It is about a year since the correspondence from this section of Northern China, including that from Linch'ing, Chinanfu, and Ichoufu, showed a firm conviction on the part of all the writers, that there was serious trouble ahead for Shantung, and for China, unless some steps were taken to avert it. The murder of Mr. Brooks took place just at the end of December, immediately after Yuan Shih-kai had taken over the seals of the Governor's office, and if his hands had been free, there would have been a speedy end of the Boxer business throughout the whole province. But Yuan's hands were tied (as reported at the time) by Confidential Instructions (t'ing.chi) which acknowledged his memorials expressing the view that unless the leaders were seized there could be no settlement, but the Empress proceeded to enounce her well-known views about the danger of confounding the good and the bad, and concluded with she caution that whatever was done was at Yuan's own Yuan did what he could, that course, did nothing. His proclamati were unobjectionable, but not being followed by the seizure of the actual leaders they were idle sheets of good advice unaccompanied by any specific threats, much less by any execution. The perspective of a year shows many things in a clearer light, and the responsibility of the central Government for all the Boxer movement, which was then a reasonable theory, is now proved as an objective fact by numerous and converging lines of evidence. Governor Yuan has had a difficult part' to play, and he has played it well, insomuch that in all the wide regions which he governs, no foreign life has Been sacrificed, and the damage to property has been much less than in the province of Chihli adjacent, The premises of the English Methodist Blission, in the county of Lading, were totally destroyed after the occupants had fled across the province to Chefvo. The same things occurred at Linch'ingchou, except that one of the three houses situated directly opposite the yamen of the Hsieht'ai, was merely looted and the woodwork removed by the soldiers, instead of being burned and the foundations dug up like almost all others. In the little village of P'ang-chuang, twenty years occupied as a station by the American Board, the dwelling-houses, chapel, boys' school, girls' school, hospital and dispensary, with numerous other buildings, have not only not been wrecked, nor looted, but they have not even been entered, and remain in exactly the condition in which they were left on Tune 2th, having been guarded most of the time only by such of the Christians
The singular circumstance that this parti-were appointed to look after the paco, cular mission station should be the only one of which this is true (defended treaty-ports excepted) in the whole vast region from the Yellow to the Amur rivers, seems to be explicable only by the favorable concurrence of several different causes. The far-reaching influence of the medical work was universally recognised. There had never been any interference whatever in Chinese lawsuits, so that there was no such ba of hostility as was felt toward the unfortunate Roman Catholic Christians, and there chanced to be a friendly feeling between some of the leaders of the Boxers, and one of the (ex) Christians, so that a feast or two, and the timely purchase of a horse at eighty tiao materially smoothed things over, at a dangerous crisis. Word was then sent round that the premises were to be spared so as to be used for Boxer headquarters, but before this could be carried out other influences were at work, and in the end the plice was simply let alone. Even so late as the last of September, however, it was rumored that threats of another Boxer uprising were froely made, and these were reported to Minister Conger at Peking, who telegraphed to the energetic Consul at Chefoo, Mr. Fowler, to telegraph to the Governor at Chinanfu, asking to have a guard posted at P'anz. chuang, as there had been intermittently during the spring and summer. Such was the promptness of action all around, that within less than forty-eight hours of the dispatch of the message from Peking, a company of Yuan's own troops were quartered in the boys' school building, and the crisis was over. The poor Christians have suffered severely, almost every family (except in the village of P'angchuang itself and one or two others) being required to make a money payment, and many of them were forced by the direct pressure of the local officials to go through the form of recantation, or lose both their lives and property. The details are not yet known, but it is certain that many consented under protest, and that others refused, all alike being severely ill-used. One whole family was killed, for reasons not well understood, and others suffered the greatest hardships, being driven from their homes in the chill autumn weather, hiding among the crops, or rushes, and in such terror lest the casual erying of a child should betray their hiding-place, that the little ones were sometimes actually strangled' by their mothers, save the lives of the rest Great numbers of the Christians have had their houses pulled down, and some have been burned down, while the money fines exacted have been enormous. The local' magistrate of En-hsien county has justified the remark of the Interpreter of Governor Yuan in Chinanfu last summer, who spoke of him to a foreigner as 'a Totton potato." While professing groat friendship with foreigners to thole faces, he has perpetually summoned the gentry and headmen of villages, to notify them of the hostile intentions of the Government towards the foreign devils, whom he said he had always hated and despised. He absolutely refused to report that there were any Boxers in his district (although it has been full of them for a year) even if he should lose his office in penalty, The magistrate of Hosiachin county adjacent is another of the same class of tubers, only much worse, and within his territory things have gone ill for twelve calendar months. The most recent reports are that despite the fine phrases of the local officials, the troops of Yuan are actually making arrests in these countries, and that no Boxer gatherings can now be held. If Yuan hag a free hand he will soon exterminate the whole brood, us he longed to do-a year ago, Meantime the cuffering of thy Christians is very great, and og it is impossible for foreigners to visit the district at present, there is reason to fear that much of it may go unrelieved, notwithstanding the effort by small sums of money Kept available to mitigate it as much as possible. Orer the border, in Chihli, the story is quite different, for while General Mei in one region is seizing Boxers, as ho has been doug for a whole year, in other places they are still rampant, and the Christians are afraid to return to thole homes, and without any shelter elsewhere, In some regions the crops have been good, but there has nowhere bear any cotton gathored—the second year of which has been true, and there was no wheat crop, a calamity not paralleled since the great famine of 1878. But the price of grain is happily for the most part not excessive. The rice-fleet, which makes its slow and expensive journey to Peking, via the Grand Canal, has not been able this year to get beyond Linch'ing, where the whole four hundred boats have been unloaded, and the grain will be a convenient prize for whatever band of troops first gets it. As it is common for more than half the space in the vessels to be taken up with the private goods of the boatmen, mostly smuggled past all the Customs barriers, the wastofulness of this method of transport has long been apparent oven to the Chinese, the most intelligent officials often memorialist ug against it—but always in vain. This year, however, owing to the failure to get beyond Linch'ing, so large a quantity of wheat which was' being carried to Peking on speculation had to be sold for whatever it would bring, that grain was much cheaper than in an ordinary year of good crops—and in that region the year had been a bad one. ea ae, The late Customs Taotai of Tientsin has been for some time stationed at Techou, superintending the mounted mail service, which has been in fairly good working order, The present reports are that all is quiet along the Grand Canal, but the advent of the Germans at Ty'angchou is considered as an ominous proceeding, the [meaning of which is as little known to foreigners as to the Chinese. Thus far no foreign soldiers from the northern side are
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.