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and with Nancy so wise no harm could possibly come of the experiment. The great thing now was to get Eliza on her feet as soon as possible; Grannie had faith in Dr. Gibson, who never kept his patients in bed longer than was necessary.

As for John, he serenely went his way, and troubled no more about the lady who presided over his household except to send an occasional specially complimentary message for some chefd'œuvre. By the time the 20th arrived he felt no anxiety about his dinnerparty. Miss Seaward submitted a menu which met his approval in every

The Leisure Hour.

particular, and not an item but was a success. Fair as ever stood his reputation as the prince of hosts, no hideous failure had shaken it, nor was he doomed to be pitied and commiserated as that most helpless of all creatures, a bachelor without some responsible woman to study his interests. In his elation he entertained more largely than usual, bringing friends down from town who were glad to escape during the hot weather for a day into the country. John himself cared little for holiday-making, home presented attractions which no seaside lodging or coun try inn could hope to rival.

(To be concluded.) ·

Leslie Keith.

ISOLATION.

The moon is large, the heavens are clear:
Above the trees that crown the height
Two stars are shining, two so near,
It seems their shimmering rays unite.

But she who holds the master-key

Of knowledge looks with smiling face. "Between those gleaming sparks you see Are stretched the myriad miles of space."

I turn unto the close-at-hand,

The world where distance cheats us not; How close her thronging peoples stand, All brethren of a common lot.

Nay, the immeasurable sea
Wherein the shining planets roll

Is small to that immensity

Encircling every human soul.

Grieve not that man must stand apart,

Whose lonely spirit, he shall find,

Is closer to the Eternal Heart

The Spectator.

Than to the nearest of his kind.

B. Paul Neuman.

WHO'S WHO IN CHINA.

A small step towards unravelling the Chinese tangle may be made by establishing the identity and throwing a little light on the character and antecedents of the chief personages in China. The task is far more difficult than may be supposed. The pages of the Peking Gazette constitute the chief source of information, and as the English edition has for nearly twenty years omitted the index and official list which formed useful features in the first volumes, there is no other course than to go through the numbers from end to end. The variations in spelling, the indiscriminate use of J's or Y's do not simplify the task, and when it is over the searcher must put in a plea for indulgence if he has committed any oversight. The bare details in Imperial Edicts and rescripts supply but an outline of official promotion and change, and the character of the individual has to be judged by the impression left on the minds of the foreigners brought into contact with him, which is rarely identical and always imperfect. The difficulty is increased by the influence of circumstances. The Chinese official who appears at one time enlightened and progressive becomes at another perverse and reactionary. How many conflicting versions, for instance, have been given by well qualified and distinguished Europeans of the character and conduct of Li Hung Chang, while all the time he has only been a typical Chinese official, with the national limited range of vision, dislike for the foreigner, and rooted aversion to change in any form. Before the present crisis passes into the sphere of history the true man may stand revealed beyond all possibility of concealment.

Leaving outside our theme the Empress Dowager and the young Emperor

Kwangsu, with regard to whom it would not be possible to say anything fresh or instructive, the Manchu Prince Tuan, who has lately blazed on the world like a fiery portent of blood and war, first demands attention. He is the grandson of the Emperor Taoukwang, who died in 1850, and the nephew of the Emperor Hienfung, who died in 1861. His father, Prince Tun, was Hienfung's senior in age, but was either ineligible on the maternal side, or was set aside for some personal misconduct in the succession of 1851. The best known of Tuan's uncles were the late Princes Kung and Chun, the latter the father of the Emperor Kwangsu. Kwangsu and Tuan are consequently first cousins, but the latter is about ten years the elder.

The first mention of this prince occurs as recently as 6th October, 1893, when, as Tsai Lien, a Prince of the Third Order, he was presented to the Emperor. He was authorized at the same time to take part in the review of the Peking Field Force, and on several subsequent occasions he was delegated to represent the Emperor in offering sacrifice at the tombs of their common ancestors. Soon after this interview he was appointed to the command of the Bordered White Banner Corps. After this his progress was rapid. On 6th February, 1894, he had a second audience of the Emperor, who on this occasion raised him to the rank of a prince of the second order, and conferred on him the special title of Prince of Tuan. During the war with Japan, Prince Tuan was given a post on the Board of Control of the Peking Field Force, and after some months he was entrusted with the command in chief

