Ir has been much the fashion among Baropeau publicists to write as though the Chinese ambassadors abroad were accredited to European Governments by the Viceroy of Chili, and to proceed largely upon the assumption that it is to him, as " Prime Minister " of China, that they are responsible for their acts and words. The trath is, of course, that Li is not in avy sense of the word Prime Minister, and that the Empress would scarcely coincide with the theory that the ambassadors she deputes are answerable to anybody but herself. At tions of foreign policy as understood in Europe. The public criticism to which every act and utterance of the Marquis Tedug was subjected on the part of the Ambassador to Berlin was surely at marked variance with diplomatic etiquote, and calculated to prejudice very seriously not only a man already badly handicapped by the instructions of his Government, but the interests of the Government itself. We are aware, of course, that there is a certain precedent the interval administra-
Empire. Vicoroya and statesmen of the highest rauk are cone tinually telling tales of each other, complaining of each other, impeaching each other, and trying to advance their own interests at the expense of some envied colleague, for all the world like 0 many poor-spirited schoolboys, In fact we venture to say that the mutual jealousies of the high Chinese officers form one of the strongest bulwarks of their Manchu rulers, who play off one mau against the other. This we suppose most be accepted as an integral part of state policy in China, undignified though it seems tous. Butitiea different thing altogether when the same system is pursued abroad, for this is likely to lead to serious misunderstandings between Pekivg and the Courts at which China is represented. It can scarcely be very agreeable for the heads of the French Republic to know that the Minister with whom they are conducting im. portant negotiations is being subjected to a ceaseless criticism, espionage and disparagement by the Minister of some neighbouring Court, and to feel that it is to the interest of that Minister to damage him if he cat And, if reports be true, it is to be feared that it is this bad system which has been more or less countenanced by the Viceroy of Chiblihimeelf. It must surely be clear to so far-seeing a atates-man that this sort of thing is calculated
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.