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Other vested interests felt themselves equally threatened. The priests, whose temples were to be alienated; the military mandarins, who were led to believe that the army was going to be handed over to foreign instructors; and, above all, the imperial clansmen and bannermen, the eunuchs, and other hangers-on of the palace, whose existence was bound up with all the worst traditions of Oriental misgovernment, were all equally alarmed, and behind them stood the whole latent force of popular superstition and unreasoning conservatism.

The dowager-empress saw her opportunity. The Summer Palace, to which she had retired, had been for some time the

centre of resistance to the new movement, and in the The coup middle of September 1898 a report became current d'état. that, in order to put an end to the obstruction which hampered his reform policy, the emperor intended to seize the person of the dowager-empress and have her deported into the interior. Some colour was given to this report by an official announcement that the emperor would hold a review of the foreign-drilled troops at Tientsin, and had summoned Yuan Shihkai, their general, to Peking in order to confer with him on the necessary arrangements. But the reformers had neglected to secure the goodwill of the army, which was still entirely in the hands of the reactionaries. During the night of the 20th of September the palace of the emperor was occupied by the soldiers, and on the following day Kwang Su, who was henceforth virtually a prisoner in the hands of the empress, was made to issue an edict restoring her regency. Kang Yu-wei, warned at the last moment by an urgent message from the emperor, succeeded in escaping, but many of the most prominent reformers were arrested, and six of them were promptly executed. The Peking Gazette announced a few days later that the emperor himself was dangerously ill, and his life might well have been despaired of had not the British minister represented in very emphatic terms the serious consequences which might ensue if anything happened to him. Drastic measures were, however, adopted to stamp out the reform movement in the provinces as well as in the capital. The reform edicts were cancelled, the reformers' associations were dissolved, their newspapers suppressed, and those who did not care to save themselves by a hasty recantation of their errors were imprisoned, proscribed, or exiled. In October the reaction had already been accompanied by such a recrudescence of anti-foreign feeling that the foreign ministers at Peking had to bring up guards from the fleet for the protection of the legations, and to demand the removal from the capital of the disorderly Kansu soldiery which subsequently played so sinister a part in the troubles of June 1900. But the unpleasant impression produced by these incidents was in a great measure removed by the demonstrative reception which the empress Tsu Tsi gave on 15th October to the wives of the foreign representatives-an international act of courtesy unprecedented in the annals of the Chinese court.

Manchu ascendancy.

One of the most significant features of the coup d'état of 1898 was the decisive part played in it by the Manchus, whose ascendancy in the councils of the dowager-empress became more and more marked. Manchus were substituted for Chinamen in many of the higher offices of the state, and even Li Hung-Chang's position was shaken. Though he was the only prominent Chinese statesman who had actively supported the empress, he was temporarily removed from the capital, under pretext of a special mission to inspect the course of the Yellow river in Shantung. The reactionary tide continued to rise throughout the year 1899, but it did not appear materially to affect the foreign relations of China, the dilatoriness and ill-will exhibited by the Tsung-Li-Yamen with respect to the punishment of the murderers of Mr Fleming and to other antiforeign outrages amounting to little more than the usual practice of the Chinese Government in such matters. On 24th January 1900 the Peking Gazette published an imperial edict appointing as heir-presumptive to the throne Pu Chün, a son of Prince Tuan (himself son to Prince Tun and grandson to the emperor Tao-kwang), which was generally regarded in China as a preliminary step to the formal deposition of the emperor Kwang Su. Influential memorials from Chinese officials deprecating any such measure would seem to have deterred the empress from following up her original intention, but the choice of two rabid anti-foreign officials as tutors to Pu Chün, together with the prestige conferred upon Prince Tuan, one of the most reactionary of the Manchu princes, afforded a startling indication of the spirit which already prevailed in court circles.

A few weeks earlier the brutal murder of Mr Brooks, an English missionary, in Shantung, had compelled attention to a popular movement which had been spreading rapidly throughout that province and the adjoining one of Chili-li ment. with the connivance of certain high officials, if not under their direct patronage. The origin of the "Boxer" movement is obscure. Its name is derived from a literal translation of the Chinese designation, "The fist of righteous harmony." Like the kindred Big Sword" Society,

it appears to have been in the first instance a secret association of malcontents chiefly drawn from the lower classes. Popular disaffection in China generally assumes some such shape, and there can be little doubt that with the waning prestige of the dynasty, undermined by the Japanese war and foreign encroachments, not less than by the family feud between the emperor and the dowager-empress, a dangerous spirit of unrest was abroad amongst all classes. The Tsing dynasty was reaching what would seem to be the allotted span of Chinese dynasties, its tenure of power having already lasted longer than that of any of the last twenty dynasties, excepting its immediate predecessors, the Mings, and neither omens nor predictions were wanting to foreshadow its downfall. Whether the empress Tsu Tsi and her Manchu advisers had deliberately set themselves from the beginning to avert the danger by deflecting what might have been a revolutionary movement into anti-foreign channels, or whether with Oriental heedlessness they had allowed it to grow until they were powerless to control it, they had unquestionably resolved to take it under their protection before the foreign representatives at Peking had realised its gravity. Yü Hsien, one of its earliest patrons, had indeed been recalled on their representations from Shantung, where he had given open support to the Boxer organization, but only to be loaded with honours by the empress and transferred to the province of Shansi. The outrages upon native Christians and the threats against foreigners generally went on increasing. The Boxers openly displayed on their banners the device: Exterminate the foreigners and save the dynasty," yet the representatives of the Powers were unable to obtain any effective measures against the so-called "rebels," or even a definite condemnation of their methods.