of that corps. It may be mentioned that Prince Chun, the Emperor's fa

ther, held this command at the time of his death, and there is no other evidence to show that the Imperial Family were beginning to look upon Prince Tuan as their military leader. On 30th November 1895, he was selected for the task of choosing eligible persons to fill the vacancies in the Imperial Household. Another proof of his growing influence is furnished in the selection of his son to be adopted as heir of the wealthy widow of one of the Manchu princes, and about the same time we read that he and his son waited on the Emperor for the purpose of naming the youth at the Imperial wish in accordance with the practice of the House. Kwangsu thus named this youth PuChun, who was destined soon afterwards to be proclaimed his heir and successor at the time of the coup d'état. In May, 1898, Prince Tuan and his close ally and confederate, Kang Yi, were specially praised and rewarded by the Empress Dowager for the discipline and good conduct of the Peking Field Force. The significance of this praise was revealed a few months later during the coup d'état, and for his share in that event the Empress Dowager increased Prince Tuan's allowance by 500 taels, and gave him the supreme command of the Banner army. The selection of his son, a youth of fourteen, to be the next Emperor was stronger proof of his influence and close alliance with the Empress Dowager. It was after this event that he began to enter into relation with the disaffected in Shantung with the express purpose of turning their resentment from the Manchu dynasty towards the foreigners, and he became the President of the Society of the Big Sword (Tai Tou Houi), out of which emerged the Boxers. He completely won over Nui, the chief of the Boxers, of whom at present so little is known, although he is the prime director of the most important political movement

still

in China since the Taeping rebellion. It is impossible yet to foretell whether Prince Tuan will be able to keep the Boxers in a state of amenity to his personal authority, or whether they will sweep him aside when he has served their turn. In the latter event Nui, the Anhui official of low degree, will become more interesting as a guide of Chinese opinion than the Manchu prince.

Next in importance after Prince Tuan comes Jung Lu, another Manchu, late Viceroy of Pe-Chili and Generalissimo of the Chinese army, described on the morrow of the arrest of the Reformers two years ago as "the most powerful man in China." It is typical of the difficulty of judging the true character and views of Chinese public men that well-informed Europeans describe Jung Lu as "well informed and progressive," and as "violent and reactionary as Prince Tuan." The one positive fact known about him, that he saved the Emperor's life six months ago, at the time of the coup d'état, favors the former description. Perhaps a stronger proof is furnished by his hostility to the late Li Lien Yin, chief of the eunuchs and favorite of the Empress, and to General Tung, the truculent commander of the Kansuh army. Jung Lu is sometimes called a nephew of the Empress Dowager, but I can find no evidence to support the statement, and if it possesses a basis of truth it is more likely to be through marriage with one of her nieces. There is some confusion made between him and another Manchu named Ju Lu, who was long Military Governor of Moukden and Governor-General of Manchuria, and who is a much older man and still living, having recently been appointed Viceroy of Szchuen. The first distinct reference I find to Jung Lu is in the summer of 1894, when he held the post of Tartar General of Hsian, and was summoned to Peking to take part in

the proposed festivities on the occasion of the 60th birthday of the Empress Dowager, which were abandoned through the outbreak of hostilities with Japan. He came to Peking to some purpose, as his promotion was extraordinarily rapid. In December, 1894, he was appointed Captain-General of the White Banner corps, and he was also given a seat in the Tsungli Yamen. On the 27th June, 1895, Jung Lu was made Inspector-General at Peking, and in this capacity he controlled the Palace gendarmerie. As a reward for his vigilance he was raised in 1896 to the command of the Yellow Banner, as Lieutenant-General, and before the end of the year he became Assistant Grand Secretary. In May, 1898, soon after the death of Prince Kung, Jung Lu was appointed Viceroy of Pe-Chili, and as a final reward after the crushing of the Reform party in September of that year he was nominated Generalissimo of China's armies. There has been nothing like the rapid rise of Jung Lu in modern Chinese history. In four years he has risen from a small military command in a provincial town to the most important Viceroyship, and the highest military command in the empire. Whether it was his good fortune or his merit who will venture to say?

As to the real sentiments of Jung Lu it is impossible to express an opinion, but the probability is that he is a man in favor of moderation, if not of absolute progress. It seems clearly established that he saved the Emperor's life in September, 1898, and again in January of the present year, opposing with all his weight the extreme counsels of Kang Yi and Li Lien Yin. With regard to the latter, whose death by poison two months ago was the alleged cause of the Empress's outbreak, he and Jung Lu came into collision in 1895 or 1896, while the latter was in charge of the Palace police. The story goes

that the Manchu general caused the Chief of the Eunuchs to be bastinadoed, and that the Empress thereupon banished Jung Lu for ten years, a sentence never carried into execution. The rumors from Peking during the last few weeks all agree in attributing to Jung Lu a wish to protect the Legations and restrain the fury of Prince Tuan and his associates.

