junior member in the Board of Rites, drew up a memorial proposing numerous changes in the administration of the government. His chiefs, all old men, and mostly Tatars, refused to transmit the document to the throne. The Emperor, on learning that they had dared to intervene between him and his officials, flew into a towering rage, stripped them of their official honors, and threatened to dismiss them from the public service.

Those old men, smarting under the disgrace, posted away to the country. palace and threw themselves at the feet of the Empress Dowager, begging her to come out of her retirement and save the Empire from the hands of a young man who was driving the chariot of state so furiously that there was danger of his setting the world on fire. She had been regent twice before, but she had never retired altogether from the world of politics. With her neither card parties nor novels nor theatrical shows could compete in interest with the political chessboard; in all moves on that board her fingers had been more or less concerned. Eagerly did she embrace the invitation, and as with a bolt out of the blue heavens she struck down the impetuous youth, compelling him to sign a paper begging her to teach him how to govern. By way of justifying her action, she issued an edict, in which, among other things, she said that her subjects must not suppose that she was opposed to rational progress. It does not follow, she said, that we should stop eating because we have been choked. She meant to say that her adopted son had crammed his reforms down the throats of his people too fast for their digestion. She intended to administer them with judicious moderation, in such quantity and degree as would make them easier of assimilation.

Well had it been for her and her dynasty had she adhered to this principle; on the contrary, throwing herself into the hands of a reactionary party, instead

of progress she entered upon an antiforeign reaction in which a disastrous smash-up became inevitable. She began by canceling all the educational and other administrative reforms inaugurated by the young Emperor.

The only one of the institutions established by him which she permitted to remain was the new university. That institution she no doubt spared because it had been favored or, as one might say, founded by Li Hung Chang, who, by the way, though he still continues to be her faithful servant, has behind him a record of imperishable glory as the foremost patron of the new education in the Chinese Empire. It was he who recommended me for the presidency of the university, which I may describe as at present in a state of suspended animation, the Russians having seized on the buildings for soldiers' barracks and threatened to confiscate its funds, which were deposited in Russian banks.

THE GROWTH OF THE ANTI-FOREIGN FEELING IN CHINA.

A little before the coup d'état Germany had seized a seaport by way of reprisals. for the murder of two of her missionaries in the south of Shantung. Russia demanded the cession of Port Arthur as an offset. England insisted on having Wei Hai Wei, on the opposite side of the gulf, in order to keep watch on the movements of her northern rival. France, in the far south, protested against being left out in the cold, for was she not as great a power as any of them? She demanded that the equilibrium of the political balance should be maintained by giving her the Bay of Kwang chau, not far from the borders of her Anamite Empire. The Empress, who by this time had become Regent for the third time, was irritated beyond endurance, and while she feigned to yield to these demands rather than to make war without due preparation, she made it known to her people that if any

other nation should come forward with similar demands, she would declare war with or without preparation. In the meantime she made extensive purchases of war material, and sought by every means to propagate anti-foreign feeling among her people as the best safeguard against foreign aggression.

Never had the anti-foreign feeling been at so low an ebb as during the short reign of the young Emperor. awakening had shown itself among the Chinese people, which might be described as a shaking among the dry bones. Newspapers in the Chinese language had increased in two or three years from 17 to 76. The publication of the society for the diffusion of Christian and useful knowledge, consisting not of "Christian science," but science christianized, increased within the same time from $800 to $18,000. The whole people were penetrated with a desire for progress, and though they had been recently beaten in war by the Japanese, they proposed to imitate their victorious enemies and learn the best lessons of the west as the surest way of rehabilitation.

When the Marquis Ito visited China, a little more than two years ago, I complimented him on the influence which his country was exerting on China in consequence of being her nearest neighbor. I compared it to the tide, raised by the moon, as our nearest neighbor in the solar system; but I took care not to hint that his country, like the moon, was shining by borrowed light. Yet it is true that the reforms which China and her young Emperor so much admired were borrowed at second hand from these United States.

Immediately on the occupation of Kiao chau the Germans proceeded to lay out railways in different directions across the province of Shantung, which they claimed as their sphere of influence, and which some of their newspapers, by way of anticipation, described as "German China." The natives were aroused,

much more by these enterprises than by any abstract question of infringement of territorial rights. To them it appeared horrible that the spirits of their ancestors should be waked by the snorting of the iron horse, and that cemeteries should be desecrated by the passage of the iron road. They everywhere set upon the engineers and impeded the prosecution of their work. The most active in leading this opposition were the members of a secret society called "Boxers."

THE REVIVAL OF THE BOXERS.

