138
THE PEACE OF EUROPE,
of
with a
[August 24, 1903.
THE PEKING OFFICIAL MURDER.
It seems
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
concealed. He has denied the knowledge, and except that it might have been considered that it was in his interest that they should be committed we
have no
(Daily Press, 22nd August.) direct evidence to connect him
We reproduced yesterday from the N.-C. guilty knowledge. It is the misfortune Daily News an account, from & Peking of rulers that they have frequently arrived correspondent, of the most recent official at their exalted positions by means which murder in that city. The victim was the in the case of individuals would have SHEN CHIN OF SHEN KE-WEI, of whose death entailed prompt and futal judgment. we wrote lately. He had acted as cor- Nations often against their wishes and respondent in the Chinese capital for some convictions have been compelled to coalesce of the Japanese papers, was a reformer, in these acts, in order to avoid the recur- and belonged to the literati class. rence of still worse; yet, strange as it is, he was mixed up with the Hankow move- the man whose path to the throne has ment in 1900, for which a number of his been marked by the most atrocious of fellow-countrymen lost their lives, and he crimes, has in subsequent years frequently was at one time a secretary in the Viceregal handed down his name to posterity as
Yamên at Wuchang. He escaped at the distinguished alike for impartial justice time, probably to Japan, but returned to and clemency. It is thus that by the Peking as a newspaper correspondent, exercise of tact and discretion a situation hoping that matters had blown over, and that might have been turned into that he would not be recognised or remem- an element of danger for the entire bered. But some official or other became of Europe, has been taken advantage aware of his identity, and he was arrested to induce a much more whole-by a secret Decree and handed over to the some condition throughout the Balkan Board of Punishments for trial. This took Perinsula. Although a general drawing place on the 29th July before a special tog ther has for some time seemed possible Commission nominated by the Empress between France and England, it is Dowager. He was simply interrogated, undoubtedly the case that the difficulties in and, as he confessed his offence freely, be bringing it about would have been vastly was spared being put to the torture. This intensified but for the strongly marked did not, however, in the end avail him much. personalities of the two rulers. France The Court reported the result of the trial to and England bad for some years been the Throne, and, after a brief delay, a estranged why it was not easy to divine. Decree was issued ordering that the pri The curious fact that, in spite of this soner should be beaten to death in prison. apparent estrangement, absolutely nothing This may not sound such a very terrible had turned up to lead to hostile action on sentence, but, as the correspondent of our the part of one or the other was an evident contemporary points out, it is the most indication that the interests of the two cruel and barbarous that could be passed. peoples was not in essentials hostile; but It fiads no existence in the Code, and is in family quarrels the most dangerous reserved for the eunuchs and slaves of the paint is arrived at when both parties begin Palace. It is stated that the execution was to discover the absence of any point of commenced at four o'clock in the afternoon, difference, and it was at such a moment and for two hours the body of the un- that King EDWARD paid his round of fortunate man was subjected to a rain of visits, not omitting to look in upon blows from the blunt bamboo, until his President LOUBET. To this pleasant out- flesh hung in shreds; but life still remained look there is but one exception, and that in the battered frame, and he implored the curiously enough is the one case where the executioners to put an end to his prolonged sovereign, absolute in theory, is to all agonies. Eventually they seem to have intents little more than a puppet in the hands put him out of his misery, but hot before of a hated bureaucracy. There the whole the shades of evening were closing in. country is furrowed with discontent, ready at any moment to break out in excessses, of which the recent massacres at Kishineff are but an indication of what is likely to be the rule in the near future; and this bureaucracy, conscious of the evil that it has wrought, is, in trying to prolong its miserable existence, well content by its aimless and vaulting ambition to remain a standing menace to the civilised world. It is in strange contrast to this eminently satisfactory position in Europe that we witness the still too evident divergence in Asia. The situation is not creditable to any of the Powers, least of all to Russia, which by unblushing falsehood and dishonour has been seeking to take advantage of every rift in the counsels of her neighbours. Already she has taxed the forbearance of the other great Powers to the utmost, and it would seem from time to time that the inevitable had come. We are not advocates for peace at any price, ever that of dishonour, and we would like to see the admirable concert which prevails in Europe applied to a similar useful purpose in the Far East.
