The whole system is wrong.
To induce a master to sign in London an agreement that he will study for years the Chinese written language, of the difficulties of which he cannot possibly judge, is unfair. To compel a man to continue studying a language for which he is found to have neither taste nor ability is a useless torture. To order a man to give a lesson for which he feels himself incompetent or not fully competent, is an injury to both master and pupils, as destructive to right relations between them.
There is also a needless waste of money in connection with the employment of Chinese teachers to assist in translation lessons and to instruct English Masters who daily meet in the same locality. And finally, I think the compulsory periodical appearances of the English Masters of this college before the Board of Examiners involve both a loss of dignity—a most important factor of a teacher's usefulness—and a positive injustice: the former, because occasionally masters are examined by the Board in the same room with present or former scholars; the latter because some of the masters have been allowed, before completing the fixed term, to shake off this yoke under which some are still groaning.
I do not discuss here the remedies required.