

CHINA. 



131 



gression upon China because China had granted to 

 a British subject permission to make or support any 

 railroad or similar public work. M. Pavloff finally 

 laid down the conditions of accepting the British 

 loan, viz., that the line should not be mortgaged 

 and no foreign control should be allowed even in 

 the event of default in the repayments, which con- 

 ditions the Chinese Government finally accepted. 

 At the same time he informed the Chinese that, if 

 the Hong- Kong and Shanghai Bank was unable to 

 raise the capital on these conditions, the Russo- 

 Chinese Bank would provide it. Sir Claude Mac- 

 Donald declared to the Yatnen that England would 

 not tolerate any interference of other powers with 

 the British loan contract for the construction of a 

 railroad connecting two treaty ports in which Brit- 

 ish commercial interests are predominant. Hu-Yu 

 Fen, the new Director of Railroads, who was ap- 

 pointed at the instance of Russia, nevertheless ab- 

 rogated the preliminary contract with the Hong- 

 Kong and Shanghai Bank, yielding to Russian 

 pressure, and Great Britain agreed to the Russian 

 conditions. The British resisted the conclusion of 

 the contract with the Belgian syndicate for the 

 Pekin-Hankau Railroad and began to mobilize their 

 fleet to intimidate the Chinese Government. This 

 had no effect on the Tsung-li-Yamen, which sanc- 

 tioned the contract in August. In compensation a 

 concession was granted to a British syndicate for a 

 short line from British Kaulung to Canton. Fur- 

 thermore, the Pekin or Anglo-Italian synrlicate ob- 

 tained the right to carry their mining railroad be- 

 yond the borders of Honan to Sing- Yang, in Hupei, 

 on the river Han. 



Insurrectionary Movements. The agitation 

 caused by the encroachments of foreign powers on 

 the territory of China and the authority of the Gov- 

 ernment brought to the surface the revolutionary 

 undercurrents which manifest themselves only in 

 periods of storm and danger. An attack on the 

 American Methodist Medical Mission at Chung- 

 king in March was only one of the usual anti-for- 

 eign disturbances. In July both the Protestant 

 and the Catholic missions there were attacked, and 

 missionaries were assailed in adjacent cities. In 

 September the American and French missions at 

 Hochau were destroyed. A serious riot in May at 

 the treaty port of Shasi, on the upper Yangtse, 

 where consulates, foreign warehouses, and the cus- 

 tomhouse were destroyed, was probably instigated 

 by mandarins, who will lose their perquisites by the 

 transfer of the likin collectorate to the maritime 

 customs. More ominous was the phenomenon of 

 secret societies growing more numerous and active 

 in all the provinces, especially in the south, where 

 antidynastic sentiments are always rife. The mys- 

 terious Triad, which gave the first impetus to the 

 Taiping rebellion, and the White Lily confraternity 

 began to stir as they do in troublous times, and 

 alongside of these accustomed agencies of unrest 

 new political societies, imbued with new ideas, as- 

 sailed the authority of the supine and impotent 

 Manchu dynasty and the corrupt and incapable offi- 

 cial oligarchy. Such were the National Preservers, 

 who advocated Western learning and the adoption 

 of foreign methods, the Young China Society, cre- 

 ated by graduates of Yale and Harvard, and the 

 Progressive Society, led by men who have lived in 

 the United States, who dream of transforming the 

 Celestial Kingdom into a republic. The revolu- 

 tionaries of both types worked harmoniously to- 

 gether and looked for some support from Great 

 Britain, whose side they favored in her struggle 

 against the Russo-French alliance, as conducing 

 best to the preservation of Chinese independence. 

 The Black Flags of the Kwang provinces were used 

 to fighting the French in defense of Chinese institu- 



tions, while the advanced thinkers, who derived 

 their ideas from America and Shanghai, sympa- 

 thized with English aims and methods in China. 

 When the French took possession of their new 

 naval base at Kwangchau- Wan they met with hos- 

 tile demonstrations. Tan, the Viceroy of Liang- 

 Kwang, resigned his office as a protest against the 

 surrender of this place to the French. In Shang- 

 hai the French provoked serious riots by attempt- 

 ing to expropriate by force the ancient burying 

 ground of the Ningpo guild in their settlement. 

 In Kiangsi anti-foreign riots broke out at Chang- 

 Shu, where a mob destroyed the premises of the 

 China Inland Mission. In Hainan American mis- 

 sionaries were attacked. Sun-Yat-Sen, a revolu- 

 tionist of the new school, started an insurrection in 

 Kwangtung. On June 28 a rebellion was started 

 in Kwangsi. A lawless character named Li-Lap- 

 Yanset himself up as the Chinese deliverer who 

 would free the country from the Manchu dynasty, 

 which had long misgoverned the people and was 

 now reduced to a state of collapse. The provincial 

 authorities, who feared complications with France, 

 hastily collected an army of more than 5,000 men, 

 but before it could take the field the rebels cap- 

 tured Yung-Hsien, Peiliu, Luchuan, and half a 

 dozen other towns. They marched on Moning and 

 Tienpak, and advanced into Kwangtung, threaten- 

 ing Wuchau. Among the rebels were many Black 

 Flags and some trained Annamite soldiers, who had 

 deserted from the French army. Six gunboats 

 were dispatched from Canton to Pakhoi, carrying 

 nearly 3,000 Manchu troops. When these reached 

 the disturbed district they proceeded with barbar- 

 ous severity against the insurgents, slaughtering 

 them by hundreds and casting their bodies into the 

 West river. The first troops to reach the field 

 were the local militia, who met with a severe re- 

 verse near Wuchau, losing 1,500 men. The rebels 

 numbered nearly 40,000 by the middle of July, but 

 they were not able to hold their ground against 

 7,400 Chinese troops. These recaptured Yung- 

 Hsien, killing 1,000 rebels, and Peiliu. The rebels 

 fell back from the river district, but made a stand 

 in the PIsi-Shan hills, where, with the aid of some 

 field pieces, they repelled the imperial forces from 

 an intrenched position. In the southern part of 

 the province the soldiers were unable to get at 

 them, but the disturbed district near Wuchau was 

 cleared of rebels by a ruthless slaughter of guilty 

 and innocent alike. The rebellion broke out afresh 

 at Yulin and other places where the troops were 

 not in force, and Wang, the governor of the prov- 

 ince, was scarcely able to report truthfully that he 

 had subdued the rising within three months, the 

 term given to him by the Pekin Government. 



Internal Affairs. The progress of education in 

 China has been so great that even among the Con- 

 servatives are many who would supplant the study 

 of Chinese classics and literary style with science 

 and the useful arts. Newspapers are being estab- 

 lished in the most backward cities, and their writers 

 discuss political conditions and theories of govern- 

 ment with perfect freedom. The friends of prog- 

 ress attained a remarkable influence even in the 

 Central Government. A curious decree of the Em- 

 peror ascribed the neglected and decayed condition 

 of the national defenses to the extravagance and 

 corruption of the mandarins, who keep dummy 

 names on the rolls of the army, and waste the pro- 

 ceeds of the many taxes that were unknown in the 

 period of China's greatness, so that in spite of the 

 large sums obtained from likin, opium duties, etc., 

 the ordinary expenses can not be met. He appealed 

 to the honesty and diligence of the high authorities 

 in Pekin and the provinces to work a reformation 

 in the administration so as to enable the country 



