Year: 1879

REVIVAL OF A PAINFUL RUMoR TOUCHING THE


BROTHER OF THE SUN AND MooN-How HIS


REIGN Defends RELIGIOUS sCRUpLEs AT


PEKIN


1t is possible that some difficulties have occurred
in the Palace at Pekin. In July last suggestions
appeared in the pekin Gazette pointing to the
possible abdication Of the youthful Emperor. and
the enthronement of somo other member OF
the family This said to be owing to criticisms
upon the unprecedented circumstance that the
present Emperor was chosen from tho sarne
generation his predecessor instead OF later,
so that the Chinese cannot follow the
time honored custom Of worshipping his ancestor.
Trihing the difficulty appears to foreign eyes it is
considered most difficult problem in pekin. On
the death of the Emperor. after short personal
reign of two years. the two old ladies. wives of the
imbecile voluptuary Hsien Feng. who died in 1861,
were summoned from their retirement to serve the
State by fixing on tho member Of the imperial family
who entitled to succeed to the throne. What
they actually did do was so to order the sue
cession as to reinstate themselves in the
position OF regents by placing on the
throne an infant Of the same generation US
the late Emperor and by getting the various
leading men Of the government to take part
in . constitutional juggle by which this innoya-
ton was justified. Shortly after tho accession
Of Ruangsu the ttlo of the reign Of the present in
FAINT the girl Empress. wife of Tungchih, who should
have been regent, was announced having died
and it was currently reported at the time that her
mysterious death in some connected with
tho lust OF power which actulted the old
women who now rule China when they with
held for their own agarandizament the adop-
ton Of son to the late Emperor Tungchih.
The whole story, however. was brought be-
fore the country in the most prominent, and. in
deed. painful manner recently. One of the
taries OF tho Board of Civil Office official Of the
highest rank. named Wn Kotu. has for the last four
years been brooding the misconduct in this
matter of the Empress Regent. Unable to live
longer and keep silence he swallowed draught
of opium and then hanged himself in May last. by
his corpse was found "Ceath bed letter to the
Empresses. which. in order to allay suspicious Of
the manner in which he came TO his end,
published in tho official Gazette 1t is much
too long to translate here ut length. The
folio wing extract will suffice to make tho
present Emperor. of Hsien Fung. is not to estab
lish u successor to his late Majesty Tungehih. No
explicit statement in writing has ever been made
securing the future course of the dynasty. There
is now no open for Your AIajcsties. il this
wrong is to be made right. but to issue decree
announcing in clear terms that the dyuastic
cession will hereafter moro revert to the heir
of Tungchih; thus alone will the traditional law
of China be observed. that son shall transmit
to high commission was appointed
to consider the contents of wus last speech. There
is no doubt that his suicide was caused by a bolef
that it would be the only method of securing tho
attention of tho government to what he believed to
be state error Of the grayest kind.