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THE FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES AND THE CHINESE EMPEROR.
(Daily Press, 12th November.). There is still apparently no authentic or official intimation to the Representatives of the Treaty Powers at Peking in reference to the succession to the Dragon Throne. That most august and venerated seat of power is still practically vacant. The Emperor KWANG SU has been suddenly and secretly removed; it is not even known with any ab- solute certainty that he is still alive, al- though a person said to be His Imperial Majesty was submitted for inspection to the French Legation physician. The EMPRESS DOWAGER has resumed her former powers as Empress Regent, but she rules and does not reign. Who then is the reigning monarch of China; to whom are the Foreign Minis- What guarantees have foreign subjects and citizens for the safety of their persons in China, for the security of the capital they have invested? With whom, in short, are we to treat in China, and what is the measure of foreign influence in this great empire? Are we to accept the outcome of a Palace cabal as a Government with which to treat? Are we silently, and without protest, to endorse ac- complished facts, when such facts include the usurpation of supreme power by a woman who has no title to the diguity while there are legitimate princes of the Ta-tsing dynasty living who could aspire to the Throne? If the Emperor is physically, from illness or from foul play, unable to hold the reins or sustain the cares of govern- ment, let another prince of the blood be selected to act as Prince Regent. The Empress Dowager may have had great experience, but she is not in the succession and her hands are not clean. Nor, as a matter of fact, is the policy favoured by her and her creatures such as civilised states can conscientiously support. Since the re- turn of this old lady to the helm there have been several attacks on foreigners both in Peking and elsewhere, the Foreign Ministers have been compelled to insist upon the reinforcement of their Legation guards to quite a detachment of troops, several of the heads of the Reform party at the capital have been executed without trial, others de- graded and banished for life, the publication of all newspapers suppressed, unnecessary posts which had been abolished have been revived, and nearly every item spelling pro gress in the Empire has been vetoed.
ters now accredited?
It is true, as we have on previous occasions admitted, that the reforms initiated were in many cases pushed with more zeal than discretion, and without making sufficient allowance for the inherent, ingrained, and insoluble prejudices of the mass of the man- adrins. The unfortunate young EMPEROR was injudiciously, though no doubt sin- cerely enough, advised, and even common prudence was neglected in the prosecution of the schemes of reform to which he had been induced to attach the vermilion pencil. But that is no reason why the Western Powers by tacit acquiescence in the assump- tion of power by the reactionists, should deny to the misguided Son of Heaven the sympathy, the support, and the protection to which his well intended efforts and obvious love of his people entitled him. Had the young sovereign, brought up as he was in the soul-crushing influences and enervating surroundings of the haren, developed into a licentious and cruel tyrant, a sort of Chinese NERO, there would have been some reason for the more than apathy shown by the Treaty Powers with regard to his fate. The Foreign Ministers were all accredited
[November 19, 1898.
The crises which are
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
to His Imperial Majesty Kwang Su, and danger was over. Now that the crisis is surely they owe it at least as a measure of past, we have no desire to utter one word respect to him that they should demand an of undue reproach or disparagement to audience and ascertain for themselves France or to the French Government, in whether His Majesty's seclusion is forced or this matter. Unhappily for France, her abdication let the fact be proclaimed and a century have proved singularly shortlived, voluntary. If it really is a voluntary Ministries during the past quarter of a successor duly enthroned. The fact that no and their memories have not proved more such action has taken place seems to in- enduring. To a certain extent there has dicate a deep laid plan on the part of the been a continuity of policy at the Quai Empress Dowager and her minions to de-d'Orsay, but it has been carried on by such pose the Emperor gradually, so as to allow a rapidly shifting succession of statesmen of his disappearance quietly later on. that perhaps there may be some excuse for lapses which would not have been pardonable had the same hand con- trolled French foreign affairs during a long term of years. continually arising in France and entailing a fresh shuffling of the cards by the party which, by virtue of its numbers (the mode- rate Republicans), alone can assume the administration are greatly to be deprecated, as they beget a spirit of unrest in the country, which in turn gives rise to a policy of adventure and aggression abroad, which is as unprofitable to the French people as it is annoying and irritating to their neigh- bours. Great Britain, out of pure love of peace and a dislike to make herself offensive, preserved a strict neutrality while France invaded and annexed Tonkin and Annam, even extending to her no little sympathy when she became involved in a conflict with China; looked quietly on forces subjugated the Malagasies and annex- ed that people's great islaud; permitted the cession by China of territory on the Siam frontier which had been given up by us to form a neutral state; conceded many points in Africa where our interests and those of
