Chinese falling under Russian dominion. It is vital, in order that the further southward march of Russia may be stayed, and her capacity for becoming a great naval Power and disturbing the peace of the world be restricted. It remains to be seen how this duty may be best performed.

The interests of Great Britain in the Far East may be summarised as being comprised in the maintenance of all existing treaty rights in China, Japan and Korea. The safeguarding of such rights entails of course the restraining of any other Power from acts which would result in their infraction; and the prevention of such a course is of fully equal importance to the mere preservation of the rights themselves at the hands of the Chinese. Hitherto it has been deemed sufficient to look to China for the prevention of any interference from outside. This course has, howover, failed utterly, partly from the insistent action of other Powers, and partly owing to the inability of China to maintain any course of independent action against the desires of her despoilers. The course to be followed by Great Britain in regard to China is then simple. It may be summed up in two paragraphs setting out the requirements of this country, which, in order to be ensured, must be insisted on if necessary by war. They are:

1. The maintenance of all existing treaty rights, and the immediate operation of all those clauses in treaties which have so far remained unobserved.

This would ensure the opening up of the whole country to foreign travel, trade, and residence; the opening of the waterways to foreigners, the suppression of piracy, the opening of several treaty ports which remain closed, and the abolition of the likin dues.

2. The notification that the cession of any territory, or accordance of exclusive privileges, to any country, will be resented; and the granting of any rights to one Power which are not equally granted to all other Powers is forbidden.

These requirements embody the settlement of the whole

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question. But it would be useless to expect that the granting of them by China would suffice to ensure their observance. To this end it would be necessary to send a copy of them to all the Powers, with a notification that Great Britain was determined to insist on their operation, and that no efforts will be spared to render them obligatory.

Such a course, supported by an attitude which left no room for doubt as to our intention to enforce our requirements at all costs, would ensure the observance of our just demands even by Russia; and the certainty that the United States and Japan would act with us in such a policy places the result beyond the region of doubt. Anything short of that must fail to consolidate our interests, or restore our prestige from the position to which it has become debased to the high place it formerly occupied.

Failing the adoption of the course suggested, it remains only to retreat from the position we have expressed our determination to maintain, and to revert to a policy of spheres of influence, which means a scramble for territory in Eastern Asia. In such a case, Russia would of course retain Manchuria-That is lost to us definitely in any case, and at once assert her dominion over the province of Pechili. France would advance to the Sikiang; Germany enlarge her sphere of activity in Shantung; and England would as likely as not witness a struggle between the various parties known to our politics, on the question of the exact limits to be drawn as defining the British sphere in the region of the Yangtse Kiang. The difficulties of de-markating any such sphere of influence have already been descanted on. Without reckoning with the faddists who so seriously interfere in the protection of the country's interests, the problem is beset with difficulties, and, unless held by a strong force ready at any moment to oppose aggression, the maintenance of such limits must be extremely difficult.

England's duty, therefore, is plain in regard to China. and the Far East. It comprises the preservation of exist-

ing countries, the maintenance of free trade and treaty obligations, and the opposition of all attempts at infringing the same. It remains to be seen whether our rulers are possessed of a sufficient sense of duty to carry out such a policy; or whether, by a continuation of their past record of vacillation, impotence, and folly, they allow our trade to be interfered with and our interests to be disregarded, in the coming struggle for empire on the Pacific.

CHAPTER XI

THE STORY OF THE CRISIS

Anti-foreign feeling of the Chinese-British vacillation and its consequences-The trouble in Pechili-Rising of the rabble-Remonstrance of the foreign Ministers-Destruction of the railwayIsolation of Peking-Admiral Seymour's advance-Taking of the Taku Forts-Murder of the German Minister-Capture of Tientsin -News from the Legations-Conflicting rumours-The advance of 1860-That of 1900-Delay on the part of the Powers-Dr. Morrison's letter to the Times-Advance of the relief force-Its successful progress-Relief of Peking and succour of the besieged-The arming of the Chinese-Who is responsible ?-The Russian press on the situation-The prospect of the future-Difficulties of the situationThe position of Japan.

THE reader who has perused these pages thus far will not be at a loss to appreciate the true inwardness of the events which culminated in the outbreak of last May. While never welcomed by the Chinese, the presence of foreigners among them had, by the lapse of time, come to be regarded as a necessary evil. The profits derived from intercourse with them, and the realisation of the superior force at their disposal-for the lessons of 1839 and 1860 are not even yet forgotten-tended to reconcile the celestials to a continued intercourse with the "outer barbarians;" but while the Chinaman's attitude thus became one of passive toleration, it never exceeded this; and in all the history of the intercourse between the people of the two nations, no well authenticated instance of real friendship or intimate exchange of ideas has been placed on record. Neither have the Chinese ever profited by the opportunities afforded by the presence of

the "foreign devil." The people are to-day as exclusive, as conservative, and as arrogant in their relations with Western people as when they first forced their way upon the natives of Canton in the seventeenth century. European ideas have never found a footing in China. Western learning has always been tabooed, and the methods of our civilisation in point of honesty and communion, have been consistently resisted.

The exhibition of our strength of purpose, and the display of our indisputable capacity to back it up by force if resisted, tended, however, to impress the celestials with the only instinct by means of which they can be influencedthe sense of fear; and by dint of this they had been taught to regard the government of Great Britain with respect.

The vacillation of Lord Salisbury and his colleagues during the events of 1898, however, served to lessen this feeling of respect among the Chinese to a diminishing point, and by degrees they came to regard this country as a decaying Power, which, while at one time a masterful nation, had ceased to be of sufficient importance to be respected. Nor did the action of our rivals in China tend to develop an increased regard in the celestial estimation.

The repeated absorption of Chinese territory, first by Germany, next by Russia, and finally by ourselves, evoked a feeling of irritation among the more intelligent classes throughout the country, which served to encourage them to use their influence on the masses. Among the latter there is always a large proportion ready to seize on any excuse to rise in opposition to the existing state of things. Many millions of Chinese have never been reconciled to the Manchu conquest and the present dynasty. Others are avowed enemies of the Christian religion, which it has for so long been sought to force with such utter want of tact and coherence on the celestials; and others, again, are avowed enemies of the "foreign devils," who, in increasing numbers, have during recent years flocked to their shores, and sought to introduce their inventions and ideas on an unappreciative public. Under these conditions it is easy to understand that the agitation started