The Shanghai correspondent of the Times forwards a piece of
intelligence of considerable importance. General Tso, the con- queror of the Panthays and of Kashgar, is, as our readers know, in Pekin, supporting the policy known as that of the War Party. His army is now to be cantoned there, too. With an adroitness which is really admirable, Tso has discovered that the canals of the metropolitan province are silted up, and that his soldiers, who were trained to that work in the west, would form an admirable corps for reopening them. The project has been sanctioned, the men are to be brought, and when they have arrived, Tso will be virtual master of Pekin. He could not march his men on the Emperor, for that –would, in Chinese ideas, be parricide, but he could march them on any group of Ministers who deceived the Imperial mind. The incident, too, has another bearing. Russia is quiet for a time, and with Tso's army cantoned in Pekin "digging canals," all can be silently made ready for a campaign in Korea which will settle the Korean claim to independence and the Japanese claim to Korea, once for all. We should say that the chance of any native male Korean living till 1885 was of the most limited character. There will come trouble of this extraordinary and most thoroughly Chinese "dodge," for there really is no dignified word for it.
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