The statesmen cannot get their ship out of the indemnity
fog. The Chinese Court accepts the demand "in principle," but proposes to pay the amount, not by raising a loan, but by honouring drafts for £2,000,000 a year for the next thirty years. They will, in fact, pay tribute to Europe for that period. The statesmen shake their heads, first because some of them want the money at once, and secondly because none of them affect to know what will happen in thirty years. There is, therefore, as yet no settlement. We see from the Blue-book that this country, like others, demands that the Chinese Court shall return to Pekin; but Lord Lansdowne will hardly insist upon that condition. It is a little too un- just. We might just as well insist that the Czar should always live in Odessa because he would then be within reach of maritime attack. The latest rumours point to a resolve to abandon Sian, but they are not verified yet, and do not prove that the Court means to return to Pekin. Note that as yet there is not a sign that the Manchu dynasty has lost either prestige or power through its defeat.
