Sth April, the month of May, 1900, Haien took over the seals as Governor of Shansi, and within two weeks, the Boxer movement of which he was the foster-father, was well under way throughout the province, It was not many weeks before the Governor had imprisoned within his own yamen thirty-three Protestant missionaries, men, women, and children, and twelve Roman Catholics, including the Bishop, priests, and sisters, Al! these were publicly slaughtered criminals under the personal superintendence of the Goveror, and their bodies thrown to the dogs, beneath the city wall, and eyewitnesses have communicated the hideous details. The influential example of Yi Hsien was followed as far as circumstances admitted from Sop'ingfu in the north, toP'ingyangfu, each massacre as at Tat'ungtu, Hsin-chou, -'T'aiku, Fenchoufu, and many other places, being marked by atrocities of its own.
It is especially noteworthy that) Shansi is not one of the provinces at this time to dwell, except to call attention to the fact that they are connected with the wider question of the general origin of the Boxer movement and can by no possibility be attributed to local causes. It is known that after his wholesale murder of all the foreigners upon whom he could lay his hands, Hsien (who was originally a military official), in obedience to Imperial his troops to help drive the Ocean men out of China. He had passed the Chihli frontier, when he learned that Peking had already fallen, upon which he prudently retired to his capital. On the way he was met by the gentry of the cities, and the headmen of the villages along his route with sweetmeats and congratn-Intions on his energy and his pa-triorism. When he was removed from his post the people of T'aiyaanfu parted from him with demonstrations of regret, and they have erected to him in the South suburb of Taiyuanfa a stone tablet, that his conspicuous virtues may be perpetuated to "ten thousand generations." These are facts perfectly well-known to those familiar with affairs in this remote province. We have now to.consider their bearing upon the present situation. The threat of an ij sion of Shansi, especially by the French, has been long suspended, and different times, apparently on the edge of fulfilment.
uring the month of February when the Court seemed very hesitant in the matter of the punishment' of guilty officials this was especially the case. When the Court yielded, the "expedition " to Shensi and that to Shansi were called off, which is, we think, likely to be deeply regretted before we are done with the business. The Chinese of is were told by the foreign Generals to keep their troops over the Shansi border. This they did not do, but on the contrary sent insolent messages demanding the withdrawal of the foreiga soldiers encamped near the line, else they would be attacked. The only possible reply to this was a German advance in the passes west of Paotingfu, where there have been several "battles" in which the Chinese were invariably driven back with a heavy loss, and once a strong pass was wrested from them by the agility of Bavarian mountaineers, on which occasion two valuable Hotchkiss guns were captured, and the German lines advanced which has ever been anti-foreign. beyond the pass well into Shansi. One exceptional instance aside, we At Huailu there is a small French recall no violent outbreaks, no loss! force and not far away a large Chinese of foreign property, much' less of army is waiting for their retirement foreign life. {to advance and reoccupy Chihli.
Yet the Boxer bacillus, implanted There is no doubt that chaos in the by Yii Hsien, everywhere fell into a/ form of renewed rapine and massacre soil prepared for its rapid develop-' would immediately follow. In other ment, and instantly brought forth! words the foreign army of occupation harvest of rapine and death. On! is holding the Shansi wolf by his the reasons for this we do not wish! ears. What shall be done with him?
What shall be done with Shansi? The people of Shansi were a year ago as friendly to foreigners as they have ever been. At the present moment they are more hostile than the population of Hunan has ever been. The mountain passes are everywhere guarded with extraordinary vigilance. Many foreigners have been waiting for months in the hope that a way for their return might soon be orders came eastward with a body of opened. On the contrary, the route to Shansi is now absolutely impossible for any one. It is not long since the Roman Catholics essayed to send a messenger through the Kukuan (Pass) disguised as a beggar, with his letter sewn into the sole of his shoe. Word has'come that he was detected and killed. Othércouriers are now at Paotingfu with important communications which cannot be taken except at the risk of their lives, and only by adopting a circuitous route be got through at all. The Shansi people know perfectly well that foreign troops are on the borders of their theoretically impregnable province, that they would like to get in and yet fail to do so. They accept the natural and indeed inevitable explanation that the Western soldiers could not get in if they tried. Choy confide in their lofty mountains, their unconquerable octogenarian General Sung Ching, and in the doubtful valour of the opium-smoking Man of the West ("Sao Hsu-sh") who man for man is firmly believed to be several times a match for any foreigner: There is no conceit like Chinese conceit, and no Chinese conceit equals that of the provincials in whose territory no foreign soldier was ever seen, In Paotingfu, where fifteen foreigners of two nationalities were slain by mobs, a wide breach was blown in the city wall, all the towers on the four gates were utterly demolished, and the Examination Hall and the city Park (Sion Hua Ch'ih) were wrecked. ihe Acting Governor, who was Pro-\vineial Judge at the time of the murders, the Tartar General, and a Lt.-Colonel were all publicly executed at Paotingfu; the Prefect was deprived of office and a Taotai was sent to 'tientsin where after trial he was likewise beheaded. At Taiyuanfu, where forty-five foreigners of three nationalities were butchered under the eye and orders of the Governor, what has been done? Nothing whatever. What is to be done? So far as we know absolutely nothing. Whatever the surprises of the future it will stall remain true that fire will burn, and that water will ran dowa hill. Not less certain do we regard it that unless something definite is actually done (and not merely threatened) to mark the universal sense of indignation at the conduct of Yi Hsien in his brief incumbency of the office of Governor at Taiyuanfu, the province of Shansi will remain
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.