Te men-of-war in harbour, American, English, French, Portuguese and Chinese, were dressed in all their bunting on Monday in honour of the accession to sole power of the young Emperor Kuang Hoi. On the sane day General Harrison assumed the supreme power in the United States. To moralise on the contrast and the coincidence would be somewhat trite. Kuang Hsii assumes absolute power for life, General Harrison a constitutional supremacy for four years; and yet it is quite possible that the latter will have more real power, and a longer lease of it, than the former. The Empress Dowager, who formally and finally resigned the reins on Monday, his lately violently rebuked a Censor, who suggested that in consideration of the Emperor's youth and the necessities of the Empire she should continue to exercise some supervision; but she is not yet old, and cannot have entirely lost her taste for rule, and the air of the Palace has not always been salubrious to young Emperors and Empresses. In fact, the Empress Dowager has shown herself such a capable ruler, and so good a judge of men, that it is to be hoped she will continue to guide her protaye in the enormous task which he undertook on Monday.
If we can imagine the young Emperor looking over his possessions with a view to realise their condition, what will he find it to be? rywhere the Empire is at peace. The so-called insurrection in Formosa, which was a perfectly legitimate rising against the exactions of the Governor's minions, has been put down, ostensibly by force of arms, really by concessions. The sporadic famines in parts of the empire have not been sequence, for it is the quality of starvaaccompanied by any risings of any contion to take out of the sufferers all desire to help themselves by violence. There is always some trouble in Corea, too often fermented by interested persons for their own purposes; but the trouble does not go beyond irritation, because, pomees specially concerned, Japan and fortunately, neither of the two foreign
Russia, is at all anxious to quarrel with China. In the south accusations are made that Chinese regular troops are assisting the so-called pirates in Tongking, and so loose is the discipline of these regulars, that it is quite possible that they cross the frontier and join the pirates for the chance of loot; but the utter is of no political importance, and is not likely to disturb the good relations existing between France and China. With her other great neighbour, England, China is on the best of terms, and nothing that she can-do, or neglect to do, can disturb the entente cordiale, whose preservation is the first hope of the English Foreign Office.
Yet if the outside relations of China are everywhere satisfactory, there is plenty to be done internally, as the reference merely to one week's Peking Gazette, as printed in cur columns yesterday, will shew. We do not allude to the great reforms in the administration of the country, which would take even an energetic young Emperor years to accomplish. There are more immediately pressing matters. There is the Yellow River. - The decree reporting the closing of the great breach appeared on China New Year's Day, and the officials who were degraded for failing to close it have been reinstated, while the new Director-General, Wu Ta-cheng, who has succeed-given a button of the first class, which is gratifying, and is confirmed in the charge of the river, which is perhaps less gratifying. The breach, we are told, was finally closed on the 20th of January, "all the waters in the river flowing away by the old channel." It is true that on the 26th the repentant river had not reached Chinan-fu, which is some two hundred miles from the breach, and we have no confirmation of the closure from the missionaries in the vicinity, but this may be due to the well-nigh impossibility of travelling at this time of the year. The memorial from Liu Ming-chuan which follows is a typical instance of the way in which officials who deserve punishment are treated. It Magistrate Chang-hua whose exactions caused the rising in Formosa, these exactions being forced on him by the Governor's demand for funds for his improvements in the north of the island. The Governor, who has held an enquiry, reports that there is no foundation for the accusations of extortion that have been made against the Magistrate; but he has been guilty of harshness in his judicial decision and severity in the infliction of punish ments, and he did not estimate properly the gravity of the insurrection, and he is therefore dismissed the public service. 'Thus Liu Ming-chuan exculpates himself and gets rid of an wusuecessful oficial, whose real crime was carrying out Liu's orders too zealously. Then comes at Chang Pei-a side-blow lun whose disgraceful cowardice and incapacity at' Fuochow have dently not been entirely whitewashed by his marriage to the daughter of Li Hung-chang. On false and exaggerated charges he had procured the cashiering of one General Yang Tsai-yuan, The Governor-General at Foochow has now investigated the cast and completely exculpates General Yar merely finding him to have committed two very trifling and purely formal lapses from strict etiquette. We presume that is father-in-law's influence saves Chang Pei-hin from any punishment for making the "unfounded allegation" on which General Yang was cashiered.
The next extract gives us a little iusizht into the way in which the Chi-Resident administers affairs in Tibet; we know from our own recent experience at Sikkim how very slight his actual power is. In 1878 the men of Chaya plundered a town in Chamdo, and it has taken ten years to arrange the matter, and yet we sometimes grumble if our Ministers are more than a year or two getting our grievances righted. The hutwkhtu, or Saint, of Chamdo kept his people in order, and the Resident succeeded in getting the Chaya people to give up their plunder but we cam see how the matter was really settled, for the Resident adds that he "has bestowed a thousand taels upon the tribe attacked," and we may well assume that the ten years were spent in haggling over the sum to be paid. It is to be hoped that the Saint gets his share of this sum, in addition to the tablet with a suitable inscription which the Emperor has ordered the Hanlin Yuan to prepare for him.
The last extract, a report from the Governor of Yunnan, shews the barbarism that still lingers in some of the country districts of that province. The villagers have a horrible custom of burning to death any man caught stealing corn or fruits in the fields, A man named Peng Chao-sheng was going down to watch his own field, and on the way he plucked an ear of corn from a neighbour's patch of maize, He was seized and brought before the village assembly, which decided that he must be.burnt to death, though his mother tried to ransom him by the offer of her whole property. The unfortunate man was burnt alive, his own mother being compelled to set fire to the maggots, so.as to prevent her lodging a complaint afterwards, which, however, turned out an wi-successful precaution. Of the two ringleaders in the outrage, one has died in prison and the other has beendecapitated, The incident shews the excessive poverty in which the people must live, for it would be impossible that such a custom should exist except in a country where every ear of corn was as valuable as a man's life. These one week's extracts give us some idea of what the task is that is laid on the shoulders of the young Emperor; it would be interesting if it were possible to know something of his qualifications for the task; but as to this point even in Peking foreigners know little or nothing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.