The object of the lying is to gain time by
exciting a fear that if the Allies advance on Pekin the Europeans will be put to death. Time is wanted, as we have explained else- where, in order to make an attempt to divide the Courts, whom it is supposed in Pekin the massacre may unite, and to complete the preparations for the transfer of "the Throne" —that is, the Emperor and the Empress with their courtiers —from Pekin to Segan, the great and inaccessible city among the mountains of Shensi, seven hundred miles wtst from the coast. In a highly important circular prepared by the Governor of Shantung, and transmitted to the Daily Telegraph on July 24th, this purpose is openly avowed, Segan or Sian being named as the new capital, and the troops of the Viceroys being ordered to form a rearguard for the Empress when she quits Pekin. In the event of such flight, says the circular, "a general war is inevitable," a remark repeated in an Imperial decree issued on July 23rd, which informs the Viceroys that as China has lost Tientsin and is preparing to defend Pekin, "no peace can be obtained without going through a war:' The Chinese, in fact, who despise Europeans as brutally dense, have made a great effort to hoodwink them, but knowing of• the massacre, doubt their success, and when
their semi-divine Court is once safe in Segan, are ready for a desperate war.
