Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-09-25

the official court-having fled to the in
terror and basely abandoned their
trust, the government was left without
head. This anomalous condition of
affairs, though it might be considered
in the light of poetic justice, since the
official personnel has been so often de-
pleted by the loss of individual heads,
was yet almost as embarrassing to the
victorious allies as to the conquered
Mantchoo-C Chinese.
The allied forces had assaulted and
carried the walls of Peking by storm,
they had accomplished the object of
their long and toilsome march from the
coast-the relief Of the legations; they
had even made their triumphal entry
into the precincts of the hitherto invi-
olate Forbidden City. Then they were
compelled to halt and wait the initta-
tive of the foe they had overcome.
1t seems to have become an accepted
truism of International relationship
that even bad government is far bet
ter when it comes to diplomatic inter-
course than no government at all, and
the leaders of the allies may have re-
GREETED that before advancing upon Pc
king they had not executed a grand
flank movement with a portion of their
forces and intercepted the recreant
sovereigns on the way to their place of
refuge at Hsian-Fu. This contingency
of flight had not been anticipated, or if
anticipated, had not been guarded
against, and by their cowardly retreat
the self secluded, Mantchoos had, in
popular parlance, put the allies sin
hole" This may have been their inten-,
ton at the outset, but the more reason
able superstition Is that their flight was
prompted by cowardice and fear of the
consequences righteously due for the
base betrayal of their obligations
However this may have been, the
first step of the allies toward extricat-
ing themselves from the dilemma was
to seek some responsible person or per-
sons with whom to treat for peace and
adjust the penalties to be applied. Like
schoolboy shrinking from we'll merit
ed punishment, the real culprits in this
affair sought to delay the castigation
erage schoolboy known to Americans
when pressed to the wall they put for
ward an irresponsible third party to act
as buffer and bear the brunt of battle
Ii Hung Chang was the person Sc
lected to act for the self decapitated
government, but, though 1T was admit
ted that his headpiece was perhaps as
good as that which adorned the Shout
ders of the empress dowager or the
Son of Heaven" himself, the powers
were somewhat dubious as to his real
status, and particularly as to his rank.
In default of the presence in Picking of
the nominal emperor or the actually
reigning regent, the parsonage by them
deputed to act for the government
ought to be at least next In rank to and
connected with the royal family
through ties of blood. Both the emper-
or and the empress dowager are sup
posed to be so enyeloped in the odor of
1 sanctity as to be unapproachable by or
binary individuals, even if of the most
exalted rank in European courts, SO
that these two We're out of the ques-
ton. Failing them, the duty devolved
next upon some of the princes attached
to the throne, and in their default upon
some members of the nobility.
Now, there is this popularity, both in
the peerage and the succession to the
throne, that neither is, in the strictest
Gense. hereditary. While the success
aion to the great "dragon throne. Is in
manner hereditary in the family, the