The text of the protocol now being " considered "
at Sian has been telegraphed from China. It consists of twelve articles, of which one enumerates the punishments said, but not proved, to have been inflicted on the agents of the Empress- Regent ; a second suspends examinations for five years in guilty cities; and a third prohibits the importation of arms for two years. Another fixes the indemnity at £67,500,000, to be paid in thirty-nine years with interest at 4 per cent.; the amount being secured on the Customs, the Transit- duties, and the Salt-ga belle ; and a fifth orders the razing of the Taku forts. Another sanctions guards for the Legations ; and a seventh concedes armed posts from the sea to Pekin. An eighth prohibits membership of any anti-foreign society ; a ninth concedes (future) amendments to commercial treaties ; and the last one changes the Tsung-li-Yamen into.a Foreign Office. With the exception of the indemnity the stipulations are childish, as there is not one which the Chinese Court cannot evade or defeat by refusing to return to Pekin. The Court, moreover, has still power to object to any of them, and probably would do so but that it' is anxious fez pecuniary reasons to see the troops depart. Why the com- plete opening of the Empire to trade was not demanded is not explained, but it is understood that some Powers rejected the suggestion, and it is probable that Russia, Germany, and France still hope 'for local monopolies, with which such a clause would have interfered.
