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46
A BAD DECREE.
(Daily Press, 21st January.) Europe is apparently captivated by the idea of reform in China, just as its sympathies went out to the Russian proletariat; and as it would listen to nothing that seemed to imply that the dynamitards were not wholly and absolutely in the right, so it turns a deaf ear to any suggestion that China is not in a fair was to reconstitution and reform. It regards every mention of reform in China with the complacence that certain missionaries show towards every convert, without troubling to look underneath the surface of things. For the immediate purpose of these comments, when we use the words China and Chinese we mean officialdom, or, as the Chairman | of the local branch of the China Association happily dubbed it in his recent speech, "Mandarindom ". At present, as it has for long been, China is Mandarindom; the ideal China of the reformers is either a body without a head, or a head without a body. It is admitted by the Ministry of Civil Appointments that there are in Ching to-day 257,400 men who have hought titles" of expectancy, over a quarter of a million men who are waiting for official positions which they have pail for in advance, and for which, it may safely be assumed, most of them have no better claim. That the Lipu, as the Chinese call the Ministry mentioned, should have ordered a stop to be put to the sale of such privileges need not be taken as an indication of true reform. It is obvious that the number of expectant officials has grown embarrassingly large, and it speaks volumes for the methods of Mandarindom that men can still be found willing to part with their money on the chance of recouping themselves in the remote event of their finding a plice. Were it possible for Mandarindom to at once reward all those 257,400 men with the "chancee " they have paid for, it is not hard to picture for oneself what kind of business
immediately be set in train. There have been Imperial Decrees from time to time, some quite re- cently, which afforded excuse for the hope that this sort of thing was to be ended. It was not long since the EMPRESS DOWAGER particularly commanded her high Ministers not to select any officials " according to routine," but to appoint such men as they knew to have special abilities for the parti- cular posts concerned. A Chinese Imperial Decree is not, as has been suggested, so permanent as "the laws of the Medes and Persians," and, as we have frequently ven- tured to remind our readers, it is no guar- antee of reform even when it strongly breathes reform. Another Imperial Decree, dated the 13th of this month, we reproduce elsewhere in this issue. It proves conclu- sively that China is still Mandarindom, or that Mandarindom is China.
would
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
The two officials therein reprimanded, TANG SHAO-YI and CHANG PO-H81, are said to be the most progressive, independent, and enlightened members of Mandarindom. Í They represent in their persons and posi- tion the first honest step towards a much needed reform—the reform of Mandarindom. We have already said sufficient to show the one way in which that feature can be refɔrmed; it must to be mended he ended. The system of dual and plural posts was being attacked by these tw disciples of Viceroy YUAN SHIH-KAI. Sinecurists and incapables had already been dislodged, and in accordance with the hypocritical orders of the EMPRESS-DOWAGEE, these two had evidently, as chiefs of the Yuchwanpu, o̟
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Ministry of Posts and Communications, been selecting subordinates “out of turn”, as men of sufficiently up-to-date attainments to do the work expected of them. No wonder Mandarindom grew alarmed, and redoubled its efforts on the backstairs at Peking. The EXPRESS-DOWAGER, 80 hypocritically indignant at the alleged nepotism of two of her best Ministers, is herself the most notorious nep tist of them all. The "sleepless nights" she boasts of may possibly have been caused by fears that the day of nepotism in China is drawing to a close. In any case, she has turned a credulous ear to the whispers of t'e Provincial Treasurer of Hupeh, LIANG | TING-FEN, a crusted old Tory, who distrusts all changes, and would willingly restore the status of a hundred years ago. At his suggestion, it is openly reported, the EMPRESS-DOWAGER bas censured two hetter men whose only offence, so far as is known, has been to put her or precepts into practice. They app inte men who knew the difference between a tvin screw steamer anil a two-masted junk. who had learned that electricity and its effects are not equal to devils and deviltry. Presumably these men will now be diem'ssed, and some of the 257.400" expectant coutributors to Mandarindom's coffers be appointed in their places. In such case, it can be readily understood that Chin and reform are set further apart than ever. We suppose that if His Majesty the EMPEROR had the sole control of the Empire, unhampere i by this meddlesome example of "woman's suffrage", such a Decree would not have been so lightly issued.
