All accounts from China coincide as to the march of
the Empress-Regent towards Pekin. She is making a kind of royal progress thither, and evidently intends, so far as she can, to re-establish the old situation. It is believed on the spot that this includes the reinstatement of most of the old officials and the relinquishment of all projects of reform, but the inner mind of the fierce Empress is inscrutable. Two things seem to be certain : that she means to have a new Army organised by Japanese officers, though possibly with- out a Japanese Commander-in-Chief, and that the arsenals everywhere are working hard to supply Mauser rifles. Those who control them appear, however, to have most inadequate notions as to the quantity of munitions which would be necessary for a great war. Much of the future policy of the Empress must depend upon her choice of a fresh heir to the Emperor, the one selected having been dismissed in disgrace. He is reported to have insulted the Empress, and had prob- ably shown symptoms of a desire for independence. The selection is difficult, as it cannot be long postponed lest the Emperor should die and the Empress lose the base of her legal authority ; but at the same time the choice must be confined to the dynasty, and almost any nominee not a child may become a source of danger to the dominant party. It is the next Emperor upon whom the future of China must depend.