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at bay.

Four months (January-April 1900) were spent in futile interviews with the Tsung-Li-Yamen, who, encouraged, no doubt, by the fact that the Russian minister for a long time held conspicuously aloof from the protests of his Diplomacy colleagues, treated the remonstrances of the Powers with growing contempt. In May a number of Christian villages were destroyed and native converts massacred in the neighbourhood of the capital, and Mgr. Favier, the venerable head of the Roman Catholic missions in China, described the situation as the gravest within his long memory. On the 2nd June two English missionaries, Mr Robinson and Mr Norman, were murdered at Yung Ching, 40 miles from Peking. The whole country was overrun with bands of Boxers, who tore up the railway and set fire to the stations at different points on the PekingTientsin line. Fortunately a mixed body of marines and bluejackets of various nationalities, numbering 18 officers and 389 men, had reached Peking on 1st June for the protection of the legations. The whole city was in a state of turmoil. Murder and pillage were of daily occurrence. Prince Tuan and the Manchus generally, together with the Kansu soldiery under the notorious Tung-fu-hsiang, openly sided with the Boxers. The European residents and a large number of native converts took refuge in the British legation, the largest and most central compound in the foreign quarter, where preparations were hastily made on all sides in view of a threatened attack. On the 11th the chancellor of the Japanese legation was murdered by Chinese soldiers. On the night of the 13th most of the foreign buildings, churches, and mission houses in the eastern part of the Tartar city were pillaged and burnt, and hundreds of native Christians massacred. The work of destruction continued for days unchecked by any Chinese authority, and on 20th June the German minister, Baron von Ketteler, was murdered whilst on his way to the Tsung-Li-Yamen, and there is little doubt that the same fate had been prepared for all the other foreign representatives, who were expected to visit the Yamen, as negotiations were proceeding with regard to a summons sent to them on the previous day to leave Peking within twenty-four hours. At 4 P.M. on the afternoon of the 20th the Chinese troops opened fire upon the legations, and the eight weeks' siege began which will remain memorable in history as one of the most splendid instances of what the heroism and intelligence of a handful of Europeans can achieve against Asiatic hordes.

Meanwhile Peking had been completely cut off since the 14th from all communication with the outside world, and in view of the gravity of the situation, naval and military forces were being hurried up by all the Powers to the gulf of Pe Chili. On 10th June Admiral Seymour had of the

Action

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Powers.

already left Tientsin with a mixed force of 2000 British, Russian, French, Germans, Austrians, Italians, Americans, and Japanese, to repair the railway and restore communication with Peking. But his expedition met with unexpectedly severe resistance, the line was torn up in its rear, and, unprovided with transport or supplies, it had great difficulty in making good its retreat after suffering heavy losses. Great anxiety prevailed for some days as to its fate, and no definite tidings of its whereabouts were received until it had fought its way back to within a day's march of Tientsin. When it reached Tientsin again on 26th

June, the British contingent of 915 men had alone lost 124 killed and wounded out of a total casualty list of 62 killed and 218 wounded. The Chinese had in the meantime made a determined attack upon the foreign settlements at Tientsin, and communication between the city and the sea being also threatened, the allied admirals had demanded on the 16th the surrender of the Taku forts at the mouth of the Pei-ho. The Chinese replied to the ultimatum by opening fire with great vigour during the following night, whereupon a flotilla of British, French, German, Japanese, and Russian gunboats bombarded the forts, which were captured by landing parties early on the 17th. The situation at Tientsin, nevertheless, continued precarious, and it was not till the arrival of considerable reinforcements that the troops of the allied Powers were able to assume the offensive, taking the native city by storm on 14th July, at a cost, however, of over 700 killed and wounded. Even in this emergency international jealousy had grievously delayed the necessary concentration of forces. Three British brigades were ordered up from India, a few French colonial regiments were sent on from Saigon, the Americans detached a body of troops from the Philippines, the Russians despatched a brigade from Port Arthur, though their military resources were severely taxed by the simultaneous outbreak of hostilities in Manchuria, and preparations were made in Germany, France, and Italy, to send out fresh contingents, the German force alone numbering over 20,000 men. But the situation required immediate action. No power was so favourably situated to take such action as Japan, and the British Government, who had strongly urged her to act speedily and energetically, undertook at her request to sound the other Powers with regard to her intervention. No definite objection was raised, but the replies of Germany and Russia barely disguised their ill-humour. Great Britain herself went so far as to offer Japan the assistance of the British treasury, in case financial difficulties stood in the way, but on the same day on which this proposal was telegraphed to Tokio (6th July), the Japanese Government had decided to embark forthwith the two divisions which it had already mobilized. By the beginning of August one of the Indian brigades had also reached Tientsin, together with smaller reinforcements sent by the other Powers, and thanks chiefly to the energetic counsels of the British commander, General Sir Alfred Gaselee, a relief column, numbering 20,000 men, at last set out for Peking on 4th August, a British naval brigade having started up river the previous afternoon. It met with only halfhearted resistance, and after a series of small engagements and very trying marches it arrived within striking distance of Peking on the evening of the 13th. The Russians tried to steal a march upon the allies during the night, but were checked at the walls and suffered heavy losses. The Japanese attacked another point of the walls the next morning, but met with fierce opposition, whilst the Americans were delayed by getting entangled in the Russian line of advance. The British contingent was more fortunate, and skilfully guided to an unguarded water-gate, General Gaselee and a party of Sikhs were the first to force their way with trifling loss through to the British legation. About 2 P.M. on the afternoon of 14th August, the long siege was raised.