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YUAN SHIH-KAI.
entertains
similar
[January 28, 1907.
mentary on the existing state of things in this unhappy Empire. Patently biassed and malicious, these representations merely evoked a smile on the face of the Express- DOWAGER. We leave out of account, as Her Majesty often does, the EMPEROR bimself. That smile, in our opinion, marked recognition of the condition of Mandarindom, and it did not mark disapproval thereof. Peking seems to be playing the same game with its more powerfut constituents that it played with the Powers; it smiles while they rend each other. When policemen fall out, thieves come by their own. TANG SRAO-TI 18 said to have resigned since the Elict, so that even though at bottom the blow was aimed at YUAN SHIH-KAI, the coup is none-the-less a score to the reactionaries and conservatives.
Very little beyond the bare details of the career of Viceroy YUAN seems to be known to the general public. He has climbed his way to power through many subordinate positions, and it was not until the crisis at the end of the century that honours were | thrust
upon him.
contemporary suggests that his star began to wane coin- cidentally with the discovery that his modern army had been largely over-rated.
Our
"Up till that moment his position as the most powerful subject of the Throne had been considered secure so long as the Empress lived. Viceroy of the Metropolitan provinos, crestor and supreme commander of the modern-drilled forces of the North, the Director of Northern
and Railways
Mines, he exercised A preponderating weiht in the affairs of the Empire, and was able to post his trusted assistants in positions of power. His services to the Empress-Dowager at the time of the coup d'état of 1898 had made her success possible, and he was trusted, and possibly feared, as s strong and necessary accomplion is usually trusted and feared alternately. Such spaoula- tion as ran in regard to his futurs was chiefly concerned with the possibilities that would arise (Daily Press, 22nd January.)
in the event of the death of the Empress- Following up our remarks of yesterday. Dowager. The Emperor would hardly be likely with reference to the reactionary Edict to forgive his former friend and supporter, who then quoted, we note that our contemporary had deserted him at the crucial moment. The re- furn of H.M. Kwang Hsu to supreme power the North China Daily News, in numbers
would mean therefore the obliteration of Viceroy yesterday, received
YUAN. But behind Yvan stood his army and opinions as to the existing state of things his powerfully placed offcial adherents. There in Chinese officialdom. Its well-informed would probably he a struggle, of which the writer of notes on native affairs declares issue might be at least doubtful." that the reactionaries are "trying their best The manœuvres perhaps meant to demon. to neutralize the efforts of the progressive strats his strength betrayed his weakness. officials of Peking, by making unjustifiable Expert depreciation of his forcas lessened complaints against them to the Throne". Peking's fears. Such is the suggestion. This writer reters to a letter from Peking The “man of power," as Who's Who calls which seems to have been inspired by a him, has been compelled to resign offices, very intimate acquaintance with the buck- and to yield to one of his bitterest enemies stairs at Peking. During the last fortnight, the direction of Imperial army affairs. His it states, denunciatory memorials have been friends and disciples, as apears in the quite numerous, mostly aimed at the veteran Decree printed yesterday, suffer with him. As this eminent states. Like L HUNG CHANG, he has his faults. YUAN SHIH-KAI, man is in his way a reminder of another He has had to be an astute politician to 1od great statesman LI HUNG-CHANG, and his achieve what he has, and that means a character subject to the same variety of deal in China. But we are toll that "with criticism, we shall examine with considerable all his private ambitions, Vicer y YUAN has interest the comments dn his career which stood in the main for reform, for organiza- His decline our contemporary makes editorially on the tion, and for developinent.
Meanwhile, however,' it is worth 17th inst.
means the temporary success, at all events, while returning to the letter from Peking of the alvocates of reaction, healed by "The H. E. CHang Chia-tung," who presumably relating to denunciatory memorials. memorialists”, we read, are a number of euters Majesty's favour as H.E. YUAN Censors and Hanlins, including LIANG SHIH-KAT falls out. Evidently there can ba no rent reform while the Dowager-EmprESS TING-FEN, Provincial Judge of Hupeh. After reading the memorials their Majesties rules the EMPEROR and his Empire, for merely smiled and ordered the papers to be Mandarindom to be meuled must be ende·l, and we now have it on record that she pigeon-holed, Viceroy's
merely miled at Mandarindom's methods. Whether in the future H.M. the EMPEROR does or does not forgiva YUAN his back- sliding in 1898, cannot greatly matter to the Empire, so long as he favours the principles for which YUAN now stands and for which he himself has suffired so severely at the hands of the Dowager.
This shows that the influence is still strong
at Court, which is most cheering to friends of progress in this country." It may be cheering to those capable of gratitude for small mercies, but the fact that Majesty smiled, instead of frowning, and failel to destroy the memorials or to rebuke the memorialists, seems to us a cynical com-
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