The most extraordinary illusions still prevail in Pekin. The Times
correspondent there, for example, states on November 5th that the appointment of Yu-chang, lately Governor of Honan, to be Governor of Hupei creates alarm in the Yangtse Valley, the man having driven every missionary and foreigner out of Honan with all circumstances of insult and cruelty. He adds : "There is every hope that the British Government will insist on the cancellation of the appoint- ment." Though at the very centre of affairs, the corre- spondent does not see that Yu-chang is appointed because of his hostility to foreigners, and that the British Government has no more power to "insist" on his removal than it would have if he lived in the moon. "Moral force" has no effect in China, and the means of employing physical force at Sian do not exist. When the passes to Sian are blocked so that there is nothing to eat or spend, the orders of the British Govern- ment to the Empress will have meaning. Till then they are wind. The Anglo-Chinese reason as if the Imperial Court were still in Pekin, and within the grip of civilised man.
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