Definite Chapter in the City's History Being Brought to a Close: Vast Changes in China's Structure By Legations from Peping to Nanking, With the oficial removal of the which comoides with the 25th an! niversary of the Republic, a definite chapter in the history of China will have been closed. (Many of these Legations were raised to. the status of embassies in 1035, but T shall cone tinue to call them by the name that they bore during the greater part of their existence). Although they have only had a comparatively. short his tory, less than three-quarters of a century, they have seen vast changes take place in the structure of China, specially in recent times, 'The story of the Legations starts in 1861, Prior to that year none of the foreign powers had' permanently accredited envoys to China, In the teaty of peace signed in Peking in 1861, after the advance of the combined Anglo-French expedition, one of the terms, specially' insisted 0 was thal the' diplomatic representa: tives of these two countries were to be allowed 10 reside permanently the capital. The Chinese government acquiesced very reluctantly, and even then attempted to keep the "barbarian" envoys out of the elly itself by suggesting various sites outside, They.even offered them the xotinds of the old Summer Palace which the allied armies had looted and burnt only quite recently, as a reprisal for the maltreatment of Parkes end others, "But all in. vain, the envoys were not to be moved, and selected for their residence" the southwest quarter of the main city, the so-called Tartar City, The British rented the palace and grounds from a Duke Liang. Hence until quite modern days the British Legation was always known to, residents as the "Liang kung fu" (Palace of Duke Liang). It was situated om the west side of the Imperial Canal, less than one quarter a mile from the south main wall, The French occupied soother palace close by in Legation Street, and the Russians, 9 few months later, turned their ecclesiastical mission which lay just south of the British grounds Into a residence for their representative, The Prussians and Americans arrived in the same year,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.