(Daily Pr. 88, 20th August.) Contrasted with the state of affairs in the Far East, the relations of Britain on the continent of Europe may be looked upon for the first time for some years as eminently satisfactory, and reflecting no small amount of credit on her Government. For nearly a century the regal office in Great Britain had sunk to comparative unimportance, and the monarch had come to be looked upon as little more than a counterweight to add stability to the fluctuations to which a popular government is always liable. It was indeed known that her late Majesty did always insist on her constitutional right to be kept informed of everything transacted in her name, and more than once asserted her self when she thought Ministers were taking over much on their own shoulders, but it seldom or never happened that Ministers of their own notion voluntarily applied for advice or inspiration to the Sovereign. So much was this the case that a certain section of politicians were in the habit of saying that, for all really efficient purposes in the way of imparting energy to the actual machine of state, the kingly office was as a mere flywheel, taking up redundant energy at one point to distribute it agaia when un- usual strain came upon it. The last twenty years of the world have been indicative of a gradual return of the age of kingcraft, and it is worthy of note that with the exception of Russia, nominally the only autocratic empire of the lot, the actual guidance of affairs of state bas fallen largely into the hands of the nominal chief rulers, who have been kings not only by law, but in a very large and remarkable degree in fact. The old Emperor of Austria, FRANCIS JOSEPH, was for years almost alone in guiding the affairs of the Dual Monarchy through the most severe crisis in its history, but it is to the allied German Empire that we have to turn to see the doctrine of personal government carried to the furthest extreme. Although King HUMBERT in Italy hardly exercised so much personal influence in the management of affairs as did his predecessor, the new king VICTOR EMANUEL III has, following the example of his generation, commenced to make his personal influence felt throughout the kingdom as well as abroad. And not only in the nominal kingdoms, but in the republics is the same element of personal government found to prevail, and here also, as in the former case to the manifold benefit of the State. It is thus that Presidents LOUBET and ROOSEVELT are strong, not only through the position of the states over which they have been called upon to preside but through the individual power of the men themselves. Of King EDWARD VII it is almost unnecessary to speak, but here the magnetic attraction of the man has come to the aid of administrative faculties of no mean order, and it is possibly the case that since the accession of the house of Brunswick no sovereig of England has exercised so potent a personal interest in the deliberations of His Cabinet. The effect is very plain, and is to be noticed in the very different construction put upon the actions of England by the continental Powers. A curious but marked instance of this is to be noticed in the re eat telegraphic correspondence between King EDWARD, representing the longest abiding of European monarchies and King PETER of Servia, newly elected to almost the youngest. Whether King PETER WAS OF was not cognisant of the dark crimes committed in the palace of Belgrade must remain, for the present generation at least,
On the night of the 4th inst a public meeting for the propagation of Socialism was held in the town of Nakatsu, of Japan. Some references of one of the speakers were con- sidered by the authorities to be detrimental to the public peace, and the meeting was peremptorily ordered to disperse.
Such are the particulars given of this disgraceful occurrence, and the narrator does not hesitate to charge the Empress Dowager with being directly the author of the sentence. It rested with the Throne, and as the Emperor is only a figure-head it cannot be doubted that the Empress Dowager passed sentence on the wretched SHEN. It is obvious therefore that, as our Shanghai contemporary puts it, even as the leopard cannot change his spots, so the Empress has not changed the cruel and merciless
nature which prompted her to execute the six martyrs without trial in 1898, to join in the conspiracy to exter- minate all the foreigners in Peking, and to decapitate the faithful Ministers in 1900. Given another opportunity, we believe this. ruthless old woman would repent without remorse all the crimes that disgraced. the close of the nineteenth century in China, and that she is now, and has bee ever since her return from Hsian-fu, only acting a part. Surely it is time that the attempt to bolster up such an administration should be finally abandoned! It would be bad enough to have to prop up a dynasty of which the Emperor KWANG HSU is the effete representative. But to support a Government of which this bloodthirsty and vengeful woman is the guiding spirit, seems totally out of keeping with modern civilisation and the spirit of the age. Nor does it appear to have had any of the good
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.