The news of the week from China is distinctly bad.
The secret society which calls itself the "Boxers," and which was first organised in Shantung for the protection of China against the foreigner, has gradually worked its way to within a few miles of Pekin, murdering on its route all scattered foreigners, and especially all congregations of native Chris- tians, not, we imagine, on account of their creed, but of their supposed friendship for white men. By the latest accounts the "Boxers" were within eight miles of the capital, but had been checked by an armed party of French and Germans sent oat to rescue some Belgian missionaries with their families. The "Boxers" are known to have friends in Pekin, and the Empress-Regent ni suspected of complicity with their leaders. The Ambassadors, therefore, have unanimously demanded that the society be suppressed, have sent for a hundred marines each to guard their offices, and have sum- moned all available ships to Tientsin. The Empress-Regent
has issued a fierce Edict against the "Boxers," but her sincerity is distrusted, and there is uneasiness throughout all Northern China, which may be mere panic, but may also be only too well founded. The Mandarins, literati, and governing classes generally are terribly irritated, and not without reason. They "pool" the foreigners, and see that a new demand is made every week, usually with the avowed object of obtaining pecuniary advantage.
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