12th Noveiber.
Tue Government of China made what must have seemed to them a very daring experiment when they dispatched such a prominent member of the Imperial family as the Emperor's own brother to Germany on a mission of apology for the murder of Baron von Ketteler. Not only was it a previously unheard-of thing for an Imperial Prince to travel _at al! outside the limits of the Central Empire: but it must have seemed to the older members of the Court absolutely impossible that a personage so ted could be allowed to go away to a distance of thousands of miles by sea in a ship manned entirely by barbarians to visit the ruler of one of the barbarous countries of the West, a ruler, too, the weight of whose mailed fist they had felt, and who had publicly expressed his determination to exact the severest vengeance from the country in which his representative had been folly and treacherously slain, No better testi-many to the confidence which the rulers of China really feel in the assurances and good faith of the hated foreigner could be given than that the Emperor's brother, in whom unusual hopes are vested, should have been allowed to go to Germany and back in a German ship after last year's ocenrreness in Peking.
The mission has been undoubtedly a very successful one, and if the Court has wisdom enough to turn its lessons 10 good account, they may be of very great and permanent value to China, A capital choice was made when Prince Chun was selected to head the mission to Germany. Though by our reekoni only a bay of eighteen, h learn, and native dignity coupled with perfect manners, won him golden opinions from all sorts of peo The story of his stay in Germany shows that he must have ingratiated himself at.once with the Kaiser, when the temporary trouble as to the ceremony to be observed when he was introduced had been dissipated. He was fortunate, too, in having a very well-chosen stati. hey were all men of intelligence, all with one exception. a man whom they called mong themselves and introduced to visitors as their "Boxer," men very progressive ideas, in fact. Reformers, with that knowledge of the proprieties which is innate in the Chinese, and which their whole education fosters and increases.
On the westward voyage there was a little natural restraint on the party, They were performing.a duty which could not be very pleasant at the best, and confident as they of} course were that nothing untoward to be feared beyond the ordinary perils of Iand and sea, they could not but feel a little nervousness as to the reception that awaited them at Berlin. Although the Kaiser was himself convinced that the Emperor of China and his brother were guiltless was charged wit! the vicarious expiation demanded by Germany, and this could not but be a weight on him during his westward voyage. We may mention in this connection that at the celebrated. meeting of the Grand Council at Peking at which the attack on foreigners was deter-imined on, a reference to which of May last year, the Emperor protested most strongly against the plot, and declared at last that the conspirators would have to kill him rather than make him a party to it. It is no wonder that foreigners generally, with all really enlightened Chinese, are eagerly hoping that H. M. Kuang Ush will soon be allowed to be really as well as nominally the Emperor of China. The anxiety of men like Na Tang, who has been temporarily attached to the transformed Tsungli Yamen, to be accounted pro-foreign, is an indication of the way they think the cat is going to jump in China in the coming years.
Prince Chun enjoyed his trip thoroughly. He went abroad determined to see and learn, for himself and for his brother, everything he could, and he used his eyes and cars well. "He has learnt much" his suite say of him, and they also speak with the most unreserved comment dation of his whole conduct and attitude during the trip. The Prince was much disappointed that very }grave reasons of State necessitated this recall before he had time to see gland and the United Siates: but the love of travel has possessed him, and he intends to make another trip to the West as soon as circumstances permit. The voyage back to China was a real holiday to him; the duty part of it was done, the weather was perfect, the ship offered every fort, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. He was an interested specta-for of; took part in, and gave prizes for, the usual games that went on on deck, he was always pleased and interested when fellow-passengers {came up to speak to him, cither through one of his interpreters, or, las some of them were able to do, in Chinese; and the whole life of the ship, so different to the life to which he has been accustomed in Peking, was to him a most impressive novelty. He noticed with deep interest little things which to a foreigner are so familiar that they are passed by without a thought, but which to him {were strikingly strange. A mother teaching her little boy to read from a picture-book, and a governess. bringing her two small charges up on deck and giving them simple lessons, were a revelation to him, and a spectacle which elicited his warmest approval. But what was most astonishing to him and to many members of his suite was the un-of last year's outrages, yet PrinceChun restricted intercourse on deck and in the saloon at all hours of the day, between the men and women who were passengers; a thing which Chinese have been taught all their lives to believe cannot exist without impropriety. They saw this social intercourse going on day after day without anything occurring or being even thought of that the strictest or appeared in our columns on the 10th most critical of them could condemn as impropriety, and astonished at it as they were, it taught them a most. valuable lesson, and one which should bear fruit hereafter. Prince Chun was amazed too at what he saw of the condition of the Chinese at Singapore and Penang, of their prosperity, and their universal air of independence under British institutions. "These men," he said, " are not only much more prosperous and happy than the Emperor's subjects in China, but they all bear themselves like free men, and they are even more patriotic This was another revelation to him.
One thing troubled the Prince and his suite all the way from Genoa to Singapore; that their report of the marvels they had seen in Germany and the truths they had learnt: on the voyage would not be believed when they got back to Peking. So dense is the ignorance of the courtiers at Peking that up to now every Chinese, Minister or Secretary, who has come back with stories of the greatness of the West, has been crushed with a smile or sneer of more or less polite incredulity, and told that the barbara ians have hypnotized him, and that he only dreamed he saw the wonders of which he tells, The Prince himself seems to be still not quite certain whether he too will not be accused of having fallen a victim to the hypnotising powers of the Westerners. But even if they do not bring for h fruit at once, the seeds of knowledge that he has acquired have fallen into good soil, and China will be the better, even if not instantly, for the first voyage of a Manchu Imperial Prince {to the on!
world.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.