The Portland daily press., 1898-11-25
EMPREss-REoeNT OF CHINA.
Incidents in the Career of Remarkable
Woman.
(Blackwood's Magazine J


China during the last thirty years has
been and still is without doubt the lady
whom we style Empress. Dowager. She
was never Empress, not even as imperial
eonsort, having been but the secondary
wife of Hsien Feng, the Emperor who fled
from his capital on the approach OF the
Anglo. French forces in 1850. But she
took the title as the mother Of that i'll
starred monarch's heir. in which capacity
she was allowed to share u 18th the widow
proper the regency during the minority Of
the Emperor Tung Chin Tor Che, for there
is no agreement as to the consideration
of Chinese sounds). There was no am
biguity about the Empress Regent. No
veil was thick enough to hide her charac-
ter. Her career has been consistent, and
she remains what she has often been
called. the "only man in the empire.
Possessed by three passions, of which the
two having peh and power for their object
have survived the more transient one,
and still gather strength with advancing
years, the portrait of her Majesty that is
most Ineligible to the European COM
prehension is that which represents her
as counterpart of Catherine II. What
she might have been with Catherine s
Christian education. and unhandicapped
by enforced seclusion. it would be idle
to guess. It may indeed seem strange
that woman 30 endowed should have
been content to pass her public life behind
a screen; but there have been many mas
fri hQfOrl her tn VVh0m fla
'sprrda" offered but fimsy obstacle to
the exercise of their power An intense
curiosity has always been one OF her
marked characteristics, a feeling which
she has taken every means convenient to
b sr station to crafty.
After the assumption of powBr by the
Emperor Tung Chih in 1873, meeting
took place between the regents, his guard
ians The senior Empress sent a message
TO her imperial sister proposing an official
meeting in a certain pavilion in the pal
lace, After the ceremonial courtesies the
Eastern Empress said she had sought the
interview because their common task had
now been fulfilled and it was fitting that
they should lay down their office and take
ornal leave Of each other. For her part,
she added, she was well pleased to be re-
jievedsof The responsibility. She was also
pratiaed that they two had been able to
work SO long in harmony for the welfare
of the young Emperor and the state. So
far well, but the lady had postscript 20
add in the manner which is o stock
device in plays and novels. She produced
the private will of their late husband
aud disclosed for the first time to her
sister the powers which she had kept
dormant these dozen years. "Now," she
said, There is no further use for such q
locument,'' whereupon she burn ed ii
before the eyes of the Western Empress.
This dramatic scene made terrible inn
preston on the Empress mother. She
was not converted by it, but changed,
giving way to sudden hatred of the de-
ceased Emperor v no had mistrpsted her,
and to the woman who haa been made
the confidante of that distrust How
her relations to her ex-colleague in the
regency. and even to her own son, were
affected by this humiliating discovery can
only ne conjectured. What is known If
that neither of them long survived the
incident, and much speculation has been
built on the sequence of events.
The crisis in her fate, as WAS anticipat-
ed, arrived on the present Emperor's COM
ing of age, marriage, and assumption OF
The government. Would the Regent
frankly resign or still cling to powerf and
If SO, by what means and under what pre-
textP The Regent entered into private
realty with this Emperor whereby ia
| making over to him full powers she
specifically reserved to herself certain ar
Jicles twenty five in number; and she
retained in her possession a most 1mpor.
tant seal, without which the Emperor s
authority could never be complete. 1t IL
| tDis convention signed, sealed ana deliv-
cred. between Emperor and Regent that
is at the bottom of the struggle and the
defeat of the weaker party, which his been
announced within the last month
The practical conclusion of the whole
matter for lis is that, be her motives,