For nearly six weeks after the first interruption of communications, no news reached the outside world from Peking except a The siege of the

few belated messages, smuggled through the Chinese lines by native runners, urging the imperative necessity of prompt relief. During the greater part of that legations. period the foreign quarter was subjected to heavy rifle and artillery fire, and the continuous fighting at close quarters with the hordes of Chinese regulars, as well as Boxers, decimated the scanty ranks of the defenders. The supply of both ammunition and food was slender. But the heroism displayed by civilians and professional combatants alike was inexhaustible. Some of the legations were totally or partially destroyed. In their anxiety to burn out the British legation, the Chinese did not hesitate to set fire to the adjoining buildings of the Hanlin, the ancient seat of Chinese classical learning, and the storehouse of priceless literary treasures and state archives. The Fu, or palace, of Prince Su, separated only by a canal from the British legation, formed the centre of the international position, and was held with indomitable valour by a small Japanese force under Colonel Sheba, assisted by a few Italian marines and volunteers of other nationalities and a number of Christian Chinese. The French legation on the extreme right, and the section of the city wall held chiefly by Germans and Americans, were also points of vital importance which had to bear the brunt of the Chinese attack. Little is known as to what passed in the councils of the Chinese court during the siege. But there is reason to believe that throughout that period grave divergences of opinion existed amongst the highest officials. The attack upon the legations appears to have received the sanction of the dowager-empress, acting upon the advice of Prince Tuan and the extreme Manchu party, at a grand council held during the night of 18th-19th June, upon receipt of the news of the capture of the Taku forts by the international forces. The emperor himself, as

well as Prince Ching and a few other influential mandarins, strongly protested against the empress's decision, but it was acclaimed by the vast majority of those present. The moderate party was probably not in a position to do more than act as a drag upon the more violent faction. Three members of the Tsung-Li-Yamen were publicly executed for attempting to modify the terms of an imperial edict ordering the massacre of all foreigners throughout the provinces, and most of the Manchu nobles and high officials, and the eunuchs of the palace, who have played an important part in Chinese politics throughout the dowager-empress's tenure of power, were heart and soul with the Boxers. But it was noted by the defenders of the legations that Prince Ching's troops seldom took part, or only in a half-hearted way, in the fighting, which was chiefly conducted by Tung-fu-hsiang's soldiery and the Boxer levies. The modern artillery which the Chinese possessed was only spasmodically brought into play. Nor did any of the attacking parties ever show the fearlessness and determination which the Chinese had somewhat unexpectedly displayed on several occasions during the fighting at and around Tientsin. Nevertheless, the position of the defenders at the end of the first four weeks of the siege. had grown well-nigh desperate. Mining and incendiarism proved far greater dangers than shot and shell. The Japanese had been forced back to their third and last line of defence in the Fu, and two-thirds of the French legation had been destroyed or wrested from its heroic defenders. The British legation was being hard pressed from the Mongol market as well as from the Imperial Carriage Park, and the fighting on the city walls was severe and unceasing. The casualty list, amongst the officers especially, was heavy, and the need of constant watchfulness along the whole line of defences was a great strain upon the physical endurance of the attenuated garrison. Suddenly, just when things were looking blackest, on the 17th of July the Chinese ceased firing, and a sort of informal armistice secured a period of respite for the beleaguered Europeans. The capture of the native city of Tientsin by the allied forces had shaken the self-confidence of the Chinese authorities, who had hitherto not only countenanced, but themselves directed the hostilities. By a curious coincidence it was just at the time when the besiegers were relaxing their efforts that the intense anxiety of the civilized world with regard to the fate of the besieged reached its culminating point. Circumstantial accounts of the fall of the legations and the massacre of their inmates were circulated in Shanghai and telegraphed to Europe, and coupled with the despairing tone of the few messages which had been smuggled out of Peking in June-more especially Sir Robert Hart's message of 24th June and with the admissions made by Chinese provincial officials, these reports found general credence. Mr Brodrick, under-secretary of state for Foreign Affairs, officially stated in the House of Commons on 17th July, that though the British Government had no direct confirmation of these painful rumours, they had, unfortunately, little_reason to regard them as otherwise than substantially correct. It was not till the following week that an authentic message received through the Chinese legation at Washington from the American minister proved these fears to be premature. Similar telegrams followed from Sir Claude Macdonald and other foreign representatives, and various communications from the Chinese Government, though the pacific assurances they contained were largely mendacious, showed that they were at any rate growing alarmed at the consequences of their outrageous action. Desultory fighting, nevertheless, continued, and grave fears were entertained that the approach of the relief column would prove the signal for a desperate attempt to rush the legations before effectual assistance could reach them. The attempt was made, but failed. The relief, however, came not a day too soon. Of the small band of defenders which, including civilian volunteers, had never mustered 500, 65 had been killed and 131 wounded. Ammunition and provisions were almost at an end. Even more desperate was the situation at the Pei-tang, the Roman Catholic northern cathedral and mission house, where with the help of a small body of French and Italian marines, Mgr. Favier had organized an independent centre of resistance for his community of over 3000 souls. Their rations were absolutely exhausted, when on 15th August a relief party was despatched to their assistance from the legations.

