Wednesday last was the birthday of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of the Chinese Empire, Kuang-hsit The degree of the interest, or non-interest, taken in this event is a fair criterion of his present position and influence. According to long-estaplished and well-preserved usage, the Emperor is the Son of Heaven, the highest representative of his people, viewed as "all under Heaven" at the Altar of Heaven under the open sky of the Supreme Ruler. No female Regent, not even the remarkable Empress Dowager, is entitled to be called the Son of Heaven. The uveal male descendant of the Manchu conqueror who began the present dynasty of the Great Pare is the only one, according to immemorial custom, worthy of official and representative association with High Heaven. In the same way according to similar prevailing ideas the worship of a deceased Emperor, as in all ancestral worship, must be rendered by a male representative who is either the real or adopted descendant. In this respect the highest position legally belongs to the Emper Kuang-hsii, which thus far has not been successfully taken from him, notwithstanding "skilled ma-climations and insidious devices, While this is true, it can also be readily seen that the sacredness and reverence attached to the one who is the Emperor of China has been irretrievably lowered in the case of the present Emperor, and this, too, by those who should have been the most, keen to veil the Throne in awe and mysteriousness, Officials and people alike can never "gain trace heavenly relationships and divine rights to either Manchu Sovereign or any other Ruler of China. The present Emperor in his youthful days was known by those in the ioner circle to indulge in fits of passion and deeds of recklessness, and to take delight in smashing crockery and frightening his attendants, but these " pranks" were hidden from the gaze of his " dear children," the many thousand my-nods of China. The first blow in awful reality to be given to the sacredness of his rank and person was la 1898, when after a marvellous display of the highest ambition, patriotism, and political insight, he was male to declare himself an "incapable," and to request the Empress Dowager, his adopted mother, to resume the Regency and so preserve the Empire. He' was supposed to have been in a dying condition, but the experiences and journeyings of the last few years show a peculiar formation to his feeble health. He has endured more, in his physical body and inner life than any other in China, and yet he thrives.
The next blow to the sacred character of the Emperor was in the early days of 1900, when an heir to the Emperor Tung Chih was found in the son of Prince Tuan, and the present Emperor Kuang Hai was announced not only to be no longer successor to that Emperor, but really out of the line of the Emperors, a nameless but unavoidable inter-reg num between the Emperor T'ung Chih and his belated heir-apparent. The whole process of shiily-shellying and selfish conniving, under the instigation of Her Majesty the Empress Dowager, has made the Son of Heaven to be a laughingstock both to men and angels, At first the Empress Dowager insisted on finding a successor to her son T'ung Chih in a son of her own sister, the wife of the Seventh Prince, though this selection, being of the same generation as the previous Emperor, could not very well be made an_ heir, still has the representative at the an-castral shrine. Nevertheless, the lad being young, and in her own family, was made in spite of law heir to his cousin, and he rendered to him worship as son to a father, In the inability of youth this device appeared a success, In time, the Ewpress Dowager, to help the power in her own branch of the family, chose for the Emperor's wife his owa cousin, the daughter of Duke Kuei, who was brother both to the Empress Dowager and the Emperor's own mother. In 1900, as a fitting pre-ludo to the coming storm, the son of Prince Tuan, being of the next ant lower generation to both the Empzror Teung-chih and the Emperor Kuang-hsii, was chosen as heir and successor to the former Emperor, while the latter Emperor was put to one side and practically declared to be illegal representative of this imperia! heirship. Nice Son of Heaven this! Nothing, indeed, but a "figurehead." "The Empress Dowager showed her power, but to the ruin of the feeling of awe which through the centuries had enshrouded the Son of Heaven. But the end was not yet. The proper heir and successor to the Emperor 'T'ung-chih having, in a belated style, been selected and placed under tutors, the Empress Dowager towards the close of 1901 came to the conclusion that this proper heir was a most improper one, and so she gave him his "walking papers"—back to Peking. Such are female somersaults The question remains is the Emperor Kuang-hsi an heir and successor to the Emperor T'ung-chih or not? If some other one is again chosen, as seems most likely, 10 he the proper heir, is Kuang-hsi in the line of the Emperor or not? If he is not in the line, is he an Emperor? Ifhe is not Emperor, what has he been all these years? Is it that he has been the Regent, while the Empress Dowager has been the Son of Heaven? At any rate, as a matter of fact she is the real and only Ruler, whether termed a Regent or made out to be some kind of female Son of Heaven. Through her own acts and scheming, aided by corrupt eunuchs and advisers, she has effectually destroyed all the sacredness and distinction that hitherto have been attributed to an Emperor of China, We can have no congratulations to give to His Majesty, the Emperor Kuang-hsti, Condolences are the only suitable thing to offer to him and, we conjecture, would be most appreciated. Whata pity to have made bim go through all the bother, seclusion and rigidity of training for the Throne, when having got there he finds himself
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.