The latest intelligence from China points to a crisis as
imminent. The rebels of Shantung, the north-eastern county, just south of Pekin, have defeated and slain the Tartar Prince San-ko-lin-sin, and seized a point within 100 miles of the capital. The Court, that is the Empress mother and her councillors, have ordered Li, the Governer-General of the two Kiangs, to send up his force of disciplined Chinese, and his artillery of twenty-six pieces, controlled by European officers. Li, however, has reminded the Europeans that they are in his employ alone, and summoned his forces to his own capital, Nankin, intending, as the Chinese believe, to set up for himself. Pekin therefore lies exposed, and according to the latest telegram the Court has requested Sir Rutherford Alcoa to lend them European officers. The weakness of the women who govern within the palace, and who receney dismissed and then restored Prince Kung, seems to endanger the empire, and the British Minister will probably be compelled to choose between seeing China reduced to anarchy and assuming under some decorous title its immediate administration. Mr. Lay was only a few months too soon. Were he in China now, with his fleet and customs revenue, he might be Mayor of the Palace by an acknowledged title. If the British Government does not move, an application may be made to Russia, which will be greedily accepted, the service rendered being paid for with more territory.
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