reigned over districts, and beneath them were the wealthy classes and the people. Though communists in a sense, the Guanches recognised inequality in man and explained it thus. In the beginning of the world, they said, God created a certain number of men and women, and gave them the possession of everything upon the earth. Afterwards He created more men and women to whom He gave nothing. These demanded their share, but God said, 'Serve the others, and they will give to you.' Thus originated in a Divine ordinance masters and servants, nobles and people; but the Guanches recognised the fact that with privileges came responsibilities; thus the nobles served the State by administering justice, commanding in war, and advising in council.

The mencey was considered to be the owner of the soil, the fruits of which he gave to his people. The land was divided among the families according to their size and requirements, and

at the death of the head of the family the estates reverted to the sovereign and were again apportioned. The land being the only source of wealth, it was by these means made impossible for the powerful to become rich at the expense of the poor. We are also told that a man's wealth was estimated by his generosity to the needy. Life in those days and in these Happy Isles was idyllic; the generous earth produced abundance for all, the genial climate banished care, and a gentle and valiant race of shepherds lived innocent and happy lives 'under the shade of enormous laurels, weaving baskets, playing the flute, singing of the loves and wars of their ancestors, and dancing; it was the pastoral life of the earliest ages of the world.'

In religion the Guanches were pure theists, and they worshipped the God of heaven and earth. Their religious rites are hidden in mystery, but they seem to have had temples, vestal virgins, and priests. The latter were vowed to poverty, and were selected from among the nobility. Tithes were paid to the priests of the produce of the land, and this accumulated wealth was either divided among the poor or reserved for times of scarcity. Their temples consisted of two circular walls, one within the other; the first circle represented the earth, the ditch between the two walls the sea, and the outer circle the heavens. The ceremony of worship seems to have been very simple, and to have consisted in pouring sheep's milk from the sacred urn on to mother earth, and in the uttering of prayers with lamentations and tears by the people kneeling.

The Guanches believed in immortality and in rewards and punishments after death. Their morality was pure and their precepts few. Avoid those whom vice renders contemptible, otherwise you will be an offence to your fellows.' 'Associate with the good, help and succour everyone.' 'Be good if you wish to be beloved.' 'Value the friendship and esteem of the good only.' 'Never tell lies.' 'Despise the wicked, love the good.' 'Be an honour to your country through your courage and virtue.' These were some of the maxims of the Guanches, and they believed in them and acted up to them, and their chiefs were those who were declared to be the bravest, the noblest, and the most virtuous. Happy people! whose lives were a pastoral idyll during the dark ages of Europe.

The Guanches were troglodytes and lived in caves, though from some accounts it seems that they also inhabited houses,