The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1897-03-25
III HUNG AND CHINA.
The Great Mans Relations with
the Common People.
He Has . Very Dimcult Position tO
Maintain and Il Too Pro-
gressive for the Slow
Going Celeatials.

That was a strange collocation of
single days dispatches which told how
Ii Hung Chang, upon his arrival at Pc
king, had been made minister of for
eign affairs and had been reprimanded
for emitting one or more of the proper
forms in paying respects to the dow
ager empress. 1t was known before that
the lady was a great stickler for ETH
Quette, though in this she does not
differ from some Christian sovereigns
of her sex. She is a 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 it's
restoration, followed by the bestowal
of confidential mission which any
where else would denote man whom
the king delighted TO honor.
1t 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
a generation or so Great Britain has
been conciliating China and treating
Japan with contempt, upon the theory
that China was q valuable ally against
llussian aggression. When Great Brit
ain had succeeded in alternating japan
in the supposed interest of China. and
Japan had conquered, China, it sudden
ly appears that it is Russia which gets
the ultimate benefit of all the proceed
ings. For there does not seem to be any
doubt that the concession of a Chinese
outlet 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
place there is no such minister and, in.
deed, no such ministry; and in China
that is rather more than detail. Oh
the administrative boards which among
them mismanage the empire, not one Oh
them is specifically a department Of
foreign affairs. and if they were i
would be a board and not an individual
abroad" is as much ignored in all Chi
nese official arrangements as Mr.. Me
Kinlcy would like TO see il in the in
dustria exchange, or Mr.. Bryan il
finance In the next place the repor
does not take account of the dea'
weight of inertia that the mandari
cless ean and does oppose toany attemp
10 assimiliate their country to the res
Of the world or to put it in line wit
modern progress The contempt q
mere ignorance, such as the untutore
Chinaman exhibits for foreigners,
nothing to the contempt of Chiname
tutored after the Chinese mode of edr
cation. III Hung Chang is an energeti
rerson, but he is quite helpless aPairs
this inert resistance. We may be quit
sure that Chinaman who believes tha
the isolation of China ought to be mod
fed is looked upon either as a harm
less visionary or dangerous radical.
Hung Chang cannot be put in tn
former class, and so he must belong I
the latter In the course of his voyan
around the world he has expressed hin
self in favor Of fuller and freer trad
with his own country. and this is to tn
mandarins sentiment alarming an
revolutionary. Though the innovatc
Is an old man in the scale of human III
he is a mere boy in that of Chinese ci
ilization and its representatives, WI
count themselves some 1000 years old,
| and consequently wiser than he.-Ha
per's Weekly.