Kang Yi, another Manchu, is the next most powerful personage at Peking, and he is as anti-foreign and violent as Prince Tuan. In 1890 he was Governor of Kiangsu, and three years later his name recurs in the same capacity in Kwangtung. In the autumn of 1894, during the Japanese War, he was summoned to Peking, where he was at once nominated a member of the Grand Council of War. The growth of his influence is well attested by the privilege soon afterwards conferred on him of being allowed to ride on horseback in the Forbidden City. After filling various offices, Kang Yi was appointed President of the Board of Punishments, and in that capacity he was entrusted with the task of dealing with the party of the Reformer, Kang Yu Wei, when it was thought that they were acquiring too great an ascendancy over the Emperor. Having arrested the greater number of the Reformers, in September, 1898, the question remained what was to be done with them, and some of the Ministers favored moderate punishment. Kang Yi would listen to no compromise, and, supported by the secret wishes of the Empress Dowager, succeeded in obtaining from the Imperial Council a death sentence. No sooner was this signed than he has. tened with indecent speed to his yamen, and caused the sentence to be executed in his presence. Kang Yu Wei, the chief Reformer, had, indeed, escaped, but all his property was forfeited, and a sentence of ling-chee, or "the slicing process" was passed on him, and still

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on this occasion Kang Yi was made President of the Board of War, and more recently he has been appointed a Grand Secretary. He is the right-hand man of Prince Tuan, and among all the Chinese officials he is the most violent, anti-foreign and bloodthirsty. His reputation was bad before the events of June, for when Chang Yi was appointed Chief Commissioner of Mines in November, 1898, Reuter thought it was Kang Yi who had got the post, and protested against the employment of the butcher of the Reformers. To that black deed he has now added a blacker still.

Yuan Shih Kai comes fourth in the group of Manchus who have played a leading part in Peking events during the last few years. He is a man of much craft and address, well able to play a double part and to conceal his true mind. He first appeared in Corea, where, as far back as 1885, he took a prominent part in deporting the Corean despot, Tai Wang Kun. He remained in Corea until July, 1894, when he saved himself from capture by the Japanese by making a timely flight, and during that long period he was generally spoken of as "the power behind the Throne." In July, 1897, he reappears as Provincial Judge of the Province of Pe-Chili, and he seems to have held the same post in the summer of 1898, when the Reform movement attracted attention. He played a very important part in the affair, for when the Emperor Kwangsu declared piteously to Kang Yu Wei that he had no soldiers to obey his orders and assert his authority, the Reformer, in an ill-advised moment, recommended him to send for Yuan Shih Kai. Yuan pretended to enter into the plans of the young ruler, and when he knew all he wanted he went straight to the Empress Dowager and told her everything. The collapse of the Reform

movement was due to his treachery, and foreigners will be very foolish if they ever put faith in Yuan, who is a master in the art of duplicity, and whose mendacious telegrams and messages from Tsinan must now be fresh in the public mind. A few months after the suppression of the Reform movement Yuan received his reward in the appointment to the Governorship of Shantung, rendered vacant by the disgrace of Li Ping Heng, at the request of Germany. It will be remembered that Yuan was sent with the nominal instructions to put down the Boxers, but instead of fighting them he allowed them to march for Peking.

Of the Imperial Princes of the First Order, Princes Li, Jui, and Ching, whose names flit across the pages of the Peking Gazette and all of whom are, of course Manchus, Prince Ching is the only one of interest. As President of the Tsungli Yamen he gained a high reputation for courtesy and amiability, and he is credited with haying made efforts to restrain the violence of his colleagues. In 1891 he succeeded the late Marquis Tseng as President of the Admiralty Board, and on February 6th, 1894, he was raised by Imperial Decree from a Prince of the Second to one of the First Order. At the time of the Japanese War he was titular Commander-in-Chief of the Peking army, and he petitioned for leave to lead his forces against the enemy, which was not granted. Whatever his private views, his influence is not great-the Tsungli Yamen being a board with no initiating power, and simply intended to amuse the foreigners, lull them into a condition of soporific contentment, and stave off difficulty.

Of the group of generals, Nieh, Ma, Sou, Ikotenga and Tung-the lastnamed is the most important and formidable. He is neither a Manchu nor a Chinese but an ex-Mahomedan of

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