A bond for £64,000,000 sterling, representing the Chinese mdemnity, has
been handed by Li Hung Chang to the senior
European Minister in Pekin, and it is announced that with this ceremony the "Chinese incident is closed." That is probably correct for the time ; but the Empress and Emperor publicly announce that they have been swallowing wormwood and gall, armies are drilling in Mongolia and Chih-li, and the Chinese arsenals are in full work. It is difficult to see what the Empress can do unless she orders a general massacre of white men ; but to suppose that she has pardoned her expulsion from Pekin, the desecration of her capital, and the extortion of £64,000,000 from her people is to credit her with more magnanimity than there is evidence to prove. We can only hope that Sir E. Satow, who is supposed to be specially competent, will be a little less optimist than Sir C. Macdonald, will remember that Chinese of all mankind can keep secrets, and will be allowed to spend freely in acquiring information. He can learn something very near the truth in Tokio, and though the Foreign Office will not believe his reports unless they are agreeable, it is well in Asia to be even twelve hours ahead of events. Then if the new fortress of the Legations is kept provisioned as well as manned, Europe will not be taken altogether by surprise. It would not be indiscreet, either, to talk to a Roman Catholic Bishop now and then.
