Kang Yu Wei, Having
Received Warning Of The Conspiracy, Had Fled, And Succeeded In Gaining An
Asylum Under The British Flag, But Many Of The Emperor's Personal
Followers Were Put To Death.
On September 22, appeared an edict ostensibly
signed by Kwangsu announcing that he had requested the empress-dowager to
resume authority over the affairs of State.
It has been since reported
that he has been killed. The immediate effect of the _coup d'etat_ was to
place all power at Pekin in the hands of Manchus least friendly to the
adoption of European ideas, and more willing to lean upon Russia than
upon any other foreign power. The early restoration to high office of Li
Hung Chang, who has, for some time, been a useful tool of the St.
Petersburg government, and who is a favorite of the empress-dowager, may
be looked upon as probable.
THE FUTURE OF CHINA
It is obvious that arterial communication is the first organic need of all
civilized States, and pre-eminently of a country so vast and various in
its terrestrial conditions as is China. This need has been recognized by
the ablest of its rulers, who, from time to time, have made serious
efforts to connect the most distant parts of the empire by both land and
water routes. The Grand Canal, or Yunho ("River of Transports"), is
pronounced as memorable a monument of human industry in its way as is the
Great Wall. It is not, however, a canal in the Western sense of the word,
but merely, as Richthofen has explained, "a series of abandoned river
beds, lakes and marshes, connected one with another by cuttings of no
importance, fed by the Wanho in Shantung, which divides into two currents
at its summit, and by other streams and rivers along its course. A part of
the water of the Wanho descends toward the Hoangho and Gulf of Pechihli;
the larger part runs south in the direction of the Yangtse." The Grand
Canal links Hangchow, a port on the East China Sea, south of the Yangtse,
with Tientsin in Chihli, where it unites with the Peiho, and thus may be
said to extend to Tungchow in the neighborhood of Pekin. When the canal
was in order, before the inflow of the Yellow River failed, there was
uninterrupted water communication from Pekin to Canton, and to the many
cities and towns met with on the way. For many years past, however, and
especially since the carriage of tribute-rice by steamers along the coast
began, repairs of the Grand Canal have been practically abandoned. The
roads in China, confined generally to the northern and western sections of
the country, are described as the very worst in the world. The paving,
according to Baber, "is of the usual Chinese pattern, rough bowlders and
blocks of stone being laid somewhat loosely together on the surface of the
ground; 'good for ten years and bad for ten thousand,' as the Chinese
proverb admits.
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