14th Dec. EvER since. the coup d'état the Empress Dowager. has been enlisting men -for the garrisons in the North, massing troops round and in Peking, endeavouring to' Secure the good will of the Generals and their men by presents.of money and other favours, and herself inspecting: large bodies of her soldiery. Notwithstanding the straitened position of China's finances, large. sums are ordered to be spent with feverish haste on arsenals, on the manufacture of fire-arms, and' the revision of large stores of gunpowler. These preparations naturally set the people enquiring of each other at the teashops, which are: their Clubs, what is the meaning of it all, and, as might be expected, the wildest, rumours are flying. over: the country. From points as far distant as Kiukiang on the Yangtze and Tungehou the port of Peking, comes the same story, that all the foreigners in China are to be massacred, or at least expelled from the Empire.
Our'Tungchou correspondent's letter, which is a particularly interesting one, tells us that for weeks the training of Tung Fu-hsiang's troops has been: going on at the Southern Hunt-" ing Park. "The rumble of cannon and the sharper roll of. salvoes of musketry.were almost continuous from dawn: till dusk:.. Enough powder must have been burned to have served for a season's campaign, and yet the ood work goes on. There is "doubtless a purpose.in it'all, and this purpose has. been well attained by the over-awing of the people in this whole section of the. province centring about Peking. After a peasant: has gone to his fields at dawn and returned home. at' night for a month. together to this sort. of music, he begins to have a pretty clear conception that something' unusual is under way, and that. if the Empress, Dowager has undertaken the: overturning of the whole. Imperial: policy towards foreigners, she has taken good care to gather. troops enough to assure the complete. success. of her policy, however ruthless. And: that it will be ruthless isthe conclusion that the entire countryside has drawn from this two, months'.cannonade.. Everywhere, both in city. and- country, we hear the same tale, that all the foreigners are to be killed or driven out, and that. our day is close at hand."
He "goes on to tell us. that. the Kansu levies.which General. Tung Fu-hsiang-has brought to Peking for the. protection of the Empress Dowa-Bree. He says: "To anyone used to seem to be a really formidable
the hastily organised levies that were the wretched rag-tag and bob-tail. of hurried through Tientsin at the time of.the. Japanese war with their semi-shamefaced consciousness of. their own. ridiculous inadequacy, these Kansu troops are an unwelcome surprise. Ofall truculent ruffians in the way of Chinese soldiers,. these surely bear the These is. a. sw: ing self-sufficiency about them, free-and-easy presumptuousness, that fis well backed up by their really formidable equipment on the march. There is no bow and arrow and jingal foolery about them, but each man carries a well-kept rifle and wears a canvas belt grinning with a double row of three-inch ball cartridges, that would do credit to a Rough-rider. ' desperate effort to recover their coun-The cavalry especially made a brave showing. Ridiag at a slow trot, in compact companies of fifty, with waving of silk banners and fluttering of scarlet cloaks, and long red-tufted lances-quivering in their hands like reeds, they swept through our: quiet country lanes in a way that for once recalled some of the pomp and circumstances of war."
While. he tells us that "popular rumour says that they are going to the.coast to close up the ports against the incoming of any more foreigners, and are then returning to dispatch us out of hand," he also makes the satisfactory admission that neither they nor the people who are "so impressed by their apparent prowess show any special animosity to foreigners, beyond a little good-natured horse-play with occasional threats and menacing gestures. It would seem that they are so conscious of their strength, and their power to crush the foreigners when the word is given, that they look on them more with tying contempt than with active e. This is the feeling at the bottom of the intimation of Tung Fu-hsiang's Generals to HE. Hu, then Governor of Peking, that they would make short work at "any time of the exiguous foreign garrisons in the capital. If our Tungchou correspondent was struck with the excellence of Tung Fu-hsiang's Kansu troops, we know that Lord. Charles Beresford was equally well impressed by the soldierly bearing, the drill, and the discipline of the regiments under the command of the alleged traitor to his Sovereign, Yuan Shih-kai.
We do not suppose for a moment that the Empress Dowager or her powerful favourite, the real ruler of China at the moment, Jung Lu, has any idea of ling foreigners from China. The Legationsat Pekin would doubtless. explode with mirtl at the very suggestion, though every one whose knowledge of Asiatic Courts goes at all below the surface must feel at times:
Incedo per ignes Suppositos cineri dolose."
The question then is, where is the enemy to defend herself against whom the Empress Dowager is: surronndin herself while Jung Lu is doing the same thing on a smaller scale—vwith sich large bodies of ex med men? Are the Manchu cabal. in power think of throwing off the Russian yoke? It was alleged. when Vu Lu, the present Viceroy of Chihli, went to Foo: chow, that he asked to, be sent there that he might not seem to be an accomplice in the alienation of his fatherland, Manchuria. Has the sight of the enormous advances Russia has made. since he went south in disgust possibly determined himself and his relations now in power to make a try, with the eventual assistance of \Japan? The Peking and Tientsin Times does not hesitate to say: "The {steady progress made by Russia and her virtual occupation of Nevehwang have been just as little appreciated and believed in Peking as they have in London, though there is not a British resident here who has not been perfectly cognisant of the entire position. The idea that as Russia has done in Newchwang so she will do in Peking is also scouted, but, unless Lord Charles has time to get home and ventilate the question, and some immediate steps are taken to check it, a Russian occupation of the capital will be an accomplished fact and very possibly before the Spring. We write in no sensational spirit and in the full appreciation that not only in Peking but in Tientsin many will ridicule the suggestion." If the Empress Dowager and her supporters have got this idea in their heads, as they well may have, we can nite understand the preparations they are making.
It may be, however, that the present usurping Government is only anxious to protect itself, The fact that the Emperor has not been made away with in the face of the danger as long as Ee is alive and is me that overhangs the Empress Dowager
de jure sovereign, shows' that in spite of murders, banishments, and proscriptions, the Reform party, is still too strong to be treated with contempt. Itis then, we may presume, to protect herself and her entourage from a possible uprising in the Emperor's favour, and to have a force ready to instantly repress any rebellion in the provinces, that these armaments have been undertaken.
Meanwhile there is danger to all foreigners as the knowledge of their being made spreads through the country, as long as the people believe at the same time that the reactionaries now, in power are' hostile to foreigners as well as to foreign-inspired reform. This danger, we must suppose, never suggested itself to the Foreign Ministers at, Peking when they acquiesced so cheerfully in the deposition of the. Emperor and the usurpation of the Empress Dowager.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.