The

condition of Peking.

The ruin wrought in Peking during the two months' fighting was appalling. Apart from the wholesale destruction of foreign property in the Tartar city-mission houses, churches, hospitals, native stores where foreign goods had been sold, native houses suspected of any connexion or sympathy with foreigners-and of Chinese as well as European buildings in the vicinity of the legations, the wealthiest part of the Chinese city had been laid in ashes. The flames from a foreign drug store fired by the Boxers had spread to the adjoining buildings, and finally consumed the whole of the business quarter with all its invaluable stores of silks, curiosities, furs, &c. The retribution which overtook:

Peking after its capture by the international forces was scarcely less terrible. Looting was for some days almost universal. But it would have been well, for the credit of Western civilization and Christianity, had the reprisals exercised by some of the foreign contingents been confined to looting. The whole city was divided up into separate areas of occupation between the contingents of different nationalities, and in the Russian and French quarters unbridled license prevailed for some time. It should be added that the French force at that period consisted chiefly of colonial troops from Tongking and Annam. Order was, however, gradually restored, first in the Japanese and then in the British and American quarters, though several months elapsed before there was any real revival of native confidence.

of the

Chinese court.

So unexpected had been the rapid and victorious advance of the allies, that the dowager-empress with the emperor and the rest of the court did not actually leave Peking until the The flight day after the legations had been relieved. But the northern and western portions of the Tartar city had not yet been occupied, and the fugitives made good their escape on the afternoon of the 15th in the direction of the Western Hills. When the allies some days later marched through the Forbidden City, they only found a few eunuchs and subordinate officials in charge of the imperial apartments. At the end of September, Field Marshal Count von Waldersee, with a German expeditionary force of over 20,000 men, arrived to assume the supreme command conferred upon him with the more or less willing assent of the other Powers. As a matter of fact, his authority was never practically recognized by either the French or the American commanders, and was only effectively exercised over the British and the small Italian and Austrian contingents. A large portion of the Japanese troops was shipped back to Japan soon after the relief of the legations, and the bulk of the Russian forces was withdrawn into Manchuria. There were indeed no longer any important military operations to be carried out. After a few punitive expeditions had been sent to Paoting-fu and other districts in the neighbourhood of Peking, where exceptionally brutal outrages had been committed during the summer, the duties of the foreign troops were henceforth chiefly in the nature of police work. The Germans, however, having arrived too late to take any part in the relief of Peking, often showed a mischievous anxiety to extend the sphere of operations. Their discipline, especially in their treatment of the defenceless Chinese population, fell lamentably short of the high standard expected from a great military nation, and their predatory raids in search of Boxers resulted only in increasing the confusion and misery which prevailed in the zone of foreign occupation. The removal by the Germans of the ancient astronomical instruments from Peking was condemned even in the German press as an act of unjustifiable vandalism. Towards the end of February 1900 preparations were made at the German headquarters for an extensive forward movement in the direction of Si-nghan-fu, but it was ultimately abandoned, owing to the refusal of the other Powers, and more especially of Great Britain and Japan, to countenance such an adventurous enterprise. Strangely enough, the German contingent, which saw less actual fighting than any other foreign force, suffered the two most conspicuous losses during the whole campaign. Count York, a staff officer of the greatest promise, died of asphyxia in a Chinese inn during a winter march, and General von Schwarzhoff, chief of the staff to Count von Waldersee, lost his life in the fire which destroyed the apartments in the Winter Palace occupied by the German headquarters (17th April).

The

The political task which confronted the Powers after the occupation of Peking was far more arduous than the military one. The action of the Russians in Manchuria, even in a treaty port like New-chwang, the seizure of the railway political line not only to the north of the Great Wall, but also from Shan-hai-kwan to Peking, by the Russian military authorities, and the appropriation of an extensive line of river frontage at Tientsin as a Russian "settlement," were difficult to reconcile with the pacific assurances of disinterestedness which Russia, like the rest of the Powers, had officially given. Great anxiety prevailed as to the effect of the flight of the Chinese court in other parts of the empire. The anti-foreign movement had not spread much beyond the northern provinces, in which it had had the open support of the throne and of the highest provincial officials. But amongst British and Americans alone, over 200 defenceless foreigners, men, women, and children, chiefly missionaries, had fallen victims to the treachery of high-placed mandarins like Yü Hsien, and hundreds of others had had to fly for their lives, many of them owing their escape to the courageous protection of petty officials and of the local gentry and peasantry. The Roman Catholic missionaries and communities throughout the north had met, or been threatened, with the same fate, and sporadic outbreaks such as that which had occurred at Su-chan, south of the Yangtse, showed that there were explosive materials scattered all over the empire. In the Yangtse valley order had

