Tus wish which is father to the thought probably suggests to writers about Chinese subjects the epecalations as to arevolation with which they periodically startle their readers. The Legations at Peking are annually alarmed by what is known as "the massacre scare." It used to be gravely asserted every year that the Chinese were going to rise and pat all the unfortunate Ministers Plenipotentiary, Envoys, attaches, and student interpreters to the sword. Of course during the years closely neighbouring that of the ientsin massacre any possible atrocity seemed conceivable and almost likely, and then these rumours were very rife and very menacing. Later we believe this "scare" hus ceased to terrify, and the sinister prophecies have taken another, though not a new, shape. Given a long minority with a regency in an Oriental State, and you are sure to hear conjectures as to tie possibility of some powerful subject seizing the Throne. Generally the person suspected of ambitious designs is the Regent himself, bat no one ever suspects Prince Kung of secking for more power than he has. His situation is not enviable, and he would in all likelihood be glad to retire into a dignified private life, but he is kept by the pressure of circumstances at his post. The prominence, activity, and vigour of one high official naturally point him out as the man who is to rise like Jeroboam against his lawful master and to assume an independent position. He is to do what Mehemet Ah did on ap inconceivably grander scale, to tent provinces from the Imperial grasp, to Earopeanise them, and perhaps even to try and supplant the dynasty. These are the schemes with which newspaper writers credit a great Chinese subject, and they employ every means in the power to give an appearance of reality to the theory. There are circumstances which induce the ordinary observer to consider the conjecture plausible. No doubt relations between China and Russia have been strained. There are jealousies, perhaps, between the two prominent Imperinl generals, and ab this moment a singularly able and high minded Englishman deeply interested in China, and one who has Lately served an Oriental master with European proclivities, comes unexpectedly and suddenly on the scene. Who can wonder that when all these circumstances combine, the busy brains of politics should fancy that they seo the Lun signs of war and revolution in the sky A weakling boy on the Throne, two politic and plotting women as his guardians, an indolent Prime Minister, and a patriot general who has quelled fa great rebellion and gained the confidence of the nation before the curtain rises; these are characters that any dramatist would be delighted to have at his command to carry on an historical play withal, And if these ingredients are not sufficiently attractive, we are accommodated with two extra elements of effect and complexity in the shape of a simple-minded Puritan soldier and a back-stairs plot about a royal infant having been changed at nurse! The only thing one desires in all this is the element of novelty. We have heard it all so often before. The father of the present Minister to England was the "coming man" a dozen years ago. Then Yakoob Beg was the favourite for a time. When we have so often heard the ramours of revolution hurtling in the air, we get accustomed to the disturbed state of the atmosphere. And though, of course, we may find all these rumours suddenly confirmed and wake some morning to hear thab China is in open rebellion, we cannot seo any special reason for believing that such will be the case this month or next. The actors now on the stage Lave been in possession of it for many years. The Emperor is not weaker, and we hope the Empresses are nob more wicked than they have beau any time these ton years, The arch con-spirater, instead of being as he was not long ago, absolute master of the situation, would have uow to contend for supremacy with formidable rivals. The only fresh actor is the foreign soldier, who, of all mou living, is the advocate of peace. Why at this moment revive the old rebellion scare
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.