The Right To Build, For Instance, A Railway From Pekin To
Hangchow Has Been Conferred Upon A Syndicate Nominally Belgian, In Which,
However, It Is Understood That Russia Is Deeply Interested.
On the other
hand, in spite of protests from St. Petersburg, the privilege of extending
to Newchwang in Manchuria the railway which already extends some distance
in a northeasterly direction from Tientsin, has been secured by a British
corporation.
In September, 1898, a palace revolution occurred at Pekin. For some time,
the Emperor Kwangsu had been known to be under the influence of a highly
intelligent and progressive Cantonese named Kang Yu Wei. At the latter's
suggestion, edicts were put forth decreeing important administrative
reforms which would have deprived the mandarins of their opportunities of
embezzlement, and also indicating an intention to reorganize the
educational system of China upon European models. The necessity of such
changes is obvious enough if China is to follow Japan in the path of
progress, but it is equally plain that the advocacy of them would render
the emperor obnoxious to the whole body of mandarins and of the literati.
The unpopularity caused by his proposed innovations proved fatal to
Kwangsu; for the party at court, headed by the Empress-dowager Tsi An,
took advantage of it to arrest and imprison him. 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 676 of 704
Words from 183448 to 183697
of 191255