In the meantime they are taking steps to secure their own position and to render any plot to restore KWANG SU to the imperial dignity hopeless. They have shown a wise discretion, when promulgating their reac- tionary measures, in leaving the railway and mining concessions recently granted free from interference, and; aware by past experience of the trouble that results from an anti-missionary propaganda, they have left the missions un molested. That may be, however, for the present. They no doubt astutely concluded that, if matters affecting the direct interest of foreigners were left untouched, they would not be called to account for matters which are supposed to be the concern of the Chinese people alone. But are they to find that this was entirely a correct conclusion? Are they to discover that the objects and policy of Western States are so unadul- teratedly selfish that the rise or fall of dynasties, the triumph or failure of ignoble reasons, have no real or abiding interest this will not prove to be the case. for the heads of civilised states? We hope The attention of the Foreign Representatives at Peking as well as that of their Governments, has latterly been engrossed by stirring events which have, so far as the West is concerned, obscured the issues raised and changes effected in Eastern Asia. Now, how ever, that the horizon on the Western sky is perceptibly clearing, it is sincerely to be hoped that the attention of the civilised world will become once more focussed on Peking, and that the rulers of the great Powers will find a throb of pity awake within their breasts for that most melancholy young autocrat who, whilst nominally con trolling the destinies of upwards of three free than the meanest peasant engaged in hundred millions of people, was really less
tilling the soil. KWANG SU had given signs of a genuine desire to rule liberally and righteously, and under more competent and judicious advisers he might during his reign have done much to promote the wel fare of his country and to help forward its commercial and social advancement.
THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY'S
GUILDHALL. SPEECH.
(Daily Press, 14th November.) The speech delivered by the Marquis of SALISBURY at the Lord Mayor's banquet at the Guildhall on the 9th instant, a résumé of which by Reuter we publish in another column, is very reassuring with regard to the settlement of the Fashoda difficulty with France. The common sense and good judgment of the French Ministers have, the noble lord tells us in effect, saved two great nations from becoming involved in a war which, however it ended, could not have failed to prove most disastrous in the sense of causing great loss of valuable life and vast waste of material resources. It is satisfactory to have such an assurance from such a source, the very fountain head, the Foreign Minister himself, though we had already received sufficient information to convince us that the most imminent
at
while French
our restless neighbour clashed; and allowed her to practically absorb Tunisia and im- pose her own restrictive tariff, thereby placing British trade
a great dis- All this, too, without any advantage. stipulation for a reciprocal amiability with regard to British possessions and trade in other parts of the world. Thus, we failed to exact a settlement, in our favour, of the long standing trouble with regard to the New- foundland fisheries; neglected to insist upon the cessation of the shipment of convicts to New Caledonia; and we did not press for acknowledgment of our status in Egypt. endurance, like the end to all things, was We had been longsuffering, but the limit of
reached at last at Fashoda, and it was left, to France to find the way out of the coil she' had created.
There was never any animosity to France in this matter, through there was much honest indignation. We trust that will be laid as quickly as it arose, and that the peace which has endured between the two near neigh- bours in Western Europe for upwards of seventy years will last for another like period. Better still if the poet TENNYSON'S vision be fulfilled in the next century and
"The war drums throbb'd no longer and the battle flags
were furl'd In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.” That time, however, is unfortunately not yet in sight, and we fear that even the most optimistic observer would fail at the present moment, notwithstanding the Czar's disar- mament proposal, to discover any cheering signs of its imminence. Lord SALISBURY most clearly has little faith in the approach of such a happy condition. The noble lord is a well known pessimist, but in this ins- tance his pessimistic utterances will be generally endorsed. He thinks the general temper of the world far from pacific, and with reason. There is a keen struggle to secure fresh fields to exploit, fresh markets to enter, and there is a great and growing jealousy of Great Britain, her vast trade, and her naval
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