The Portland daily press., 1898-03-10

lation provisions, and if he desires any
thing chat is not on the menu the board
having charge of the imperial table has 10
| be consulted. &c is more than doubtful
whether his majesty realizes his exalted
situation and his power. he has been
henimed in and fooled all his life. lie
| knows nothing of modern civilization,
and, in spite of the recent war, next 70
nothing OF modern warfare. He has never
reviewed, and is not capable of reviewing
his army, and Ms common amusement Is
to shoot with bow and arrow. II he
ever had in him the markings Of a charac-
ter they must have been ruined long since
| by his mode of life and his surroundings.
The supreme bodies which, by the grace
of the empress dowager and the fa7orite
eunuchs have the direction of the coun-
| try's affairs, are the grand council, the
ministry of war, and the tsung-li-yamen.
| The first, which is erroneouously con-
founded with the last. corresponds to our
| cabinet, and consists of five members
Prince Kung, the emperor's uncle, whose
principal aim in life now appears to be to
thwart the empress dowager, with whom
he has many stormy scenes; Shi 10, bet
ter known to us as Prince Ii, who has
no knowledge of foreign affairs and hates
all "foreign barbarians;" Weng Tungho,
the emperor's private tutor, who is
equally conspicuous for his dislike OF the
barbarians, though he is credited with
having taken to the study of foreign
affairs since the troubles with Japan;
Kang vi, an official who gained his high
office by presenting the emperor, for the
| purposes of the late war, with large sum
of money, which he had no doubt OBJ
| tanned by extortion of one kind or anoth-
| err and whose appreciation of modern con-
ditions in warfare may be judged by the
| fact that he prefers bows and arrows to
| uns, and has ordered that those of his
companies which are provided with the
murderous rifle shall use clay bullets, SO
as to save the expense OF leaden ones; ana
Chen Ying-pu, president OF tne Doard ol
works. who is singularly free from pre1u-
dios against foreigners, i'll spite OF tne
| fact that experience has never brought
| him into proper contact with them. Inc
ministry of war consists of Prince kung
| (president), Prince Ching (vice -president)
| Weng lung no, apd Jung Lu. With two
of these gentlemen we have already mace
acquaintance. Prin ce Ching Il kuang)
was promoted from the third to the second
order of princes four years ago. He has
| held many offices in the capital, among
others that of president of the tsung-n-
yamen, to which he still belongs, and IS
reported to be.a fair-minded man-rela-
lively, that is, for he has never been far
from home. Jung Lu Is Manchu, ana
airs advanced views which are crude.
|
ment may or may not account for his
insistence upon the necessity of showing
bold front to foreign aggression. The
tsung Ii yamen consists Of Prince hung,
Prince Ching, Weng Iung-ho, Kang "
| and Jung Lu, in addition to our estlma-
BILE old friend, Lii Hung Chang and Ching
Hsin, stiff and bigoted nominee OF
Prince Kung: Ching Lii, very old man
from whose mature lips drop words OF
ANTICIPATED wisdom; Hsu Ying-we1, a
Cantonese, who was once literary chancel-
lor in Kansu, but who has remained III
Pekin for good 20 years past; Lao
| Shaoh eng, elder brother of the governor
of Che-Kiang; Chang Yin-huan, who
spent 10 years as minister to the United
States, Spain and Peru, and was special
ambassador at the diamond jubilee, and
| WI Ting-fen, the leader of the reform
party. The men most capable OF Offering
good counsel in the present emergency
| are the two last named, but Chang Yin
huan is of too low a rank to possess any
real influence, and it is stated that WI
| Ting fen, despairing of any reform While
| the couutry's affairs are in the hands OF
the prejudiced fossils of corrupt servants,
recently applied for two months leave OF
absence to repair his ancestral tombs-a
preliminary to retirement. In the mul-
titude of counsel offered by these various
| officials there is much guile but little
wisdom, and there is much plotting on
| the part of each member of the three
boards against each and every one of his
| fellows. Periodically the empress dowag-
er comes out, rates them soundly from
| behind her screen, and If they have done
something unusually foolish, boxes all
their ears. And between one and an
other of them the unhappy son of heaven
| comes a cropper