The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-18
TIE REFORM EDICTS OF TIE DRAGON THRONE Sufficiently Explicit But Not Yet Reform
 atory. HOW CHINADOES IT NOT A Condition of Corruption, Uneasiness and
 Unrest.
HOW DOES IT NOT

NA VI OSAAAcI SnS0S, lno OTdSOn Throne gave forth the edicts which, protesting to prepare the way for Constitutional government, had for their ostensible object the reform of the administrative system, first at Peking, and thereafter in the pro- vinces This reform was to be brought about by clearer recognition of re- 'sponsibility on the part of officials, by their more enlightened sense of duty, and by the abolition of corruption" :" In the opinion of many the edicts were the outcome of staresmanlike re- cognition, by the Empress Dowager and her chief advisers or the peoples genuine desire for reform; others, on the other hand, remembering similar State documents in the past, doubted the sincerity of the throne and the value(of the administrative changes which the edicts prescribed.
 As things go in China, anything like a year Is too short time to judge of the ultimate results ur any govern ment measures, or to speak precisely as to it's intentions. In the present case, had the pressure of public opin- ion continued to increase, or had the progressive party at the capital been able to maintain It's ascendency with the court, the edicts were sufficiently explicit to enable them to introduce the changes clearly recognized as es- sential In the personnei and procedure of the metropolitan boards. The Manchus, whatever their faults, have never been deficient in that art of government which consists in follow ing strong expression Of public opin- ion. But the collapse of the Viceroy Yuan Shihkai's policy before the in trlgues of the Human party and the renewed activity of the conservative 'literati" have apparently reassured the Empress Dowager, so that for the moment the execution of the reform edicts is as remote as that of the Mackay treaty or any other of the temporary expedients which strew the tortuous path of Chinese diplomacy.
 At no time in recent history has the conflict of parties and the frank cor ruption of their politics been so marked at Peking as during the past twelvemonth. Never has the business of the censors been so brisk; their denunciations, purchased by the con tending factions. being directed in discriminatory againsS every high off, f1cial whose position or purse may in- vite attack.
 The ear of the court appears to be open always to the last comer--its sympathies as variable as It's numors so that throughout the country, and especially in the North, there exists a condition of uneaslness and unrest, a condition offering little prospect of | that definite responsibility and aboli- ! ton of corruption which the throne so earnestly desired. So marked Is this feeling of uneasiness, so appar- ently aimless the policy of the central government in matters of administra- ton, that censor has advocated postponement of reform in the pro- vinces on the ground that, to judge by the results at Picking, they could not safely bear the burden 1t entails
 As an example of Celestial methods under the impulse of reform, the most striking case, though even more recent ones might be quoted, Is thaI of the impeachment of Prince Ching the highest official in Picking, and oi his son, fTsai Chen (president of the board of commerce)- )---the former fo1 receiving a large bripe, the latter fol accepting the gift of singing-gir from Tuan, governor-designate O. Heilung Chiang. The facts were un, equivocally stated in a memorial by prominent censor (Chao), memoria professedly intended to gratify tn, imperial wishes by purifying the ad
 ministration This document wa
 published in the Picking Gazette, to
 gether with 8 rescript which ordered an impartial Investigation of the fact
 by Prince Kung and Sun Chia-nai
 and 1t was given out in court circle
 that Prince Ching had himself re
 quested the Empress -Dowager to or 1 der both the publication of the mem
 orial and the inquiry. The latte
 took place ip due course with muc lsolemnity of procedure, and tn
 throne was duly informed that ther
 was no evidence to support tn
 charges of the censor, who had bee
 misled by his zeal, etc. The chic
 exponent of the existing regime an
 his son were therefore honorabl
 whitewashed, the censor cashiere(
 and the purity of administration win
 diceted But the history of the cast
 known to every mule-driver and Va
 men clerk in Picking, differs in certai
 important facts from that which wi
 go down in history in the Imperial re
 cords. It is true that Prince Chin
 asked for the publication of the mem
 oriaL but it is equall true that it wa
 withheld for ten days, during whlc
 time arrangements were made for tn
 removal from Picking Of the singing
 girl and other pieces de conviction
 The relations which had existed bt tween Prince Tsai Chen and Tual then chief of the police at Tien-tsil
 were as much the talk of Picking z
 the undigniied proceedings of the In | perial mission to Mancnurfa. Equal 1 notorious is the fact that all goverl ment appointments of any value al
 to great extent determined for vall
 received by Prince Ching and otht
 nigh dignitarles. That Yuan shou s have paid lberally for his unusual ? rapid promotion would, therefor $ have been understood without any il t tervention of the censorate, As
 the reasons which prompted Chao s denounce officials as powerful 7; y Prince Ching and his son, opiniol }, Qlffer. hut tho nrrn,,t nnhrnniZal wi