NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE scene in China has changed greatly this week, Russia having, for the moment at least, seceded from the Concert. On September let the Government published in St. Petersburg a statement that as Russia only desired to secure the safety of her subjects and to assist China against "rebels," and as the former object had been attained and the latter was rendered impracticable by the retreat of the Empress-Regent, she proposed to retire from Pekin. Orders to this effect had been transmitted to M. de Giers, who would recommence negotiations from Tientsin as soon as regular government had been restored. Russia, moreover, though compelled to occupy various places in Manchuria and to take Newchwang, had no intention of conquest, but would retire "as soon as lasting order shall have been established in Manchuria and indispensable measures shall have been taken for the protection of the railway, the construction of which is assured in virtue of a special formal agreement in China concerning the concession granted to the Chinese Eastern Railway Company." In other words, Russia will retire from Pekin at once and from Manchuria as soon as convenient, and will negotiate with the Empress on the basis of the fiction that the Legations were attacked by rebels.