been maintained by the energy of the viceroys of Nanking and Wu-chang, who had acted throughout the critical period in loyal co-operation with the British consuls and naval commanders, and had courageously disregarded the imperial edicts issued during the ascendancy of the Boxers. After some hesitation, an Indian brigade, followed by French, German, and Japanese contingents, had been landed at Shanghai for the protection of the settlements, and though the viceroy, Liu Kun-yi, had welcomed British support, and even invited the joint occupation of the Yangtse forts by British and Chinese troops, the appearance of other European forces in the Yangtse valley was viewed with great suspicion. In the south there were serious symptoms of unrest, especially after Li Hung-Chang had left Canton for the north, in obedience, as he alleged at the time, to an imperial edict which, there is reason to believe, he invented for the occasion. The Chinese court, after one or two intermediate halts, had retired to Si-nghan-fu, one of the ancient capitals of the empire, situated in the inaccessible province of Shen-si, over 600 miles south-west of Peking. The influence of the ultra-reactionaries, headed by Prince Tuan and General Tungfu-hsiang, still dominated its councils, although edicts, illusory if genuine, were from time to time stated to have been issued for the punishment of some of the leading officials concerned in the anti-foreign outrages, and credentials were sent to Prince Ching and to Li Hung-Chang, who, after waiting for some weeks upon events at Shanghai, had proceeded to Peking, authorizing them to treat with the Powers for the re-establishment of friendly relations. On 16th October the Anglo-German agreement, to which reference has already been made, was signed in London, and its publication immediately upon signature created some excitement at the time. The negoThe AngloGerman tiations which had led up to it had been conducted with great celerity and secrecy, agreement. and it would appear, from a despatch which was subsequently published from Lord Salisbury to the British representative in St Petersburg, that the British negotiator was in no small degree influenced by the aggressive features of Russia's action at the time in northern China. Germany, on the other hand, would seem to have been chiefly actuated by the desire to forestall any isolated action on the part of Great Britain in the Yangtse valley. The agreement certainly had no immediate effect upon the political situation. It did not modify Germany's attitude with regard to Russia, for Count von Waldersee continued to lend his support as far as possible to the Russian military authorities in northern China whenever differences of opinion arose between them and the British, and the German Government a few months later openly denied that the agreement applied to Manchuria, in spite of the contrary opinion entertained by the British Government. But it has given Germany a claim to a footing in the Yangtse valley which it is difficult to reconcile with the policy propounded by British ministers when they published the Yangtse "assurance, obtained in 1898 from the Tsung-Li-Yamen. In one of his statements to the Reichstag, the imperial chancellor referred to the Anglo-German agreement as "the Yangtse agreement," and that designation has ever since been universally adopted in Germany.

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The negotiations.

The harmony of the Powers, which had been maintained with some difficulty up to the relief of the legations, was subjected to a severe strain as soon as the basis of negotiations with the Chinese Government came to be discussed. The eleven Powers having diplomatic representatives in Peking, including, therefore, such minor Powers as Spain, Holland, and Belgium, claimed to have an equal voice in these discussions, and the conferences held between the foreign ministers in the Chinese capital had constantly to be supplemented by references to their governments and by prolonged correspondence between the different cabinets. While for various reasons Russia, Japan, and the United States were inclined to treat China with great indulgence, Germany insisted upon the signal punishment of the guilty officials as a conditio sine qua non, and in this she had the support not only of the other members of the Triple Alliance, whose interests in China were only of secondary importance, but also of Great Britain, and to some extent even of France, who, as protector of the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern countries, could not allow the authors of the atrocities committed upon its followers to escape effectual punishment. It was not until after months of laborious negotiations that an agreement was finally arrived at with regard to the general tenour of the demands to be formally made upon the Chinese Government. They were embodied in a joint note signed by all the foreign ministers on 20th and 21st December 1900. The preamble recited the chief crimes committed by the Chinese, denounced the treachery of the Chinese Government in declaring, through its representatives abroad, that it was protecting the legations while it was actually besieging them, and announced that the allied Powers consented to accede to China's petition for peace on "irrevocable conditions" therein stated. These were substantially as follows:-Honourable reparation for

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the murder of Baron von Ketteler and of M. Sugiyama was to be made in a specified form, and expiatory monuments were to be erected in cemeteries where foreign tombs had been desecrated. "The most severe punishment befitting their crimes" was to be inflicted on the personages designated by the decree of 21st September, and also upon others to be designated later by the foreign ministers, and the official examinations were to be suspended in the cities where foreigners had been murdered or ill-treated. An equitable indemnity, guaranteed by financial measures acceptable to the Powers, was to be paid to states, societies, and individuals, including Chinese who had suffered because of their employment by foreigners, but not including Chinese Christians who had suffered only on account of their faith. The importation or manufacture of arms or matériel was to be forbidden; permanent legation guards were to be maintained at Peking, and the diplomatic quarter was to be fortified, while communication with the sea was to be secured by a foreign military occupation of the strategic points and by the demolition of the Chinese forts, including the Taku forts, between the capital and the coast. Proclamations were to be posted throughout China for two years, threatening death to the members of anti-foreign societies, and recording the punishment of the ringleaders in the late outrages; and the viceroys, governors, and provincial officials were to be declared by imperial edict responsible, on pain of immediate dismissal and perpetual disability to hold office, for antiforeign outbreaks or violations of treaty within their jurisdictions. China was to facilitate commercial relations by negotiating a revision of the commercial treaties. The Tsung-Li-Yamen was to be reformed, and the ceremonial for the reception of foreign ministers modified as the Powers should demand. Compliance with these terms was declared to be a condition precedent to the arrangement of a time limit to the occupation of Poking and of the provinces by foreign troops.

