Ins implicated in the riots degraded. The 

 incut could not depend oil the local nllj- 

 'ior on the army to carry out a strong pol- 

 :id was compelled to confers that if the 

 I in their demands they would 

 about the fall of the dynasty and general 

 hy. The Kmpemr's edict was not sent by 

 :aph, but by couriers. After a long delay. 

 .- were executed for the murders at 

 Wii-ueh. No magistrate was degraded except 

 the WiiMieh mainlarin, who tried to stop the 

 . and offered his life as a sacrifice to the 

 furv of the mob. Five, however, were reported 

 I'ckiu authorities for negligence. The 

 iccrovs ruling over the Yangtse districts, 

 Lord Salisbury had made a menacing com- 

 munication to the Chinese minister at London, 

 I all damages claimed, without disputing 

 about amounts. The foreign ministers in another 

 collective note demanded complete satisfaction, 

 including punishment of the true ringleaders at 

 -uhu. ' 



'he riotous disturbances broke out again on 

 >t. 8, at Ichang, 600 miles from the first vio- 

 it demonstration. The same marks of a 

 deliberate plot were observable. A stranger 

 brought an unknown child to the Catholic mis- 

 sion. An outcry was raised that it had been 

 stolen, and a mob of beggars and disbanded 

 soldiers plundered and burned some of the build- 

 ings and those of the American Protestant mis- 

 sion and others belonging to the few European 

 residents, sparing only the British consulate. 

 The mob, which was led by disguised Hunan sol- 

 diers after obtaining a rich booty, turned their 

 attention to the Europeans, of whom twenty 

 escaped, not without injuries, to a steamboat. 

 The civil and military mandarins, although they 

 had a large force of soldiers within call, did noth- 

 ing to check the outrages, but said they were 

 No steps were taken afterward to 

 arrest the leaders. A force of British sailors 

 nt on a steamer to protect the remaining 

 buildings of the foreign settlement. 



The presence of European forces on the 

 Yangtse and the measures taken by the Pekin 

 authorities, under foreign pressure, to repress the 

 movement suited well with the plans of its secret 

 authors. The ferment in the Yangtse valley ex- 

 tended, and soon took the form of organized re- 

 volt. The Chinese Government, when threatened 

 with naval action of the powers in the troubled 

 districts, which portended nothing less than a 

 joint or British occupation of the Yangtse ports, 

 -ted its ability to preserve order, and or- 

 deretl the North China and Nankin squadrons to 

 patrol the Yangtse. In Wuchang, the seat of 

 the viceroy of Hunan and Hupeh, the neighbor- 

 in^ city of Hankow, one of the largest in the 

 world, and in all the centers of population, a 

 restless spirit of sedition was observed. Anti- 

 foreign placards were posted everywhere. An 

 Knglish custom-house official at Shanghai named 

 Mason was detected in attempting to smuggle 

 from Hong-Kong a large number of Winchester 



CHINA. 



143 



were distributed accusing missionaries of shame- 

 ful misdeeds and the Ktiropean phy-iciaiis of 

 criminal malpractice. At Newchang, in Man- 

 churia, Dr. <rcjg, an English missionary, was 

 murdered in August, but this act was not sup- 

 posed to he connected with the machinations of 

 secret societies. In Hunan a society was organ- 

 ized to prevent the extension of the telegraphs 

 ami cut down the poles already erected. In the 

 province of Fukicn, at Tehhua, not far from 

 Foochow, a serious riot occurred in October. 

 About 8,000 insurgents attacked the town and 

 held it for several days, until a detachment of 

 imperial troops arrived. 



When the troubles began to assume the ap- 

 pearance of civil war the provincial authorities 

 proceeded with energy against the Ko!ao Ilui. 

 One of the chiefs of the society, Chen Kinlung, 

 was arrested in Shanghai, and by order of the 

 Kiungugan viceroy was put to the torture to 

 make him reveal his secrets and accomplices, 

 but in vain. Among the persons arrested for in- 

 stigating the riot at Chinkiang were 17 Manchu 

 officials. In Hankow two secret printing offices 

 and a quantity of anti-Christian pamphlets were 

 discovered. 



In November a movement began in Manchuria 

 and Mongolia similar to that in the Yangtse val- 

 ley, but more portentous, because the active troops 

 took part in it. Two Belgian priests were massa- 

 cred at Taku. the missions were everywhere de- 

 stroyed, and the missionaries fled to save their 

 lives. Large numbers of native Christians were 

 slaughtered. The local authorities, who did 

 nothing to check the atrocities, fed and encour- 

 aged bands of insurgents and mutinous troops 

 that marched about the' country to join the 

 main body, which grew into an army and ad- 

 vanced in the direction of Pekin. 



Secret Societies. The Hui. or secret broth- 

 erhoods, in China have always followed revolu- 

 tionary aims, and often have assumed the char- 

 acter of a religious sect for the purpose of cloak- 

 ing their real objects. Under the Tsing dy- 

 nasty open political activity has been repressed 

 with inexorable rigor. The Tartar conquest was 

 consummated by means of a persecution so mer- 

 ciless that patriots had to resort to a sign lan- 

 guage to communicate one with another. Soon 

 after the overthrow of the native Ming dynasty, 

 in 1644, the oldest of the existing secret socie- 

 ties, the Kihing, was founded for its restoration. 

 Patriots have never ceased to deplore the loss of 

 the freer national life under the Chinese em- 

 perors, and no occupant of the throne has been 

 exempt from the dread of revolution, or has 

 failed to pursue the secret fraternities that have 

 plotted insurrections, and once or twice have 

 nearly compassed the overthrow of the foreign 

 rulers. In peaceful times persecutions have 

 ceased because thty would rekindle the fires of 

 revolution. In times of political unrest the pos- 

 session of the badge of membership often costs 

 the wearer's life, and often high officials have 

 suddenly disappeared, doomed to death or life- 



Mart ini rifle* and a quantity of dynamite long banishment in Tartary. When a society 

 ied for the Kolao Ilui in Chinkiang. Six has been nearly exterminated, like that of Pei- 



linkoa, or the White Water Lily, which in the 

 early part of this century, under cover of re- 

 ligious and vegetarian propaganda, organized 

 revolts against the Emperor Kianking, others, 



or seven other Europeans were arrested on sus- 

 picion of being engaged in a similar business. 

 Among the candidates for degrees who came to 

 Shanghai for the annual examinations circulars 



