Note 231 — Chapter VII · LAWS OF CHINA, AND PLAN OF ITS GOVERNMENT.

A still more common designation for officers of every rank in the employ of the Chinese government has not so good a parentage; this is the word mandarin, derived from the Portuguese mandar, to command, and indiscriminately applied by foreigners to every grade, from a premier to a tide-waiter; it is not needed in English as a general term for officers, and ought to be disused, moreover, from its tendency to convey the impression that they are in some way unlike similar officials in other lands. Compare Notes and Queries on China and Japan, Vol. III., p. 12.