"Once again we would add a footnote to an article which we trast may prove unnecessarily pessimistic in its conclusions. With the factors of the situation as summed eral accuracy of the different
up above, it would be impossible to disagree. In pretending to conciliate one of the two main parties at work in Imperial Government has _oty succeeded in antagonizing' both. The result, where there isnot open hostility, is something in the nature of the boycott which the Chinese nation has shows; in smaller circumstances, that it can wield with deadly effect, a force worse to contend with than the unsheathed sword. But the practical outlook of affairs, if not the mental attitude which our contributor describes, has been materially altered by the events of the past two days, and the bold declaration of Yuan Shih-kai that he will strive for peace, even if he should have to venture into the very stronghold]! of the revolutionaries to seel Our Peking correspondent tells us that hope beats high in the capital. It would be strange if it did not. On one point only misgivings will is the retention of Prince Ching, whose faculty for surviving censure, storm and cataclysm is little short of miraculous. But if the edicts of October 30 mean anything they mean that the backbone of Manchu pai cendancy is broken. Thai ently the belief of the Tszecheng yuan and according to the Ostasiatischer Lloyd " of the Provincial Assemblies. If the revolution nary leaders fail to take the same view, they will be guilty of a blunder worse than the crime of protract-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.