TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE CAPTURE OF PEKIN. AFFAIRS in China are going, except upon one point, much as we ventured to anticipate. We had ex- pected that the Chinese, who are not cowards and who have obtained good arms, would have made a vigorous instead of a fitful and half-hearted resistance to the re- lieving force, would have covered the road with ditches and have so defended every ditch that the little army would have arrived before Pekin worn down to half its strength. The country is no doubt flat, but a plain can be defended as well as a mountain if the defenders have the skill and the numbers to use the spade. The Chinese soldiers, however, fight like mobsmen, now with tenacity, as at Tientsin and Peitsang, and now, as at Yangtsun, with tumultuous indecision, and it is probable that their numbers have been greatly exaggerated, the reserve forces of the Empire, which were mainly on the frontiers, not having had time to arrive. The march of the relieving force therefore proved on the whole a com- paratively easy one. It took only ten days. Even the city has not been well defended, and the invaders have forced their way to the " Sacred " Palace without a fiftieth part of the loss which the Prussians would have suffered if they had cloven their way to the Tuileries. For the rest, however, the anticipations of the pessimists have proved correct. The Legations were found alive, but it is clear that the Manchu nobles and their Empress in- tended to slaughter them out, and that they owe their* safety solely to their own courage and power of resolute endurance. The Chinese shelled them mercilessly to the very last day, gave them none of the food about which Li Hung Chang prated, and it is more than possible even tried to poison them. At least the Ambassadors found it necessary to refuse some vegetables sent them as a present. Finally, the Government have adopted the one plan which, as General Gordon told them would restore their independence of Europe; they have moved quietly away to the ancient capital, Segan, in Shensi—why should we call it by the unpronounceable name Hsien when history and Petermann and Johnstone all offer us the alternative ?—where they will be inaccessible except to an enormous army. If we thought of pursuit it would take a hundred thousand men merely to protect communications, and the Govern- ment could disappear again. It is very easy to call this a flight from Pekin, and of course it is in one way a flight, but the Empress has carried with her the Imperial treasure and the machinery of government, and is concentrating a new army for her defence. It is supposed that her authority will be weakened, but there is no proof of that. The Viceroys originally approved the plan, the Ambassa- dors in Europe who record it are as obedient as possible, and large forces are moving towards Segan as readily as they would towards Pekin. That the Empress will make peace on her own terms we do not doubt, but the evidence all points to the facts that there is still a Government in China, that it has made itself inaccessible, and that it has not the smallest intention, unless coerced, of deposing the Empress, or of surrendering her great agents, or of giving any guarantees for the future which Europe can accept as satisfactory. It will simply hold on in a dully immovable way until Europe has wearied of its task, or until some mode of pressure has been devised which the Court will feel so severely as to induce it to accept European terms.
What, then, is that mode to be ? The Allies when strengthened by the reinforcements now on their way may of course, if they are ready to risk quarrels among them- selves, continue to hold Pekin, and in Europe that method of compulsion would be an effectual one, because the necessity of recovering the general capital would be a paramount consideration. One cannot conceive an Emperor of Austria living tranquilly at Buda-Pesth while Vienna was occupied by Italians. There is no proof, however, that Segan will be greatly concerned to rescue Pekin. The Empire is still in the molluscous stage, time is of no importance to its rulers, and the Segan Government, if it collects taxes and is generally obeyed, will be quite content to live on for a century or two with the second city of the Empire in barbarian hands. It has so lived aforetime without the unity of its people suffering any perceptible diminution. To set up a rival Emperor, who must, from the necessity of the case, be a native Chinese, would be only to inaugurate a civil war which might last for a generation, and bring into the field the tribes of Mongolia, of whose force when fully armed no European has any clear idea. To cultivate the independence of the Viceroys, even if that is possible, the central Sovereign being as necessary in Chinese idea to a country as a householder to a house, is only to make partition ultimately inevitable. Under these circum- stances we do not wonder that diplomatists are beginning to consider the plan of pardoning the Empress-Regent, and offering her good terms on condition that she shall reoccupy her palace in Pekin. It would be so convenient, they think, to have a Government capable of negotiation and liable to pressure. Anarchy strikes historians as deplorable and diplomatists as impertinent. They become as useless as lawyers when dealing with a mutiny. They do not care two straws about the wickedness of the Empress, which is no greater than that of the Sultan, and they care a great deal to relieve Europe of a burden which, if China cannot be held together, might prove very serious. We quite understand their point of view, which is really that if Rome obeys Nero, one must negotiate with Nero even if the number 666 was really formed from his name ; but there are two objections to the suggested course which may prove final. One is that it leaves the real victory to the Empress-Regent. She will have accomplished the very end for which she broke with Europe without having endangered her dynasty or her own power. She remains Semiramis, Queen of Babylon, and Babylon is greater than ever. At the price of a considerable but not irre- mediable blow to Pekin and Tientsin she will have com- pelled the foreigner to give up his aggressions upon China. No Power will again ask her for provinces, or attempt to secure railway concessions by threats of using physical force. The idea that China is a dead body will have disappeared, and the lesson as to the consequences of aggression will have been so severe that it must remain impressive for years to come. No Power will again place Europe in such a position as she finds herself in to-day, and the Chinese, perceiving a novel immunity from threats, and a novel liberty to murder missionaries at discretion, may very well believe that their ruler has achieved a grand triumph without too much expense. It is nothing to them that a few braves have been killed, or that certain inhabitants of Pechili have been suddenly reduced to poverty. They are accustomed to such incidents, and, provided they themselves are not soldiers or owners of palaces in Pechili, they care nothing about them, or will hold the humiliation of the barbarians an ample compensation. The other objection is that no treaty which will meet the views of the Empress will also meet those of Germany and Russia. One object of the explosion was to drive Russia back, and Russia certainly will not consent to register the driving in a treaty, while Germany has a big grievance, which her Emperor has made even bigger than it is. William II. cannot, after all his speeches, pass over the murder of his Ambassador, and Europe mistakes his character if he has not resolved upon some large concession as compensation. Some method of pressure must be resorted to, and we repeat that the one which will most directly punish the Court is to levy all import dues in the name of Europe, to pay the interest due to the bondholders, and to hold the remainder as an instrument for controlling the Central Government. When the Manchu nobles behave well their Treasury will be well supplied, but when they are violent or offen- sive it will stay empty. It is a strange course to take, but it will produce the result desired—namely, a guarantee for the future—which cannot be said of any other of the plans suggested yet.
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