Mr. R. F. Johnston's letters today on the birthday celebration of the ex-Emperor Hsuan Tung will excite interest and a good deal of sympathy. In passing, we apologize to him for the inadvertent and inaccurate application to himself of the title "professor," for which most Britons have a peculiar rejpugnance even when they are compelled to bear it. As regards the ex-Emperor this defence is the more called for in that, by universal testimony, he and the Imperial family have borne themselves with unimpeachable correctness ever since their downfall. It was commonly stated and, we believe, with truth, that they were. the most reluctant partakers in Chang Hsun's attempted restoration pf the Empire in the summer of "1916. They saw the madness of it and realized that they had far more to lose than gain by participating in it. Why the "Peking Leader" has been writing thus about the ex-Emperor we do not know, unless it be that rumours of a monarchical restoration have been more than usually prevalent and the Peking paper wants to get in early with a warning against any such mid summer madness in the only quarter in which a potential emperor is visible. Of Hsuan Tung a great many interesting things are heard, very much if we may say so to the making of favourable opinions of him. And certainly one never heard of any schemes on his part for regaining the dragon throne.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.