Baron Hergine deserves the substan' tial Ist Tune.
gratitude not only of his own Emperor and his fellow countrymen, but of all Europeans in China and all the Foreign Powers who have representatives at Peking for the stand he has successfully made against Chinese arrogance, prejudice, and precedents in the matter of the reception of H.R.H. Prince Henry of Prussia by the Empress-Dowager and Emperor at the Summer Palace. We have all felt humiliated time and again at the snubs which the Ministers of the Grent Powers in Peking have complacently and reverentlily accepted in times past from the high authorities at the capital, whose haughtiness was only equalled by their iguoraice, The Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of the Bmpress of Indin, condescended tw x0 incognito to Peki because our Minister, ander instruct 18, ut course, from our oreign Office, was afraid to demand that. he should he re ved ina manner befitting his rauk, The Grant Duke Alexis, the uncle of the present Czar, and the present Czar of Ru: jo him self when Czarevitch, were alike refused a reception appropriate to their r: wor was the Duke of Genoa any more successful, Until this year thy Chines" have succeeded in yetting the Great Powers to accept: them at their own valuation, The burlesque wri here of a quarter of a century ago ex; wit in a song the words of which are still extant the disgust which was felt in Shanghai at the weakness of the British Minister of the time who did not insist on the Duke of Edinburgh being properly received. Distance should have lent enchantment to our view of the sneredness of the Emperor of China, and the greatness and wisdom of his counsellors, Our Ministers who lived on the spot and year after year had before their eyes, if they chose to see, the tawdriness and imposture that tried to pass as magnificence, accepted with humility the empty claims of the most rotten Court in the world.
Who Japanese pricked the bladder, and the collapsed fabric was kicked aside by the Germans. he account which we published yesterday morning of the reception of Prince Henry will be a lasting honour to Baron von Hey-king and his Imperial Muster. The Kaiser may be to our ideas a little too fond of posing and public speaking and sending telegrams—which are often to the point; there is a little sentence thereanent in the Spectator of the 16th of April: The first object with which a great incident allows itself to occur is that the German Emperor should send a telegram about it" but he has an Imperial will and he knows how to choose instruments who will see that it is executed. Recent events in China have shown how much more effective is a strong will with only a small armed force behind it, than flabbiness of mind with the largest and most powerful squadron ever seen in distant waters at its disposal. The German Emperor simply made up his mind that his brother should be received as an equal by the Emperor of China. Baron Heyking understood and carried out his Imperial master's instruction, and the thing was done. The prejudices and precedents of hundreds of years went down before the Sic vole, sie jubeo of the Kniser like the trash and tinsel we all know that they really are, and we have little doubt that the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, though their dove-cots may have been fluttered at first, are not sorry that they were forced for an hour or two into the light of day, It hag been understood for some time that both these traditionally august personages would gladly see a little. more of the world than is contained within the walls fof their palaces if their courtiers A: would allow thet to, Perhaps now that they have seen that the skies did not fall when the Ewpress-Dowager had her hand kissed by a Western Barba: and thi earthquake follo private interview between the Emperor and the handsome young German Admiral, they will be tempted to see what other foreigners look like in the homes they have inde for themselves fon the sacred soit of the Flowery Ki account given of the appearance of the Binpress-Dowager tallies exactly with that given us some yenrs ago by the lute Mr, Chen Pak-nam, formerly Chinese Consul-General at San Francisco, Resident at Seoul, and afterwards a Director here of the China Merchants' Company. He said she was "very clever woman—nose all same foreign man—very quick eye, see everything." The Emperor, we have been told, is atill little more than a boy, a rather melancholy-looking boy, with sad eyes, but decidedly intelligent. We can fancy such a boy's delight at meeting 1a good-looking young foreigner with the kind, thoughtful face that we all learnt to appreciate while Prince Henry was with us; and there is m very natural touch in the description of his acknowledgment of the Kaiser's handsome presents by repeated handshakes.
"The concessions Baron Heyking has enforced are not only of benefit to Germany and to all Foreign Powers, but they have the farther merit of being of great benefit to China herself. Mohr Licht! was the motto of the valuable journal that Mr. Michie conducted so ably at Tientsin; more light lis what Peking wants, what the whole of China wants, and what all of us publicists in our way are trying to introduce. The reception of Prince Henry must have let a flood of "light into the palaces; and as far as we can speak in- the name of all foreigners in China we most heartily congratulate Baton Heyking on his success.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.