A deep suspicion of the Chinese Court appears to be
spreading in Pekin. The Empress-Regent has started, as was announced, with the Emperor for Paoting-fu, where sums have been spent which would be incredible were only a momentary stay intended. The Empress, moreover, picks out for promotion the officials who were concerned in the " Boxer "
rising, especially a Mongol named Hsi-liang, who, says the correspondent of the Times, was implicated in 1897 in the murder of the German missionaries in Shantung. He has been appointed Viceroy of Fo-kien and Che-kiang, and he can easily revive anti-foreign feeling in those two great provinces. Some kind of compromise, moreover, has been made with the notorious Prince Tuan. whose son was accepted as Heir- Apparent, was then degraded from that rank, and is now, it is reported, to be adopted again. All this while the manufacture of arms in the arsenals never ceases, or the enlistment in remote provinces of the troops who are one day to use them; and the clandestine importation of arms by German firms has led to a protest from Russia. The Legations, it is probable, note all these things ; but the Empress loses no opportunity of professing friendship for Europeans, and all the Ambassadors are busily engaged in supporting the claims of applicants for concessions, who swarm at Pekin, and intrigue and bribe against one another with a zeal which only the hope of large profits can inspire. The Japanese say, we believe, that all is safe; but the first object of the Chinese, if they really meditate vengeance, would be to hoodwink Tokio.
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