CHILI. 



CHINA. 



91 



he, lif <'<>uld not consent to consider such a question 

 until it liail tirM iiccn M-ttli-d whether ooTretpoodenoe 

 with chili rcnild l>f i-i'iidiu'ted ujxm u basis of niutuul 

 rwpeot. 



No reply having been received, President 

 Harris. ni >enl a message to Congress on Jan. 2i>, 

 laying before tliat body the whole correspond- 

 ence with Chili since the breaking out of the 

 revolution against Balmaceda. Mr. Egan's con- 

 duct was commented u[um and approved by the 

 President 



His right to give shelter in the American 

 legation to adherents of the Balmaceda (Jov- 

 ermucnt liad not been denied by the Chilian 

 Government, but Mr. Egan's request for a safe 

 conduct out of the country for tne refugees was 

 denied, and not until about Jan. 16 were they 

 placed on board the United States steamship 

 Yorktown," without a formal safe conduct, 

 and merely by the acquiescence of the Chilian 

 Government. They were subsequently conveyed 

 to Callao, Peru. The disrespect manifested 

 toward the United States Government by the 

 close and offensive surveillance of the legation 

 premises formed another ground of complaint. 

 The correspondence with the Chilian Govern- 

 ment relating to the " Baltimore " affair did not 

 in any manner take the form of a manly and sat- 

 isfactory expression of regret, much less of apolo- 

 gy, and the event was so serious that if the in- 

 juries sustained by the men had been wholly the 

 result, of an accident in a Chilian port the inci- 

 dent would have been grave enough to have 

 called for some public expression of sympathy 

 and regret from the local authorities. It was 

 not enough to say that the affair was lamentable, 

 for humanity would require that expression 

 even if the beating and killing of the sailors had 

 been justifiable. It was not enough to say that 

 the incident was regretted, coupled with the re- 

 mark that the affair was not unusual in its 

 character in ports where foreign sailors were ac- 

 customed to meet. It was not for a generous 

 and sincere Government to seek for words of 

 small or equivocal meaning in which to convey 

 to a friendly power an apology for an offense so 

 atrocious. 



After a similar affair in New Orleans, in 1851, 

 Mr. Webster immediately sent an apology to the 

 Spanish Government, and expressed the regrets 

 of the President at such disgraceful and flagrant 

 breach of duty and propriety. Such treatment 

 would have been more creditable to the Chilian 

 authorities. In the note of Oct. 23 sent by the 

 United States Government after the receipt of 

 the report of the board of officers appointed by 

 Capt. Schley to investigate the affair, the Chil- 

 ian Government was called upon for any facts in 

 its possession which might have tended to 

 modify the unfavorable impressions which the 

 report had created : and although the investiga- 

 tion was regardeil by the police authorities as 

 dnsed, it was reopened and protracted through 

 a period of nearly three months. Although the 

 Tinted States Government might justly have 

 complained of this unreasonable delay, yet, in 

 view of the fact that the Government of Chili 

 was provisional, and with a disposition to be 

 forbearing, and hopeful of a friendly termina- 

 tion, the President awaited the report which had 

 been recently made. The President's opinion 



was, that the demand made by the United States 

 Government should be adhered to and enforced 

 if the dignity as well as the prestige and the in- 

 fluence of the United States were not to be 

 wholly sacrificed; that those who display in 

 foreign ports the flag or wear the colors of the 

 United States must ue protected against insult, 

 brutality, and death inflicted in resentment of 

 acts of their Government, and not for any faults 

 of their own. The prevailing feeling in the 

 United States was that the Prendent must In- 

 sustained in his demands, and a war with Chili 

 was feared unless a satisfactory reply to the note 

 should be received shortly. The reply came on 

 the following day, and, with the answer of the 

 United States Government, it was presented to 

 Congress in a second message on Jan. 28. 



In his response to the note of Jan. 21, Sefior 

 Pereira, the Chilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

 withdrew, with expressions of regret, the offen- 

 sive note of Sefior Matta of Dec. 11, and also the 

 requesi, for the recall of Mr. Egan. He expressed 

 the regret of the Chilian Government over the 

 "Baltimore" affair, and offered to leave the 

 matter to arbitration or to the decision of the 

 United States Supreme Court at Washington, if 

 the United States Government should not be 

 willing to await the decision of the examining 

 judge at Valparaiso. President Harrison declared 

 himself satisfied with this note: and as regarded 

 the question of arbitration of the " Baltimore " 

 affair, he left it with the Chilian Government to 

 finish the trial of the case. The accused weres 

 sentenced to imprisonment for participating in 

 the riot. Chili paid the United States Govern- 

 ment $75,000 in gold, to be .distributed among 

 the heirs of the two sailors killed and among 

 those wounded in the riot of Oct. 16, 1891. The 

 body of Riggin, the man who was shot in the 

 riot, was brought home to the United States and 

 buried in American soil in July, 1892. 



CHINA, an empire in eastern Asia. The Em- 

 peror is an absolute monarch, but is governed 

 by the traditions and laws of the empire as laid 

 down in the " Book of Regulations of the Tsing 

 Dynasty " and other documents. He acts on the 

 advice of various consultative bodies, of which 

 the chief are the Chun Chi Chu or Grand Council, 

 the Tuchayuen or Board of Censors, the Neiko or 

 Cabinet of two Chinese and two Manchu mem- 

 bers, and the Hanlin or university. Under the 

 direction of the Cabinet ministers are seven 

 boards of administration, which deal respectively 

 with the civil service, revenue and finance, rites 

 and ceremonies, military affairs, public works, 

 criminal law, and naval affairs. The Emperor 

 Kwangsu. born in 1871, succeeded the Emperor 

 Tungchi on Jan. 22, 1875, and nominally assumed 

 the government in March, 1887, when lie reached 

 his majority, but the Empress Hegent still re- 

 mained the virtual ruler until he married, in 

 February, 1889. 



Finances. The annual revenue of the Gov- 

 ernment at Pekin is supposed to amount to about 

 $125,000,000. Only the receipts from foreign cus- 

 toms are made public. These amounted in 1890 

 to 21,996,226 haikwan taels, equal to$25,662.:2'.<i. 

 The yield of the land tax payable in silver is 

 estimated at 20,000.000 taels. 'the value of the 

 rice tribute at 2,800,000 taels. that of the salt tax 

 at 9,600,000 taels, the receipts from native niari- 



