Note 2 — Of these Filipinas Islands

W. Winterbotham gives, in his View of the Chinese Empire (London, 1796), ii, pp. 6–8, an interesting account of the “mandarins of letters,” the chief nobility of the empire. He says: “There are only two ranks in China, the nobility and the people, but the former is not hereditary ... China contains about fifteen thousand mandarins of letters, and a still greater number who aspire to that title ... To arrive at this degree, it is necessary to pass through several others; such as that of Batchelor (sie, or tsai), of licentiate (kiu-gin), and of doctor (tsing-tssëe). The two first, however, are only absolutely necessary; bur even those on whom the third is conferred obtain for a time only the government of a city of the second or third class. There are eight orders of [these] mandarins ... In short, the whole administration of the Chinese empire is entrusted to the mandarins of letters.”