138 



CHILI. 



CHINA. 



Secretaries of State and of the Navy, and on the 

 day following a dispatch was sent to Minister 

 Egan, in which he was instructed to demand of 

 the Chilian Government, which had expressed as 

 yet no regret or purpose to investigate or bring 

 the guilty parties to justice, whether it possessed 

 qualifying evidence or could give any "explana- 

 tion of an event which has deeply pained the 

 people of the United States, not only by reason 

 that it resulted in the death of one of our sailors 

 and the pitiless wounding of others, but even 

 more as an apparent expression of unfriendliness 

 toward this Government, which might put in 

 peril the maintenance of amicable relations be- 

 tween the two countries." The dispatch con- 

 cluded with a demand for reparation. The at- 

 tack on American sailors, which was regarded in 

 Washington as a national insult, since they wore 

 the uniform of the American navy, occurred at 

 a time when the relations between the two gov- 

 ernments were already strained through the ac- 

 tion of the Junta with reference to the refugees 

 sheltered by Minister Egan. The provisional 

 authorities not only refused to grant safe con- 

 ducts for these men, but demanded their sur- 

 render on the ground that they were criminals, 

 and when the American minister would not give 

 them up a guard was placed near his' house and 

 persons going in and out were arrested, among 

 them three American citizens. 



The " Yorktown " and " Boston " were ordered 

 to Chili to back up the demand for satisfaction. 

 The reply of the Junta was that the Govern- 

 ment of the United States formulated demands 

 and advanced threats that were not acceptable, 

 and could not be accepted in the present case 

 nor in any case of like nature ; and that the 

 affair would be investigated and dealt with ac- 

 cording to the procedure of the municipal law of 

 Chili, but that the results of the inquiry would 

 be communicated to the United States Govern- 

 ment, without recognizing, however, any right of 

 intervention in the course of justice. This reply, 

 couched in terms so offensive that no answer was 

 returned, coupled with the refusal of Judge of 

 Crimes Foster, who conducted the secret pre- 

 liminary examination, to allow American officers 

 to be present, gave rise to fears of severely 

 strained relations between the two nations that 

 might end in a diplomatic rupture, possibly in 

 war. Judge Foster subsequently consented to 

 the appeai'ance of an officer of the " Baltimore " 

 at the secret inquiry, and agreed to furnish the 

 American representatives with copies of all the 

 depositions. Before taking any action in the 

 matter, the United States Government waited to 

 give the Chilian Government time and opportu- 

 nity to communicate the results of the judicial 

 investigation and to reply in pertinent and satis- 

 factory terms to the representations contained in 

 the American note, relating to the incident. If 

 these expectations should be disappointed, or if 

 further needless delays should ensue, President 

 Harrison, in his annual message, announced his 

 purpose to bring the matter to the attention of 

 Congress in a special message. The Procurator 

 found three Chilians guilty of stabbing Ameri- 

 cans, and Davidson guilty of assaulting a Chilian. 

 After his inauguration and the reconstitution of 

 the Cabinet, President Montt directed Minister 

 Montt to withdraw Malta's note. 



CHINA, an empire in eastern Asia. The 

 reigning sovereign, Kwangsu, born in 1871, was 

 proclaimed Emperor on the death of Tungchi, on 

 Jan. 22, 1875, and assumed the government per- 

 sonally in March, 1887, when he became of age, 

 but first took the direction of affairs in Feb- 

 ruary, 1889, when he married and the Empress 

 Dowager, who had acted as Regent during his 

 minority, retired. 



Area and Population. The area of the 

 eighteen provinces forming China proper is esti- 

 mated at 1,297.990 square miles and the popula- 

 ' tion at 383,000,000 souls. The outlying depend- 

 encies, exclusive of Corea, are Manchuria, with 

 an area of 362,310 square miles and about 12,- 

 000,000 population ; Mongolia, of which the area 

 is 1,288.000 square miles and the population 

 2,000,000; Tibet, having an area of 651,500 

 square miles and about 6,000,000 inhabitants; 

 Jungaria, covering 147,950 square miles, with 

 600,000 inhabitants ; and eastern Turkestan, oc- 

 cupying an area of 431,800 square miles, with a 

 population of 580,000. The Confucian religious 

 svstem is generally accepted among the Chinese, 

 though there are multitudes of Buddhists and 

 many adherents of Taoism. The Roman Catho- 

 lic Church counted in 1881 1,092,818 converts, 

 ministered to by 41 bishops, 664 European priests; 

 and 559 native priests. The Protestant Chris- 

 tians were estimated in 1881 at 19,000 and in 

 1887 at 33,750. The number of foreigners resid- 

 ing in the open ports on Jan. 1, 1890, was 7,905, 

 of whom 3,276 were British subjects, 1,061 

 Americans, 794 Japanese, 596 Germans, 551 

 Frenchmen, and 348 Spaniards. About half of 

 them were resident at Shanghai. 



Finance. The total receipts of the imperial 

 treasury from the land tax, the grain tax, and 

 duties on salt, customs duties, and other imposts 

 are supposed to amount to $125,000,000 annual- 

 ly. The land tax, pai-tly payable in silver, yields 

 about 20,000,000 haikwan t'aels. (The hai'kwan 

 or customs tael is a weight of silver of the value 

 of $1.17.) This tax varies from 75 cents in the 

 north to $3.25 in the south per acre. The mari- 

 time customs, which are under European super- 

 vision, amount to 23,200,000 haikwan taels a 

 year. This includes the likin or internal transit 

 duty on opium, which can be commuted and 

 paid in at the port of entry according to the new 

 convention with Great Britain. The rice tribute 

 is estimated at 2,800,000 taels a year, the salt tax 

 at 9,600,000 taels, the native maritime and inland 

 customs at 6,000,000 taels, transit duties on opium 

 and other foreign and native products at 11,000,- 

 000 taels, and license fees at 2,000,000 taels. 

 The annual expenditure on the army is about 

 $75,000,000. 



The foreign debts of China are 627.675, bor- 

 rowed at 8 per cent, in 1874, and 1,604,276, bor- 

 rowed in 1878 at the same rate of interest, both 

 loans being secured on the customs revenue ; a 

 silver loan of 1,505,000 raised in 1884; loans 

 amounting to 2,250,000 contracted in 1886 ; and 

 one of 250,000 obtained in Germany in 1887. 



The Army. The Chinese Empire is divided 

 into five military districts, corresponding with 

 political divisions, viz. : Manchuria, the eighteen 

 provinces, Chinese Turkestan, Mongolia, and 

 Tibet. The Manchus or soldiers of the Eight 

 Banners, forming the old imperial army and en- 





