The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-01-02
IT HUNG AND CHINA.
Yhe Great Mans Relations with
the Common eople.
He Has Very Dincult Position 20
Maintain and II Too Pro-
gressive for the Slow
Going Celestlals.

single days dispatches which told how
Lii Hung Chang, upon his arrival at Pc
king, had been made minister OF for
eign affairs and had been reprimanded
for omitting one or more of the proper
forms in paying respects to the dow
aeer empress. It was known before that
the lady was a great stickler for eti-
quette, though in this she does not
differ from some Christian kovereigns
Of her sex. She is great stickler also
for more substantial things and is be-
lieved to have done her full share to-
ward getting the middle kingdom into
it's recent scrapes. The conjunction OF
reprimand and promotion would be
very incredible anywhere else, but it is
no more incredible in China than things
that have indubitably happened, as, for
example, the quick succession of the
privation of the yellow jacket and its
restoration, followed by the bestowal
of confidential mission which any,
where else would denote a man whom
the king delighted to honor.
It is quite hopeless for an occidental
to attempt to penetrate the mysteries
of Chinese politics. The more the
kingdom is laid open by conquering in
vaders the less do we understand what
is disclosed. The want of apprehension
seems to be shared by men who have
given their lives to understanding. For
generation or so Great Britain has
been conciliating China and treating
Japan with contempt, upon the theory
that China was a valuable ally against
Russian aggression. When Great Brit
ain had succeeded in alternating Japan
in the supposed interest of China. and
Japan had conquered China, it sudden
appears that it is Russia which gets
he ultimate benefit of all the proceed
ings. For there does not seem to be any
loubt that the concession of Chinese
,utlet for the Siberian railway has in
fact been made.
There is reason to doubt, however,
that Ii Hung Chang has been made min
ister of foreign affairs. In the first
:?lace there is no such minister and, in
deed, no such ministry; and in China
that is rather more than a detail. OF
the administrative boards which among
them mismanage the empire, not one OF
them is specifically department Of
foreign affairs, and if they were 1t
would be a board and not an individual.
"Ahroad" is as much ignored in all Chi
nese official arrangements as Mr.. Me-
l<inlev would like to see it in the in
ilustrial exchange, or Mr.. Bryan IN
finance. In the next place the report
does not take account of the dead
weight of inertia that the mandarin
class can and does oppose toany attempt
TO assimiliate their country to the rest
OF the world, or to put it in line with
modern progress. The contempt OF
mere ignorance, such as the untutored
Chinaman exhibits for foreigners, is
nothing to the contempt of Cinnamon
tutored after the Chinese mode OF edu-
cation. Ii Hung Chang is an energetic
person, but he is quite helpless against
This inert resistance. We may be anite
sure that Chinaman who believes that
the isolation of China ought to be modi-
fed is looked upon either as harm
less visionary or DANGEROUS radical. Ii
HING Chang cannot be put in the
former class. and so he must belong to
the latter. In the course OF his voyage
around the world he has expressed him
self in favor of fuller and frecr trade
with his own country. and this is to the
mandarins sentiment alarming and
revolutionary. Thourh the innove tor
is an old man in the scale Of human life
he is nero hov in that Of Chinese civ
ilization and its representatives, who
count themselves some 1000 years older
and consequently wiser than he.-Har-
per's Weekly. &