"Our Government was fortunate in the selection as the first judge of that court of a gentleman who had had four or five years' experience in the Orient as Attorney-General of the Filippines, and who came to Shanghai with an intimate knowledge of the method of uniting, in one administration, the principles of the common law of the United States with the traditions and conditions of a foreign country.

"His policy in raising high the standard of admission to the bar and in promoting vigorous prosecutions of American violators of law and the consequent elimination from this community of undesirable characters who have brought disgrace upon the name of Americans in the cities of China, cannot but commend itself to every one interested in the good name of the United States among the Chinese people and with our brethren of other countries who live in China.

"It involves no small amount of courage, and a great deal of common sense, to deal with evils of this character and to rid the community of them. Interests which have fattened on abuses cannot be readily disturbed without making a fight for their lives, and one who undertakes the work of cleansing and purifying must expect to meet resistance in libel and slander and the stirring up of

official opposition based on misinformation and evil report.

"I am glad to think that the Circuit Court for China has passed through its trial and that the satisfaction which its policy has brought to the American and foreign communities in China and to the Chinese people will not be unknown to the Administration at Washington, at whose instance this Court was first established.

"I have read Judge Wilfley's opinions both in civil and in criminal matters. He has worked hard and well. He has made it plain that some additional legislation by Congress is necessary to lay down a few more general principles of law which are to govern in the extra-territorial jurisdiction of the Court in China. I sincerely hope and believe that the establishment of this Court will make much for the carrying out of exact justice in the controversies that arise in the business between Chinese and Americans.

"There is nothing for which the Oriental has a higher admiration than for exact justice, possibly because he is familiar with the enormous difficulty there is in attaining such an ideal. If this Court shall lead the Chinese to believe, as it ought to do, and will do, that the rights of a Chinaman are exactly as secure

when considered by this tribunal as the rights of an American, and that there is no looking down upon a Chinese because he is a Chinese and no disregard of his business rights, because he is an Oriental, it will make greatly for the better relations between the two countries.

NEW COURT AND CONSULATE.

'And now what else is needed? It goes without saying. What you need is a great government building here, to be built by the expenditure of a very large sum of money, so that our Court and your Consulate shall be housed in a dignified manner. Our Government should give this substantial evidence of its appreciation of the importance of its

business and political relations to the great Chinese Empire.

"In the Orient, more than anywhere else in the world, the effect upon the eye is important, and it must be very difficult for Chinese to suppose that the Government of the United States attributes proper importance to its trade with China when it houses its consulate and its judges in such miserably poor and insufficient quarters as they now оссиру.

"All over the United States, Congress has provided most magnificent Court rooms for the administration of Federal justice. Will it, now that it has created a Court whose jurisdiction is co-extensive with the Chinese Empire, be less generous in the erection of a building which shall typify its estimate of the importance of its relation to Chinese trade and the Chinese people?"

CHAPTER IX.

(OME men achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. In one or the other of these ways Shakespeare declares the fame of all men is accounted for, but there are exceptions. The progress of William Howard Taft illustrates this. It is not in one or the other way with him; it is in both ways. Obviously, he has achieved greatness and obviously, too, he has had greatness thrust upon him. President McKinley thrust greatness upon him when he sent Mr. Taft to the Filippines.

President McKinley knew Mr. Taft, and had talked with others who knew him. To Secretary Day he had said: "I must have a big broad man for the head of the Filippine Commission, and he must be strong, faithful and honest."