That society is not a new one called into existence, as has been supposed, by the work of missions. On the contrary, it gave trouble more than a century ago to the Chinese Government, and in 1803 was formally placed upon the index of forbidden associations. Since then it has languished in obscurity until recent events called it into life, and until the favor shown it by the Empress Dowager transformed it into a great political party. The doctrine to which it owes its existence is not orthodox Confucianism, Buddhism, or Taoism, but a superstition based on hypnotism, mesmerism, or spiritualism, as it is variously called. Among its members are many whose nervous condition fits them for spiritualistic mediums, and through these the society gets oracles from the unseen world. They undergo a species of drill, which is intended to enable each member at will to go into the trance state. When in that condition they profess to be endowed with supernatural strength. and rendered bullet-proof. These mysteries, so piquant to the curious at all times, were particularly attractive in view of possible hostilities with foreign nations. The organization spread like wildfire among the people of Shantung, and the Manchu governor, finding in these people an auxiliary force, supplied them with arms.

The Empress Dowager and Prince.

Tuan encouraged them to come to the capital. In their devastating march they killed missionaries and laid waste Christian villages; nor did they abstain from many a village which was not Christian, but which excited their cupidity by the spoils which it offered. Reaching the vicinity of the capital, they tore up the railway leading to the west and burned. down the stations near the city. Then it was, not till then, that the ministers in the capital awoke to the seriousness of the situation. Missionaries had been uttering their Cassandra warnings, but the ministers always turned for information to the Tsung Li Yamen, the official organ or Foreign Office of the Chinese Government. They were there told that these Boxers practiced an innocent kind of gymnastics, and if they did sometimes show themselves turbulent and disposed to quarrel with native Christians, it was not without cause; but the Empress Dowager intended shortly to issue a decree dismissing them to their homes. Such decrees were issued, accompanied by secret instructions not to regard them.

THE SIEGE.

The meaning of the destruction of the railway was not to be misunderstood; the ministers, without waiting for the consent of the Chinese Government, ordered a guard of marines to be sent up from the seacoast, and they arrived not a day too soon. The next day the railway to the east was also broken up, and had their arrival been delayed forty-eight hours no foreigner in Pekin would have lived to tell the tale. They were only 350 in number, but their mere presence for a time held our enemies in check, and they served eventually to make good the defense of the legations.

On June 11, a fortnight after their arrival, an attaché of the Japanese Legation was killed at the railway station by Boxers and Chinese soldiers combined.

rarded as introducing the

first stage of the siege; for the next nine days the Boxers were specially prominent, setting fire not only to churches and mission houses, but burning up all the native storehouses which they suspected of containing foreign goods. Square miles of ground were left by them covered with the ruins of the richest business houses in Pekin. On June 19 a circular from the Foreign Office informed the foreign ministers that the admirals had demanded the surrender of the forts at the mouth of the river. This, said they, is an act of war. You must now quit the capital with all your people within four and twenty hours The ministers agreed to protest against the severity of this condition. The first to set out for the Foreign Office with this purpose in view was Baron von Ketteler, the German Minister. No sooner had he reached the great street than he was shot in the back by a man wearing the official costume of the Chinese Government, and fell dead. His interpreter was wounded, but succeeded in making his escape and giving the alarm.

The other ministers believed that a general massacre had begun, and with their people, who had already taken refuge under their several flags, they fled precipitately to the British legation, which, having been the residence of a high prince, covered a large space of ground and was surrounded by strong walls, forming a citadel capable of defense. It had accordingly been agreed upon as a place to make a stand in the last resort, and Sir Claude MacDonald not only generously welcomed his colleagues, but received all their people, whether civilian or missionary. The missionaries were accompanied by their converts, Catholic and Protestant, to the number of nearly two thousand. For the converts an asylum was secured in the grounds of a Mongol prince on the opposite side of a canal from the British legation. Professor James, the man chiefly instrumental in securing it, was

himself slain by the enemy in the afternoon of the same day. Had the enemy followed up their advantage they might, perhaps, in the midst of our first confusion, have overwhelmed all the legations; but they feared to come to close quarters.

Some of the outlying legations were destroyed by fire, but most of them were included within our line of defense. None of them, however, except the legation of Great Britain, was considered safe for the residence of a diplomatic family.

Within the gates of the British legation, which covered six or seven acres of ground and contained twenty or thirty different buildings, were congregated nearly one thousand foreigners, and from this time for eight weeks we were closely besieged, not by Boxers, but by the soldiers of the Chinese government. That very evening, at nightfall, they opened with a terrible fusillade, and this was renewed day after day, chiefly under cover of night; so that we came to speak of it rather contemptuously as a serenade." It was not, however, altogether ineffective, for day by day some of our men were killed or wounded, and in the sorties, which were occasionally made to drive our assailants back or to silence their batteries, the casualties were always serious.

