Evening Post. SATURDAY,SEPTEMBER 24, 1898

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 74, 24 September 1898, Page 4

Evening Post. SATURDAY,SEPTEMBER 24, 1898

The conflicting rumours emanating from Pekin during the last few days lead to the inference that plots and counter-plots of various kinds have thrown the Central Government of China into a dangerously explosive condition. Even on the spot it is almost impossible to unravel the threads of Palace intrigue, aud at a distance, with the imperfect aud unreliable information available from our cablegrams, it is quite hopeless to attempt a detailed explanation of the course of events. A few main lines are, however, clearly marked, aud a fair general idea can be formed of what is actually taking place. Outside the Court and high official circles of China, there are the various foreign Ministers usiug every diplomatic art to compass their ends, and availiug themselves to the best of their ability of Palace developments aud native official rivalries. Then, again, there are rival commercial aud financial agents of various nationalities seeking to join the game of intrigue in search of concessions, contracts, and the " almighty dollar" generally. Besides these, there swarm about the high Maudarius of Pekin, Tientsin, Nanking, and other great official centres, crowds of cosmopolitan adventurers seeking billets of dixfereut kinds, some as engineers, others as military instructors. While this stormy sea of intrigue., chicanery, and ill-disguised hostility rolls constantly around the Central Government of the Empire, that Government itself, both in the Palace and in the Yainens or public offices, is distracted by warriug schemes and insidious designs. To the casual observer, not conversant with the ways of Eastern Courts, everything seems in a hopeless state of chaos, and the cross lines of private interest and public policy appear to make confusion worse confounded. The multiplicity of personal aims renders the work of generalising very difficult, but still, broadly speaking, the present struggle is one of principle. The present Emperor Tsai tien was called to the throne in 1875, under the appellation of ICwangsu, by a Palace arrangement. His predecessor and cousin, Tungchih, died suddenly in that year, without leaving a son or nominating Ins heir. The task of selection was left to the Imperial family, and, mainly by the influence of the late Prince Kung and the present Empress Dowager, the mother of Tungchih, the reigning monarch was chosen. As he was quite an infant a regency was set up iv which two Empress Dowagers exercised power, one of them being the chief wife of the Emperor liient'ung, who died in 1861, and the other a secondary wife, but the mother of the late Emperor. The latter of these alone survives, and it is she who is reported in to-day's cablegrams to have resumed the reins of power she nominally gave up in 1889. She is a woman of strong will and exceptional nbi.itips, and she has contrived, by packing the Palace with her creatures, to reduce the Emperor to a position of tutelage, while, with Li Hung Chang as her right-hand man in the official world, she has with slight interruptions enjoyed a dominant influence in the control of her country. The young Sovereign was recently understood to have revolted against her supremacy, and it will be rememhered that Li was degraded some time ago for visiting her without the leave of his Imperial Master. Thus it would seem that the seesaw now being performed by the Pekin officials is largely to be accounted for in the struggle going on between the parties of the Emperor and the Empress. The latter, too, is a friend of the more conservative and anti-Japanese section of the Mandarinate, with, as it would appear, a distinct leaning towards Russia among the European Powers. The Emperor, on the other hand, is said to look favourably on the Young. China Party and Western civilisation, and to be friendlydisposed towards the British. The presence of Marquis 110, who is evidently planning a Chino-Japanese rapprochement, doubtless precipitated intrigues, but it is difficult to believe that the Emperor has voluntarily . abdicated in favour of the Dowager, and the improbability of such an event has presumably led to the rumour of his death. If he were really dead the situation would be critical in the extreme. He has no children, and there would be great trouble in choosing a successor, as no fixed rule of succession exists except that an older generation of the Imperial House cannot bo drawn upou to succeed a member o£ a younger generation. This anomalous regulation is due to the Emperor's having officially to pay filial honours to the soul of his departed predecessor. It would be unwise, however, to put much faith in unconfirmed rumours.