The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-13 00:00:00

CHINESE POLITICS.

We (Times) have been favoured with the follow-
ing communication from a correspondent very well
versed in the subject he discusses :
" The last mail may have taken home, but I am
not sure, the news that the Emperor had named his
only son Tsaishun heir apparent to the throne, and
had given him a council of seven or eight nobles and
ministers to assist him in the administration, the
child being at this moment but some five or six
years of age. The inclusion of three of those who
were known to be his prime favourites, and reputed
his worst advisers in what seemed a council of re-
gency, created no little alarm among our Chinese
gossips, who are wont to attribute to one of these
men, named Sushun, all the immorality with which
the Emperor's private life has been charged, and much
of the maladministration for which his reign has been
unhappily remarkable. For foreign affairs it did not
look well either that the Prince of Kung, the Em-
peror's nearest brother, the chief of the new Foreign-
office, and since the Emperor's flight last autumn
his representative in Pekin, should have been left
out of this powerful committee; and the circum-
stance was evidently regarded as ominous even by
natives interested more about the domestic condi-
tion of China than her external relations. The last
news from Pekin, however, was more favourable.
It would seem that the actual Regent, the voice
that issues the decrees which the Administrative
Council reverently receives, is the Empress proper
of the late Sovereign, who, like the mother of the
present, has by decree of the Imperial bantling
been elevated to the dignity of Empress Dowager;
but, as wife of the monarch, takes precedence of
the new ruler's mother, who was but one of the
many ladies of the harem. Report speaks well
of the character and abilities of both. To the Re-
gent, it is reported, the Prince of Kung addressed
himself for permission to visit Zehol, which is still
the seat of the Court, being moved to this step by
a rumour that the Opposition were endeavouring to
instil into the Regent's mind a suspicion that the
presence of foreigners, whose numbers they were
magnifying, in Pekin might render it unsafe for her
to return thither ; otherwise it had been expected
that, according to one of the earlier formal decrees,
the coffin of the late Emperor would have been ac-
companied to the capital by his son a few days
after his accession. Whether this be true or not,
the Prince of Kung has without doubt started for
Zehol, and, as to have gone at all, he must have
obtained the Regent's permission to quit his
post, his proceeding must be held to promise
good rather than evil. Had the Opposition
been all-powerful with the Empress she
would not have consented to a proposal, the
aim of which is to the Chinese mind apparent. The
Prince may not be without secret desire to shift his
foreign affairs burden to other less illustrious
shoulders, or, at all events, to get shared by one or
more a responsibility which must be irksome to a
young man not much used to business. But there
can be no doubt that he, in common with nine out
of ten of his countrymen, is sincerely anxious to see
the Emperor back in the place, bis absence from
which so much dispirits the well-disposed of his
subjects, and that at a moment when loyalty in the
provinces is by no means a drug in the market. The
return of the Emperor, who is, of course, a most
precocious infant, will for certain do much good in
Pekin and the provinces.
" Much about the time the new reign was com-
mencing one of the Imperialist armies, operating
against rebels up the Yang-tse-Keang, has con-
trived to retake Nganking, the capital of Ngan-
hwui, and Wuhu, lower down the river, in the same
province. Both are places of much importance, and
have been in rebel hands since the first descent of
the Taipings in 1853. It is too soon to pronounce
whether their recapture is due to unusual energy
on the part of the Government, or to a deliberate
purpose, or the want of one, on the part of the
rebels. They may be simply scrambling away to
the centre of a new circle of depredations. Any
way, if Government can hold these cities, it will
improve its position on the Yang-tse much, and
cannot fail to spare our trade a certain amount of
complication."