THE RETURN OF THE EMPRESS.
OUR contemporaries, we see, in commenting upon the return of the Chinese Empress, to Pekin are unable to resist that suggestion of the comic, almost the farcical, which every Chinese action, except, indeed, a massacre of Ambassadors, makes upon the Western mind. The willow-pattern plate is still before them. They dwell upon what-seems to them absurd pretence, on the carved wood- and gilt-paper used to conceal the breaches in stone palaces and the ,defacements in costly ornamentation, on the glittering draperies and showy dresses, all used. they say, for no purpose but to "preserve the face" of the Chinese Court in its subifects' eyes. Upon us, we confess, the stranae scene—the thousand " nobles " who must have arrived from all parts of the Empire, the double rows of kneeling soldiers four miles long,.the swarms of people in their gayest dresses, the buildings restored to all appearance, though only with wood and paper, above all the welcome to the Empress-Regent- makes a very different impression. It all seams to us an effort, neither without pathos nor grandeur, on the part of the Chinese to assure themselves and the world that nothing of importance has happened, that the Empire and its civilisation are as they have been since the beginning and will be till the end. True, the glory of China has been darkened ; but the eclipse passes and the sun remains. True, the armies of China have bee.a scattered ; but the crowds which scatter before a must elephant are still in the scale of creation the beast's superiors, and will live when he has fallen into the river. True, there is a heavy tribute to be paid ; but the house stands upright, and the household is intact though the dacoits have carried off the spoons and the silver hoard. True, thousands of Chinese have perished by violence ; but does the sea miss the foam which the storm has scattered, or cease the "innumerable laughter " of its -waves because a waterspout has passed ? The ocean yields to every sprat that swims, and remains incompressible, the greatest and most enduring of earthly forces. To- the European it seems that the Empress has been humiliated ; but V her nobles surround her in gala dresses, her- people welcome her as a patriot Queen, her soldiery kneel before her in reverence, her retnrn is a grand ceremonial procession upon which Europeans are thought insolent in looking, and her Edicts will be obeyed by her greatest satraps as the orders of the British Admiralty are obeyed by distant captains. To the European the return to Pekin appears a supreme folly, re-entrance into a prison-house of which Europe holds the ke'js. To the Chinaman that return shows that nothing is changed ; that the Empress, having done her duty in battlit* with the barbarian intruder, has returned in glory to her ancient abode, desecrated, no doubt, as a temple ' may be desecrated by brigands, but still capable of ptirification. We see the comedy well enough ; but it seems to us that there is also strength, and even magnificence, in this calm Asiatic imperturbability, to which time is nothing, and defeat only disaster like a flood, which expects that all will pass leaving itself as ever, and has in all its history proof that its judgment is well founded. What is the European raid of 1901 compared with the JVanchu invasion ? and the Manchus have been absorbod and become Chinese.
It is this permanence and endurance which Eur6pe, as always in Asia, has now to fear. The thoughts that were in the Chinese Court, and which resulted in the futile attempt to murder all European Legations, are in its rulers now, with certain modifications. The Empress has learned something ; among other things, the ease with which she can baffle the barbarians by flight, the certainty of popular support if only she will resist the foreigner, and the incapacity of untrained troops to protect her against invasion. Of those bits of knowledge, which areinot fanciful but obvious, the first will induce her to prepare a line of retreat from the capital, to be always ready if necessary ; the second will incline her to enlarge the "Volunteer organisation, which we call that of the "Boxers," so that she may strike in many provinces at once ; and the third will compel her to break with the Chinese tradition which forbids her to form an efficient standing army. To do all these things will require time, and she will take time in the Asiatic fashion, mean- while nursing her wrath and revolving plans of vengeance. That is what anv European Sovereign would do, and the notion that an A-siatic will be less vindictive than, say, a Frenchman is based upon total ignorance of the Asiatic mind. The EmPreis is not likely to forgive, and she will have plenty of new reasons for not for- giving. It is the great misfortune of the position that the annoyances given to the Chinese Court must be, in the nature of things, perpetual. Each Power wants some- thing of that Court, and as no Power has anything to offer in return that Chinamen value, not even effective bribes, there must be, and will be, on the part of each a recurrence to menace. Russia wants, and is demanding, either Manchuria, or privileges in Manchuria equivalent, if all are granted, to sovereignty. France wants, and is de- manding, railway concessions in Yunnan, which she almost openly admits are to lead to sovereignty there. Germany wants exclusive rights in Shantung, and a considerable increase of her direct sovereignty, without which her possession of Kiao-chow is futile. Great Britain and America want full liberty of trade throughout the Empire, which Chinese interpret as full liberty to disturb every- thing and worry the Mandarins for British and American profit. And Italy wants some morsel of a province, the possession of which will enable her to think that she also is a considerable factor in the Far East and must be reckoned as a Great Power. All alike want concessions which the Mandarins are loth to grant, all alike have a tribute to levy for thirty-nine years, and as all alike are jealous of each other they all resist each other's requests. The result is a competition of " pres- sures," that is, menaces, every one of which, especially if they relate to territory, is regarded by the Chinese Court as an affront, like the seizure of Kia.o-chow, to be trea- sured up, and if possible avenged. It is impossible for the Chinese not to feel both humiliated and exasperated by such demands, and not to long for the means of defiance such as they flung only last year, successfully, at Italy. For the present, °the Empress and her astutely patient advisers will, of course, content themselves with playing off the Powers, so far as is possible, against each other, just as the Turk does in Constantinople. How long it will be before she has acquired confidence in her means to resist it is hard to say ; but it may be less time than is imagined, for her successful flight must have increased her hardihood, and she will desire " justice " for the past before old age, now fast drawing on, shall deprive her of her powers, or give her numerous enemies time to strike for a change. She will live long enough to choose an heir to the Empire, and of the kind of heir she will chobse we may judge from the one she chose before. He was the son of Prince Tuan, the strongest representative and leader of the fanatic opponents of foreign influence.
All this is much too pessimist ? Possibly, for we do not pretend to prophecy ; but it would not be considered pessimist' if it were written of any European Court, and our point is that the Chinese Court, as regards humilia- tion, injury, and extortion, have precisely the feelings of any Court in Europe, intensified. by a peuliar pride in their own civilisation, and by the Asiatic capacity for waiting without losing sight of a grand object. It is because we have got into the habit of regarding Chinamen as separate beings, alive, but still, somehow, made of blue Nankin, that we fail to foresee their action, and what must be the inevitable effect of perpetual demands and threats. And it is because of the same habit that, although Pekin is now as dangerous a diplomatic " point " as Constan- tinople, we take no pains to send our most reflective diplomatists there, but are content with men who " know the language " and " have experience," and who, when a great political storm is only a few hours off, suggest, with Sir C. Macdonald, that all will go right if there is a little more rain.
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