The true northerner., 1900-07-20

post III canton, ne is designed 10 be,
in the opinion of competent observers,
the bulwark Of the dynasty against
the attacks from foreign Powers, which
are justly TO be feared. At the same
! time, he goes 70 the Chinese capital
with the express permission of the
governments of Europe Japan and the
United States. and almost, as il were,
commissioned by them TO turn the
savage purposes of the Empress and
strangle. the Boxer movement before
IL becomes a giant which will take
months to kill. If there exists any
where the guilty hope born of land
greel that Ii Hung Chang will not sue
ceed, that his distracted country will
burst into fragments, to be the spoil
Of the nations, no such feeling prevails
in England and America. In London
and Washington, not less than among
the foreign residents of China, the be-
lief is strong that if any man can save
the Chinese crisis from plunging the
civilized world into a conflict fraught
with intense peril, and certain to in
volve the greatest bloodshed, that man
is Ii Hung Chang. Conservative. when
judged by modern standards, he is
vigorously progressive when judged
by Chinese. Skilful in diplomacy, re-
markable in business ability, tolerant
toward missions. believer in modern
methods of warefare, he sums up in
himself the practical hopes of the
world for peace and order in the East
Crushed Tai-Ping Revolt.
Ii Hung Chang has faced great per-
lis for his country before. When the
guns of the Anglo-French fleet were
echoing along the Pei-Ho River in 1860
and the American Commodore Tat
nall was acting out his creed that
blood is thicker than water" Ii was
leading the imperial forces against the
Tai-Ping rebels, who were shaking the
throne by their successes.
1t is a very noteworthy fact that,
like Grant, whose friendship he made
on the latters tour Of the world, Ii
was flung into high place by the crisis
Of a bloody civil war. But while the
American conflict measured in time
four years, in lives a million and in
money ten billion dollars, the Chinese
rebellion scourged the country for
fourteen years, gilled 20.000000 per-
sons and caused a property loss of in
-calculable amount.
II was in 1887 that Hung Use Chuen,
the son of a well-to-do farmer living
north OF Canton. having failed TO pass
the provincial examinations, one step
ing stone in the Chinese scheme of
advancement 10 Official station. fell ilf
and dreamed that he was divinely COM
l. 1f fnn
He began 10 proclaim his mission. eX-
horting his followers to embrace Chris
tianity OF which he-had obtained some
vague notions. With every year the
circle OF HIS adherents widened, but IL
was not until 1850 that the needless
Pekin government saw and knew the
danger that he threatened.
In the omen rebellion that followed
the new leader won immense success
for a tims. with an army unusually
well drilled for Cinnamon, Hung Use
Chuen overrun several provinces,
crossed the Yang-tse and in Nanking,
the old capital of the empire. was
hailed as Emperor and assumed the
style Of royalty. Two columns pressed
forward toward Pekin.
Al THIS CTlslS a young anu ulsllnS-
uished scholar, who had passed two
examinations and was among the ex-
pectants of office. gathered together
friends and relatives i'm his menaced
native town. organized them into
regiment and fell upon the rebels rear.
His victories won him a staff position
In the imperial army and later chief
command in the field. With the aid of
a foreign corps, commanded until his
death in battle by Frederick f. Ward,
an American sailor-adventurer, and
later by Lieutenant Colonel Gordon,
who was doomed to be the victim Of
the Mahdi, the new Chinese leader
crushed the rebellion after tremen-
dous struggle.
Though Ward and Gordon did the
lighting Ii cleverly appropriated the