NEWS OF THE : WEEK.
THE note of the week has been bewilderment. Bulletin after bulletin has poured into London with " re- assuring " intelligence from China, has produced an effect even on the Foreign Office, and has then, when examined by the light of dates and facts, been relegated to the deep limbo of "news not yet confirmed." The drift of it all is that a counter-revolution has broken out in Pekin; that the E mpress- Regent has regained power ; that the Lord Chamberlain, Prince Ching, who is ex-officio Commandant of the Palace Guard, is fighting for her and the foreigners; and that the "Boxer" chiefs, finding the resistance formidable, are losing heart. The answer to all that is that if it were true messages would be received from the Legations, and the siege of Tientsin would be relaxed; whereas no word has arrived from the Legations, and the siege is being pressed with greater vigour than ever. We believe it will be found when the truth is known that all the rumours alike can be traced to the Prefects, or Taotais, of the ports, that they are wild with fear of the great artn, which they perceive will shortly land in China, and that they are deliberately making up smooth tales in the hope of preventing an invasion. Their method of doing it is to describe the situation as it stood when the revolution' first broke out, as still existing. When exposed, they will fall back upon a " confusion of dates."
