It is difficult to define the raison d'être of the Tung wen Kwan College; in theory it is established to provide the Chinese government with a staff of interpreters and persons conversant with foreign literature and foreign habits of thought; but, so far as can be judged by patent facts, the patronage above referred to is the element most appreciated, and it may be well to notice the extent to which the theoretical object has been carried out, and how far the Chinese government has availed itself of the material for the production of which something like eight hundred dollars a month has been expended for the last sixteen years in the maintenance of the college.
About ten years ago fourteen students were drafted from Canton to the Peking college. Of these, five have retired from various causes, six are still attached to the Peking College, and the remaining three have appointments in legations abroad, one in Washington, one in London, and one in Japan. Since 1870 not one student has been drafted to Peking; none of the Canton students have in any way been called upon to render service to their government. Most of them have received an honorary literary degree (Hsin Tsai) equivalent to B.A., and three or four of them are nominally interpreters, for which they receive a small additional pay. Year after year passes, and boys of 17 grow up to be men of 27, marry and become fathers, and go on with their foreign studies without so much as a word of encouragement from their own authorities. Under such discouraging circumstances it must be that studying is often done in a perfunctory way; and yet, while some of the students have, as I understand, a very good knowledge of English, wanting only practice outside the school walls to render it equal to that of any Chinaman who has not had the advantage of living abroad, they constantly witness men of less technical knowledge than themselves, men of lower stamp altogether, men picked up here and there without any proper steps being taken to ascertain their fitness, called upon to perform the very duties for the performance of which the students of the Tung wen Kwan are in theory specially educated.
The course of study, I am informed, consists chiefly of the English language, together with but subordinate to which there are geography, arithmetic, history, algebra, mathematics, and astronomy. A very small proportion of the students have made any progress in algebra or mathematics, few are even fair arithmeticians, and much that they are called upon to learn of geography, history, and astronomy is soon forgotten. This arises from no want of ability, but from an utter want of encouragement on the part of the Chinese authorities for the students to trouble themselves with such studies. Without a reasonable knowledge of the language they are liable, on the motion of the foreign teacher, to be dismissed from the school, and in the acquisition of that they are to some extent buoyed up with hope, a hope that sometimes becomes lamentably faint, that the language will ultimately be of service to them; but with respect to the other branches, I am given to understand, no person in authority, except the foreign teacher, seems to know or care whether they are taught or not.
