in Court and mandarin circles here is getting stronger and stronger every day—thiat influence which should by all right belong to Great Britain, Indeed a great many high officials of Chinese descent who have seen with their own eyes, in thei provinces, the power of the British navy and experienced the integrity and fair-mindedness of ili Consuls and merchants as contrasted with those of other nationalities, feel in their inmost hearts that China's best supporter and friend is Great Britain, but these enlightened Ministers are too weak in influence to resist the bigoted conceit of the Manchus, the highest among whom have never been tweaty-five miles outside Peking their whole lives, and are as ignorant as infants, These Manchus judge only by what they see in the flesh; there is not a single person of foresight among them who could tarn to account the books written of foreign countries which they have read, except, perhaps, its the Empress Dowager herself et she is said to be not a Manchu—merely a Manchu by adoption, But to return to
every one here that the Empress Dowager the Japanese, it seems pisin enoueb to is most anxious to win to her side the support of the Japanese as a counter-force to the Russians. Prince Ching has the name of being her chief supporter in this, but in reality it is PRINCE TUAN, the second son of the Emperor Hsien Féng's fifth brother, Prince Tun, better known to foreigners as the Fifth Prince, elder brother of Prince Kung who was called the Sixth Prince, and Prince Ch'un, Seventh Prince, the father of the present Emperor. This Prince Tuan is really the rising man at Court. Several years ago when his father, the Fifth Prince, died he was only called the Belteh Ts thi, or Prince of the 3rd Order, but being @ really energetic young man with a strong will, fall of resources and always ready to accept a responsibility when older heads shrank away, he won the heart of the Empress Dowager. hin two years of his father's demise Prince Tsai Ch'i_was promoted over his elder brother's head; first made a Prince of the 2nd order, and a year after (1895) a Prince of the Ist Order—equal in rank to his older cousin Prince Ching. Outwardly,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.