What we most dreaded was the firebrand, and when the ruthless enemy, with more than vandal ferocity, set fire to the library of the Imperial Academy, for the purpose of burning us out, we all had to assist in fighting the flames. Women and children, including the wives of ministers, passed buckets from hand to hand. A change of wind came to our aid, and the legation was saved. At first the enemy assailed us only with fire and small arms; gradually, how ever, they got guns of considerable calibre in position, and at all hours of the day attacked us with shell and round shot.

Mrs. Conger, wife of the minister, in whose family I was kindly received as a guest, had embraced the ideal philosophy of Bishop Berkeley, and looked on all this pyrotechny as a play of the imagination. I envied her the comforting delusion, for when I went out and picked up a six-pound round shot, I found it too heavy and solid to be resolved into a fancy. Whether owing to her philosophy or to her Christian faith, she is one of the most admirable women I ever knew; calm and unperturbed in the midst of danger, she realized the description which Pope gave 200 years ago of his ideal woman, as "Mistress of herself though China fall.”

Mr. Conger, an old soldier, who fought through all the years of our civil war and marched with Sherman from Atlanta to the sea, met the trials and exigencies of this occasion with becoming fortitude and cool judgment. Diplomatist as well as soldier, he knows how to deal with the most serious questions that confront him as negotiator in this Chinese problem. His daughter, Miss Conger, had visited many water cures in quest of health. The fire cure to which she was now exposed proved to be the required remedy. On the first fire she threw herself weeping into her father's arms; the next day she listened to it calmly, and then from day to day she seemed to acquire new strength, until she came out of the siege restored to perfect health.

If I be asked how we spent our time, I answer, there was no frivolity and no idleness. Every man had his post of duty. Mine was to serve as inspector of passes at the legation gate for Chinese going back and forth between the legations within our lines. There it was my sad lot to see many fine young men go out full of life and hope, to come in wounded, maimed, and dying. We lost in all, killed and wounded, more than a third of our number.

If we are asked what we lived on, I answer, the coarsest of bread and the

poorest of meat.

The meat was that of horses, varied by an occasional mule; even that was so reduced in quantity that only three ounces per diem was allowed for each individual. Milk was a luxury; even condensed milk beyond our reach, and no fewer than six or seven infant children perished for want of it.

While the men fought or mounted guard the women made sand bags from day to day to the number of many thousands for the strengthening of our fortifications, and by their calm demeanor and hopeful words they strengthened the arms of their brave defenders.

On one occasion it was deemed necessary to make a desperate effort to regain possession of a portion of the city wall which dominated these legations. A company of some 60 men-American, British, and Russian-was formed under the lead of Captain Myers, of the U. S. Marines. When ready to make the attack, and hoping to take the enemy by surprise, he made a short speech.

My men," said he, "within yonder legation there are 300 women and children whose lives depend upon our success. If we fail, they perish and we perish with them; so when I say 'GO,' then go."

The Americans and English were thrilled by his words, and the Russians understood his gestures. All felt that it was a forlorn hope, and all were ready to lay down their lives to insure success.

The movement proved successful, and that portion of the wall remained in the possession of our men until our rescuers entered by the water-gate beneath it.

THE RELIEF.

When the siege began we expected relief in a few days; but when Seymour's column was driven back we tried to wait with patience for the coming of the grand army under the eight banners. Yet so closely were we shut up that we had almost no information as to its move

ments, and our souls were sickened by hope deferred. At length, when our rations had run almost to the lowest ebb, when we had horse meat for only two days more and bread for no more than a fortnight, so that starvation actually stared us in the face, one night, on August 14, a sentry rushed into Mr. Conger's room, where I also was trying to sleep, and cried out, "They are coming; they are coming; the army of relief! I hear their guns!" The minister and I were soon in the open air; we did not wait to put on our clothes, for we had never taken them off. We heard the machine guns playing on the outer wall, and never did music sound so sweet. It was like the bagpipes of Havelock's Highlanders to the ears of the besieged at Lucknow. The ladies were wakened, and soon men and women poured out from all the buildings and listened with irrepressible excitement to the music of the guns. Women threw themselves on each other's necks and wept, while men grasped hands with feelings too deep for utterance.

The next morning the great gates of the legation were thrown open, and in rode a company of Indian cavalry. They were, I thought, and I have no doubt every one of our besieged garrison thought the same, the finest men I had ever looked upon.

The siege was ended. The rest of the army entered by the great front gate of the city, the key of which had been captured from the flying enemy by Captain Squires, of our legation, who is one of the heroes of the siege. The next day we all joined in singing a Te Deum. in the tennis court of the legation, and Dr. Smith in a short address pointed out ten circumstances in each of which the finger of God was visible in our deliverHe might have extended them a hundred. After thanking God, it only remains to thank our noble President for having dispatched the army and navy to our succor without waiting

ance.