No hint, however remote, has yet been given of the
terms the Powers will ask or the Chinese concede. It is assumed that an immense indemnity will be promised as compensation for the insult to the Legations, for the slaughter of the missionaries, and for the expenses of the international army, but there is only one suggestion for raising the money. This comes from Italy, which proposes that the Allies should guarantee a large loan, which should be lent to the Chinese and then repaid to the guaranteeing Powers. That is nonsense,
but the difficulty of raising the money without a European Financial Commission, which would practically govern the country, is very great. The Chinese Government has made no offer to surrender its guilty servants, and as for the Empress, she is only discernible in an occasional Edict. The powers of the plenipotentiaries are granted by " the Emperor," but whether he is a free agent or acting under coercion is not known. Even his habitat is not ascertained, and it is doubt- ful whether he and the Empress are in Segan, in Shensi, or at Tai-xuan, in Shansi, much farther north. That the Empress will agree to some terms is clear, because Li Hung Chang, whose first care is his own neck, is willing to negotiate, but whether she will concede what the Allies will demand is still unknown. She is quite safe, and if she says she prefers resistance to the terms there will be more massacres.