Under instructions from the court, the Chinese plenipotentiaries affixed their signatures on 14th January 1901 to a protocol, by which China pledged herself to accept these terms in principle, and the conference of ministers then proceeded to discuss the definite form in which compliance with them was to be exacted. This further stage of the negotiations proved even more laborious and protracted than the preliminary proceedings. No attempt was made to raise the question of the dowager-empress's responsibility for the anti-foreign movement, as Russia had from the first set her face against the introduction of what she euphemistically termed "the dynastic question." But even with regard to the punishment of officials whose guilt was beyond dispute, grave divergences arose between the Powers. The death penalty was ultimately waived in the case even of such conspicuous offenders as Prince Tuan and Tung-fu-hsiang, but the notorious Yü Hsien and two others were decapitated by the Chinese, and three other metropolitan officials were ordered to commit suicide, whilst upon others sentences of banishment, imprisonment, and degradation were passed, in accordance with a list drawn up by the foreign representatives. The question of the punishment of provincial officials, responsible for the massacre of scores of defenceless men, women, and children, was unfortunately reserved for separate treatment, and, when it came up for discussion, it became impossible to preserve even the semblance of unanimity, the Russian minister at once taking issue with his colleagues, although he had originally pledged himself as formally as the others to the principle. Count Lamsdorff frankly told the British ambassador at St Petersburg that Russia took no interest in missionaries, and as the foreigners massacred in the provinces belonged mostly to that class, she declined to join in the action of the other Powers. Fortunately the rest of the Powers, including even Japan, who, as a non-Christian state, might have been excused for adopting the same attitude as Russia, preserved a united front, and though the satisfaction ultimately obtained was not altogether adequate, the list of punishments proposed by the British minister, Sir Ernest Satow, was presented to the Chinese plenipotentiaries with the signatures of all the foreign representatives except the Russian.

The

Manchurian

convention.

The real explanation of Russia's cynical secession from the concert of Powers on this important issue must be sought in her anxiety to conciliate the Chinese in view of the separate negotiations in which she was at the same time engaged with China in respect of Manchuria. When the Boxer movement was at its height at the end of June 1900, the Chinese authorities in Manchuria had wantonly "declared war" against Russia, and for a moment a great wave of panic seems to have swept over the Russian administration, civil and military, in the adjoining provinces. The reprisals exercised by the Russians were proportionately fierce. The massacre at Blagovestchensk, where 5000 Chinese-men, women, and children-were flung into the Amur by the Cossacks, was only one incident in the reign of terror by which the Russians sought to restore their power and their prestige. The resistance of the Chinese troops was soon over

come, and Russian forces overran the whole province, occupying even the treaty port of New-chwang. The Russian Government officially repudiated all responsibility for the proclamations issued by General Gribsky and others, foreshadowing, if not actually proclaiming, the annexation of Chinese territory to the Russian empire. But Russia was clearly bent on seizing the opportunity for securing a permanent hold upon Manchuria. In December 1900 a preliminary agreement was made between M. Korostovetz, the Russian administrator-general, and Tseng, the Tartar general at Mukden, by which the civil and military administration of the whole province was virtually placed under Russian control. In February 1901 negotiations were opened between the Russian Government and the Chinese minister at St Petersburg for the conclusion of a formal convention of a still more comprehensive character. The Russian Government refused to disclose its terms, but the draft prepared by the Russian Foreign Office was informally communicated through Chinese channels to the British and other friendly governments. In return for the restoration to China of a certain measure of civil authority in Manchuria, Russia was to be confirmed in the possession of exclusive military, civil, and commercial rights, constituting in all but name a protectorate, and she was also to acquire preferential rights over all the outlying provinces of the Chinese empire bordering on the Russian dominions in Asia. The clauses relating to Chinese Turkestan, Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, and Mongolia were subsequently stated to have been dropped, but the convention nevertheless provoked considerable opposition both in foreign countries and amongst the Chinese themselves. Most of the Powers, including Germany, who, however, denied that the AngloGerman agreement of 16th October 1900 applied to Manchuria, advised the Chinese Government not to pursue separate negotiations with one Power whilst collective negotiations were in progress at Peking, and both Japan and Great Britain pressed for definite information at St Petersburg with regard to the precise tenour of the proposed convention. At the same time the two viceroys of the lower Yangtse memorialized the Throne in the strongest terms against the convention, and these protests were endorsed not only by the great majority of Chinese officials of high rank throughout the provinces, but by popular meetings and influential guilds and associations. Ultimately the two viceroys, Chang Chih-tung and Liu Kun-yi, took the extreme step of warning the Throne that they would be unable to recognize the convention, even if it were ratified, and notwithstanding the pressure exercised in favour of Russia by Li Hung-Chang, the court finally instructed the Chinese minister at St Petersburg to decline his signature. The attitude of Japan, where public feeling ran high, was equally significant, and on 3rd April the Russian Government issued a circular note to the Powers, stating that, as the generous intentions of Russia had been misconstrued, she withdrew the proposed convention.

