CHINA. 



145 



war l>etween Chili and Peru. Edward C. Dubois 

 <-laim> ^.">( )(!,()( i() for the railroad from Chimbote 

 lo 1 1 mini/., built bv him and lorn up by Admiral 

 I'atricin Lynch. The, Central and South A meri- 

 can Telegraph Company demands $100,000 as 

 com|>en.-ation for the interference of the Balma- 

 rt-ila (iovcrn n lent with its business during the 

 late revolution. Other claims are from owners 

 if shares in the nitrate beds. About 75 claims 

 \M-IV made by Americans through the Depart- 

 ni'-nt of State, but many of them are of doubt- 

 ful merit. The claims of Chilians were compara- 

 l i vely insignificant in number and amount. The 



i unission met in Washington in the office of 



tin- Bureau of American Republics, and began its 

 work on Oct. 9, 1893. 



CHINA, an empire in eastern Asia. The Gov- 

 ernment is an absolute monarchy under theTsing 

 or Manchu dynasty, which has reigned since 1644. 

 The throne descends on the death of an emperor 

 to the prince among the sons of his three first 

 wives wnorn he has appointed his heir. When 

 the young Emperor Tungchi died without issue, 

 Jan. 22, 1875, the order of direct hereditary suc- 

 cession was broken for the first time since the 

 foundation of the dynasty. He was his father's 

 only son, and none of his father's brothers was 

 eligible for the throne, because the law requires 

 an heir to be younger than the person from whom 

 he inherits. It was necessary, therefore, to select 

 one of the sons of his father's younger brothers, 

 and the choice announced by the two Dowager 

 Empresses, and said to have been recorded in his 

 will fell upon the son of Prince Chun, the sev- 

 enth son of the Emperor Taoukwang. The infant 

 Emperor, bom Aug. 2, 1872, was proclaimed, and 

 the Eastern Empress and Tungchi's mother, the 

 Western Empress, became regents during his 

 minority. The latter survived and ruled until 

 after the Emperor reached his legal majority, in 

 February, 1887, and after he married, on Feb. 26, 

 1889, she resigned the Government into his hands, 

 March 4, 1889. 



The Emperor is advised by a Grand Council, 

 called the Chun-Chi-Chu. a Privy Council or Cab- 

 inet, the Nui-Ko, and a Ministry of the Imperial 

 Household, the Tsung-yen-fu. The administra- 

 tion is carried on by six ministries, the Liu-pu 

 Courts, which deal respectively with the civil 

 service, finance, worship and ceremonies, war, 

 justice, and public works. There is a Foreign 

 Office, which deals with affairs connected with 

 subject countries, while true foreign relations are 

 referred to a board called the Tsungli-Yamen. 

 The Tu-Cha-Yuen, or Board of Censors, is not 

 only the supreme court of appeal for the empire, 

 but is an important factor in the legislative and 

 administrative machinery, because it has power 

 to pass under review and publicly criticise any 

 imperial edict, and address memorials to the 

 Emperor upon errors or abuses in any branch of 

 the Government. 



The government and revenues of the provinces 

 are to a great extent administered independently 

 of the central authorities, but the latter retain 

 dominion and control through their power to 

 appoint and remove the administrators. The 

 Governor-General of the imperial province of 

 Pechili, at present Li-IIung-Chang, is also su- 

 perintendent of the commerce of the ports of 

 Tientsin, Chifu, and Niuchwang. The Governor- 



VOL. XXXIII. 10 A 



General of the Liangkiang, embracing Kiangsu, 

 Kiangsi, and Nganwhei, is superintendent of the 

 southern ports. The governor-generalship of 

 M inche com prises Che-Kiaiig, Fokien, and Taiwan 

 or Formosa. Ilonan, Shantung, and Shaiihi have 

 each a governor, like the individual provinces of 

 a governor-generalship, while the great province 

 of Szechuen, like the imperial province, is ad- 

 ministered by a governor-general. Other gov- 

 ernor-generalships are Lianghu, composed of the 

 Erovinces of Hupeh and Hunan; Shankan, em- 

 racing Shensi and Kansu ; Liangkwang, com- 

 posed of Kwangtung and Kwangsi ; and Yunkwe. 

 containing Yunnan and Kweichau. Sintsiang, or 

 the New Territory, embracing the Tianshan dis- 

 tricts, with Kulja or Hi, has a governor. In 

 Manchuria there is a commander in chief of the 

 field army, while Shingking, or Southern Man- 

 churia, is administered by a commandant-general, 

 and Kirin, or Central Manchuria, and Holunki- 

 ang, or Northern Manchuria, each by a governor, 

 who is at the same time the Manchu general. 

 The Li-Fan-Yuan, or subject countries, of Mon- 

 golia are ruled by military governors. Tibet is 

 administered by native officials, who are super- 

 vised by two Chinese residents in Lhassa. and 

 in Sining, or the Koko-Nor territory, there is a 

 Chinese governor, while a garrison of several 

 thousand Chinese troops, distinct from the native 

 Tangut forces, is distributed in various places 

 throughout the country. The Dalai Lama, or 

 spiritual ruler of the country, can not be en- 

 throned without the previous assent of the Em- 

 peror of China. 



Li-Hung-Chang. The international relations 

 of China, as well as all the progressive movements 

 of the empire in appropriating the Western arts 

 and sciences, have been for twenty years mainly 

 concentrated in the personality and labors of one 

 man. His achievement has been so remarkable 

 that a connected sketch of his life is desirable. 

 Li is viceroy of the metropolitan province of 

 Chihli. in which Pekin is located, Senior Grand 

 Secretary of State, High Imperial Commissioner 

 of Foreign Affairs, Director-General of the Coast 

 Defenses of the North and Imperial Navy, North- 

 ern Superintendent of Trade, and Commander 

 in Chief of the Army of North China. These 

 various offices are not merely nominal, but are 

 watched over with the utmost vigilance by their 

 executive, who is a man seventy-three years of 

 age. Viceroy Li, according to the " Pekin Ga- 

 zette," was born at Seu-chew, in the Hofei dis- 

 trict, in the year 1819, of pure Chinese blood, and 

 has always been identified with the native party. 

 He was among the first in the three successive 

 literary examinations, and in 1847 was enrolled 

 in the Hanlin or Imperial Academy, the highest 

 degree in the empire. He was an official in the 

 imperial printing-office when the Taiping rebel- 

 lion broke out in 1851 a convulsion that almost 

 tended the empire in twain, cost 20,000,000 lives, 

 and 3,000,000,000 taels, and took thirteen years 

 to suppress. In this struggle Li became promi- 

 nent. First called into the field to act on the 

 staff of the generalissimo, he was in the last years 

 of the war the Governor of Kiang-su, which, with 

 Che-Kiang, constituted the most important field 

 of operations. Li's appreciation of Western mili- 

 tary skill was shown in the part he took in the 

 organization and use of the "Ever Victorious 



