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CHINA. 



CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETIES. 



of Hankow, was destroyed in a riot ; and a few 

 weeks later the French Catholic mission at Li- 

 chuen, in the same province, was attacked, and 

 the priests barely escaped with their lives. 



The Audience Question. In no capital in 

 the world are the relations between the represent- 

 atives of foreign powers and the government of 

 the country similar to or as unsatisfactory as 

 they are in Pekin. The Chinese, in pursuance of 

 their policy of seclusion, have arranged to shut 

 out the members of the diplomatic corps from 

 any direct communication with the Government 

 itself. For the nominal purpose of discussion, 

 but more frequently for the purpose of avoidance 

 and delay, foreign questions must be presented 

 to the Tsungli- Yamen, which is a numerous com- 

 mission composed of officials whose real authori- 

 ty and experience are confined to other depart- 

 ments of the Government, and which does not 

 pretend to decide the questions that are sub- 

 mitted to it. The functionaries who are respon- 

 sible for the decision the ministers of the Western 

 powers have no means of finding out. They are 

 treated as unwelcome intruders, emissaries of 

 the enemy, who obtained for them the footing 

 that they have by superior force. No official 

 of standing will associate with a European, and 

 except for purely ceremonious visits the for- 

 eign diplomats never see the inside of a Chinese 

 minister's house. At the end of the eighteenth 

 century the British minister, Lord Macartney, 

 was received by the Emperor. No audience 

 was again granted till in June, 1873, the Tung- 

 che Emperor received the entire diplomatic 

 corps. It was discovered later that Tse-Kung- 

 Ko, where the audience was given, was the hall of 

 tributary nations. The diplomatic corps pressed 

 for a proper reception, but declined to be re- 

 ceived again on such a mean footing, until in 

 March, 1891, after they had secured the right to 

 an annual audience, recorded in the imperial de- 

 cree of 1890, they consented to have the observ- 

 ance take place in the same building only for 

 one time, they stipulated. Since the Chinese 

 mind is impervious to the idea of the equality 

 of nations, the diplomats have been inclined to 

 recede from this position and accept the advan- 

 tages of an annual repetition of the function, 

 with the exception of the French and Russian 

 representatives, who hold firmly to their declara- 

 tion. In October, 1891, the Austrian minister 

 presented his credentials to the Emperor in the 

 Cheng-Kuan palace. In December, 1892, the 

 newly appointed British minister, Nicholas Rod- 

 erick O'Conor, was received in the same palace 

 and' with somewhat more distinction. 



Famine and Flood. A severe drought, which 

 lasted six months, reduced the population of the 

 northern part of Shansi and a section of Mongo- 

 lia to poverty and distress in the early months of 

 1893. The people of the famine-stricken region 

 wandered southward in the hope of obtaining 

 succor, and numbers perished of cold and hun- 

 ger. Traders who met them bartered food for 

 all their possessions, and even their children a 

 camel load of wheat for a girl of marriageable age. 



In March the Hoang-Ho overflowed its banks, 

 and flooded about 400 villages. In July and 

 August more disastrous floods occurred in the 

 valley of the Yangtse-Kiang and in the country 

 drained by the Peiho and the Grand Canal. The 



plain between Pekin and Tientsin was converted 

 into a lake, and countless people were swept 

 away by the rushing waters. The loss of life 

 would have been much greater but for the inde- 

 fatigable labors of the Viceroy Li-Hung-Chang, 

 and the great number of boats which he and the 

 Taotai of Tientsin and the customhouse authori- 

 ties were able to send out. At Kinchow, a city 

 on the Yangtse below Ichang, the embankments 

 of one of the tributaries of the great river gave 

 way, and the escaping waters demolished hun- 

 dreds of houses, and swept over the plains, carry- 

 ing away whole villages and their inhabitants. 



CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETIES. 

 Including nearly a thousand societies in foreign 

 lands, the secretary of the United Society of 

 Christian Endeavor reports the whole number 

 of local societies for 1893 as 26,284, with a mem- 

 bership of 1,577,040. Outside of the United 

 States, there are in Canada 1,882 societies ; i'n 

 England, more than 600; in Australia, more 

 than 525 ; in India, 71 ; in Turkey, 41 ; in New 

 Zealand, 39 ; in Japan, 34 ; in Madagascar, 32 ; 

 in Scotland, 30; in Mexico, 22; in the West 

 Indies, 19; in Africa, 15; in China, 14; in Ire- 

 land, 10 ; in France, 9 ; in Samoa, 9 ; in the 

 Sandwich Islands, 6 ; in Bermuda, 3 : in Brazil, 

 2 ; in Persia, 2 ; and in Chili, Columbia, Norway, 

 and Spain, 1 each. The net gain in the number 

 of societies for 1893 was 5,276, against 4,806 in 

 1892. The model constitution has been trans- 

 lated, and is printed in the English, German, 

 Swedish, Norwegian, French, Danish, Dutch, 

 Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Tamil, Telugu, 

 Hindi, Hindustanee, Bengalee. Marathi, Arabic, 

 Turkish, Bulgarian, Armenian, and modern 

 Greek languages. The greatest proportionate 

 increase in the number of societies in the United 

 States in the past year was in New Mexico ; the 

 greatest absolute increase was in Pennsylvania. 

 Besides the regular societies mentioned above, 

 4,136 junior societies are enrolled. Thirty evan- 

 gelical denominations are represented in the 

 fellowship of the societies, among which the 

 Presbyterians lead in the number of societies, 

 and are followed, in order, by the Congregation- 

 alists, Baptists, Disciples of Christ and Chris- 

 tians, Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist 

 Church in Canada, Presbyterian Church in 

 Canada, Methodist Protestant Church, etc. 

 Among the noteworthy events of the year's his- 

 tory of the society are mentioned the journey of 

 President Clark around the world ; the marked 

 favor gained in all evangelical denominations 

 save one ; the emphasis given to systematic be- 

 nevolence ; the energetic support given to mis- 

 sionary and evangelistic work ; the formation of 

 senior societies of Christian Endeavor ; the or- 

 ganization of floating societies of Christian En- 

 deavor among the life-saving stations on the 

 seacoast, of which there were 21 ; the formation 

 and growth of the Traveler's Union of Christian 

 Endeavor ; the society among the policemen ; 

 the societies in the army and navy and among 

 inmates of prisons and houses of correction ; 

 work for temperance ; and open hostility to 

 every plan for destroying in any way the sanc- 

 tity of the Sabbath day. The publication work 

 of the society, which is self-supporting, and the 

 circulation of local Christian Endeavor papers 

 and of the general denominational papers are 



