10 SEPTEMBER 1898, Page 2

On Wednesday Li Hung Chang was dismissed from the Tsung-li-Yamen

by an Imperial Decree. In England and throughout the Continent this event is regarded as of great moment, and as denoting a triumph for British diplomacy. Undoubtedly it is so, and is a proof of the firm line which our Government has taken at Pekin. We must not forget, how- ever, that the ups and downs of Ministers in China are very rapid, and that another turn of the wheel may bring Li to the front again. It would be a capital mistake, then, to make Li a British bete noir, or to talk as if his return to office must necessarily be "another defeat for British policy,' —the phrase now fashionable when any one but an English- man gets a concession to make an impossible railway in a province with a three-hyphened name.