All plane for superseding the Manchu dynasty are set aside
with the remark that there is in China no alternative family known to the whole people. That there is no Royal Family is true, but there is a family older than that of any Tartar Prince, reverenced throughout China by all grades and classes of men, and better educated, if not more enlightened, than any of the great Mandarins. Suppose, if the Powers are driven, as we think they will be, to their wits' end, they acknowledged the descendants of Confucius as the Royal house of China—Marquis Tseng was one of them—and picked out of it one as the immediate occupant of the throne. Would the Chinese not respect him, especially if we let him govern, and execute a few score highly placed scoundrels as a hint that he meant to be obeyed? That he would be pro-foreign we should not expect, but if he will govern decently, observe treaties, and substitute an army for this dangerous organisa- tion of Volunteers, why do we want him to be pro-foreign, that is, treacherous to China? What is wanted is an effective Government there with a strong personal interest in hanging
the guilty Manchu nobles, and it is becoming doubtful whether we shall get one without displacing the present dynasty. We entirely admit there might be civil war, but would civil war be worse than the existing anarchy tempered by lies P
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