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and privileges of a far-reaching character. The British communities, more especially, being the oldest and the most enterprising, have thus been free to put into practice in the more important centres those methods of self-government which are characteristic of our race. At Canton, at Tientsin, at Hankow, at Niuchwang, and, above all, at Shanghai, flourishing settlements have grown up, largely governed by their own laws, and differentiated in degree rather than in kind, by treaty limitations, from British Colonies in the ordinary acceptation of the term. Shanghai has well earned for itself the title of the 'Model Settlement,' and may therefore be taken as a pre-eminent type of all other settlements of a similar or kindred order in China. Except in the matter of political sovereignty, Shanghai is to all intents and purposes as essentially a British city as Hong Kong or Singapore. It comprises, it is true, a native city subject exclusively to Chinese administration, and therefore squalid and decaying, and a French settlement subject to special municipal laws framed in the somewhat narrow spirit of French bureaucracy, which have served only to hamper its prosperity. But the real Shanghai, the great, thriving, bustling emporium of commerce and industry in the Far East, is the so-called 'Mixed Settlement,' which is so entirely dominated by the British element that, although cosmopolitan in theory, it is a thoroughly British city. Of the foreign, i.e., non-Chinese, population, which is increasing by leaps and bounds, two-thirds are British subjects. Its magnificent quays, its stately public buildings, its docks and warehouses and banks, its goodly private houses, its churches and hospitals, its clubs and theatre and race-course and golf-links, all testify to the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon spirit, which is equally reflected in the constitution and the methods of the municipal authority that governs this great city. The municipality of Shanghai is a representative body elected by and from among the 'land-renters' or qualified citizens. This modest body, consisting of ten members, is practically responsible for