The work of the conference at Peking, which had been temporarily disturbed by these complications, was then resumed, and soon reached a stage which brought the possibility of The peace an early evacuation within the range of discussion. protocol. It was generally felt that the prolonged occupation and the inaction to which the majority of the foreign troops were necessarily condemned were detrimental to the maintenance of discipline, and the friction which led to such unpleasant incidents as those which occurred in March and April at Tientsin, where conflicts between British troops and French, Germans, and Russians were with difficulty averted, gave additional cause for anxiety. The Anglo-Russian dispute over the construction of certain roads and railway sidings at Tientsin also showed that, although the Russians had been induced to hand over the PekingShan-hai-kwan railway (18th January) to the German military authorities, who in their turn surrendered it (21st February) to the British, an international occupation was still fraught with manifold dangers. Early in April Count von Waldersee invited all the foreign commanders to meet him and discuss the feasibility of a partial withdrawal of troops. The discussion led to no immediate results, but it helped to stimulate the proceedings of the diplomatists. The question of indemnities, however, gave rise to renewed friction. Each Power drew up its own claim, and whilst Great Britain, the United States, and Japan displayed great moderation, other Powers, especially Germany and Italy, put in claims which were strangely out of proportion to the services rendered by their military and naval forces. Not only the amount of the indemnity, but the mode of payment and the ear-marking of revenues out of which China was to meet it, gave rise to great differences of opinion. Germany proposed an immediate 10 per cent. increase of the Chinese customs tariff on foreign imports, but this proposal met with determined opposition from other commercial Powers, and especially from Great Britain, whose trade would have to bear the chief part of the burden. It was at last settled that China should pay altogether an indemnity of 450 million taels, to be secured (1) on the unhypothecated balance of the customs revenue administered by the imperial maritime customs, the import duties

being raised forthwith to an effective 5 per cent. basis; (2) on the revenues of the "native" customs in the treaty ports; (3) on the total revenues of the salt gabelle. Finally, after more than sixty plenary conferences and innumerable meetings of sub-committees had been held by the diplomatists in Peking, the peace protocol was drawn up in a form which satisfied all the Powers as well as the Chinese court. The formal signature was, however, delayed at the last moment by a fresh difficulty concerning Prince Chun's penitential mission to Berlin. The prince, an amiable and enlightened youth, half-brother to the emperor, had reached Basel towards the end of August on his way to Germany, when he was suddenly informed that he and his suite would be expected to perform kotow before the German emperor. The prince resented this unexpected demand, and referred home for instructions. The Chinese court appear to have remained obdurate, and the German Government perceived the mistake that had been made in exacting from the Chinese prince a form of homage which Western diplomacy had for more than a century refused to yield to the Son of Heaven, on the ground that it was barbarous and degrading. The point was waived, and Prince Chun was received in solemn audience by the Emperor William at Potsdam on 4th September. Three days later, on 7th September, the peace protocol was signed at Peking by the two Chinese plenipotentiaries and the representatives of Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia, the United States, Japan, Austria-Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. Article 1 recorded the satisfaction to be given to Germany for the murder of Baron von Ketteler.

Article 2 recited the punishments inflicted on the guilty officials and the posthumous honours rendered to the three mandarins who had been executed during the siege for their endeavours to stem the anti-foreign movement. It also placed on record the suspension of official examinations in all cities where anti-foreign outrages of an aggravated character had been perpetrated.

Article 3 recorded the satisfaction to be given to Japan for the murder of M. Sugiyama.

Article 4 provided for the erection by the Chinese of expiatory

monuments.

Article 5 dealt with the prohibition of the importation of arms and warlike material.

Article 6 set forth the amount and mode of payment of the indemnity.

Articles 7, 8, and 9 defined the area of the new legation quarter at Peking, and dealt with its protection and with that of the railway and the whole line of communication between Peking and the sea.

Article 10 recorded the measures taken by the Chinese Government to prevent the recurrence of anti-foreign agitation or troubles. Article 11 provided for the amendment of existing treaties of commerce and navigation, and for river conservancy measures at Tientsin and Shanghai.

Article 12 dealt with the reorganization of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and modifications of court ceremonial as regards the reception of foreign representatives.

The British Government at once appointed a Special Commission, with Sir J. Mackay, member of the Council of India, as chief commissioner, to proceed to Shanghai to carry on the commercial negotiations, provided for in article 11, with the commissioners appointed by China. These negotiations were also to deal with the removal of existing obstacles to foreign trade, such as likin, &c., and with regulations for facilitating steamer navigation on inland waters.

