The news from China is curiously complicated, one set of
informants assuring us that the Court intends to return to Pekin, and another that it will fix its seat at Kai-fang, in Honan, where a great palace is being built for its reception. A third statement is that the Empress-Regent and the Emperor will halt for the winter at Kai-fung, and from thence watch the drilling of two armies, one in Chih-li, said to be well organised, and another in Mongolia, under Prince Tuan. We believe the truth to be this,—that the Court is raising an Army, as indeed the Emperor admitted in his letter to Prince Chun, and has decided to reside at Kai-fung, where it will be surrounded by- the Honanese, who make fair soldiers; but that for some reason, either connected with tradition or strong representations from Russia, it has been decided to break the news of the abandonment of the old capital very gradually. Once seated in Kai-fung, a hundred reasons can be discovered for declining - to move. - The Chinese would, think this policy very adroit, as it would keep the Ambas- sadors, whom they regard as spies, at a distance from the Imperial residence. To imagine that the Empress-Regent, after her flight, is going to plaoe herself again in the power of the Europeans, with their new and heavily-armed fortress,
seems to us too credulous.
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