In accordance with the terms of the protocol, all the foreign troops, with the exception of the legation guards, were withdrawn from Peking on 17th September, and from the rest of Chih-li, with the exception of the garrisons at the different points specified along the line of communications, by 22nd September. On 7th October it was announced that the Chinese court had left Si-nghanfu on its way back to the northern capital. A month later (7th November) the death of Li Hung-Chang at Peking removed, if not the greatest of Chinese statesmen, at any rate the one who had enjoyed a larger share of the empress-dowager's confidence and figured in the eyes of the outside world more prominently than any other during that long chapter of wasted opportunities which had opened for the Chinese empire after the suppression of the great Taiping rebellion, and was brought to a close by the Boxer movement, the international occupation of Peking, and the peace protocol of 1901.

With this settlement a new era opens.

What it will produce none can venture to foretell. On the one hand, the Powers have been induced to display great leniency with regard to the punishment of the court and the high officials implicated in the antiforeign outrages of 1900; and on the other, the pecuniary compensation they have exacted is calculated to weigh heavily on the Chinese people, and on the innocent not less than on the guilty. In the north of China the excesses committed by some of the

foreign contingents unquestionably lowered the reputation of all Western powers collectively, notwithstanding the high standard of discipline maintained by the British, American, and Japanese forces, and by the later French contingent sent out direct from France. It must be noted also that amongst progressive Chinese officials a widespread feeling of disappointment prevailed that the Powers should have failed to avail themselves of the opportunity to insist upon the introduction of administrative reforms into China. The necessity of such reforms had been more widely realized by the Chinese themselves during the recent crisis than at any previous moment in the modern history of China, and several high officials like the Yangtse viceroys, the viceroy of Canton, and the governor of Shantung, Yuen Shih-kai, one of the ablest of the young Chinese mandarins, repeatedly memorialized the Throne in this sense. Imperial edicts were from time to time issued from Si-nghan-fu announcing important reforms, especially in the system of education and qualifications for the public service, but their value remained speculative so long as most of the appointments made by the court continued to be bestowed on members of the old reactionary party.

AUTHORITIES.-BERESFORD, Lord CHAS. The Break-up of China. London, 1899.-BISHOP, Mrs J. F. The Yangtze Valley and Beyond. London, 1899.-COLQUHOUN, ARCH. R. China in Transformation. London, 1898.-BOULGER, Dem. C. The History of China. London, 1898.-BABER, E. C. "Travels and Researches in Western China," R. Geo. Society Supp. Papers, 1882.BRETSCHNEIDER, E. History of European Botanical Discoveries in China. London, 1898.-CHIROL, VALENTINE. The Far Eastern Question. London, 1896.-CURZON, The Right Hon. GEO. N. (Lord Curzon). Problems of the Far East. London, 1894.DOUGLAS, R. K. Society in China. London, 1894.-Du Bose, HAMPDEN C. The Three Religions of China. New York, 1887. -FIELDE, A. M. A Corner of Cathay. New York, 1894.-GILES, H. A. Chinese Biographical Dictionary. London, 1897.-GILL, Capt. W. E. The River of Golden Sand. London, 1883.GUNDRY, R. S. China and Her Neighbours. London, 1893; China Present and Past. London, 1895.-HOSIE, ALEX. Three Years in Western China. London, 1897.-LITTLE, ARCH. J. Through the Yangtze Gorges. London, 1898.-NORMAN, HENRY. The Peoples and Politics of the Far East. London, 1895.-POOLE, S. LANE. Life of Sir Harry Parkes. London, 1894.-RICHTHOFEN, FERDINAND VON. China. Berlin, 1877-83.-MARTIN, W. A. P. The Chinese Education, Philosophy, and Letters. New York, 1898.-WILLIAMS, F. WELLS. A History of China. London, 1897.-HENRY, AUGUStine. "Chinese Names of Plants," Journal of China Branch of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xxv.— MOLLENDORF, O. F. von. "The Vertebrata of the Province of Chih-li," Ibid. vol. xv. For political affairs see Blue-books on China since 1875. For commercial and statistical information see Consular Reports, Foreign Office, and Reports of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. (G. J.; V. C.)

of the war between China and Japan arose out of the rival China-Japan War of 1894-95.-The causes claims of the two Powers to assert influence in Korea. It was an old tradition in Japan, dating back to the legendary achievements of the Emperor Jingu, that Korea occupied a At the end of position of quasi-vassalage to the empire. the 16th century an expedition sent by the Emperor Hideyoshi occupied Seoul and Phyong-yang. The Koreans invoked the aid of China, and after a prolonged war the Japanese forces were withdrawn shortly before the death of Hideyoshi. Inadequate sea power, rendering the supply of the Japanese troops precarious, seems to have been the cause of the ultimate failure, although the Chinese were frequently defeated in the field. In 1627, and again in 1637, Korea was invaded from the north by the Manchus, who soon afterwards established their dynasty at Peking. According a purely nominal allegiance to China, the Koreans subsequently maintained their isolation for more than two centuries.

After the revolution which ended in 1868-when Japan, adopting Western reforms, started upon a wonderful career of progress-it was natural that her ambitions in regard to Korea should receive a fresh impulse. In 1875 a Japanese force landed on Kang-hwa Island, and after a naval demonstration at Chemulpo a treaty was obtained opening Fusan to Japanese trade. From this time Japan began to play an active part in Korean affairs, and under her influence a progressive party arose in Seoul, which soon found itself in conflict S. III. - 6

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