IS CHINA TO BE PARTITIONED? When the nation sent their soldiers to Peking to rescue the missionaries from the Boxers, the presence of the American detachment there and the presence of President McKinley and Secretary Secre-tary Hay in Washington, saved China rrom partition. parti-tion. Doubtless it had been arranged for Russia to hold Manchuria and Northern China Gown to the Great Wall, for England to gather in the great Yan tze Kiang valley; for France to add a prov- J! ince or two to her stolen possessions in Cochin f' China, and for Germany to take the country be- tween the districts appropriated by Great Britain and France. Secretary Hay 'broke' up the ar-rangement ar-rangement for the time belli, all endorsed the "Open Door" demand of Secretary Hay, and China unity was for the time being secure. j But Russia even then held possesion of Man- ' churia, and though she promised to withdraw her power so soon as tranquility should be restored; it was clear that the time would be ripe for that removal just about the time that Great Britain would decide to withdraw from Egypt. The writer of this pointed out the position of Russia with one road crossing Manchuria from west to east and another debouching to the south with its Pacific terminal at Port Arthur, and that Russia would never surrender that country. But her Siberian Si-berian road was not completed then anc she was not ready to assert herself, so accepted the proposition prop-osition of Secretary Hay as did the oth,er powers. Now Russia's road is completed, regular trains are running; Port Arthur has been made, a kind cf Gibralter, and crowded wih Russian soldiers, Great Britain has settled her troubles in South I Africa; Germany has doubled her navy and we ' suspect that there is an agreement between the three to go on and consummate the agreement of three years ago. If this pioves to be the case, then the first thought is ot Japan, and there comes a fear that she will be crushed between the three or four great powers which are meditating meditat-ing the seizure of the world's greatest empire. The next thought is ot Turkey. Germany and Austria are eager for more territory in southeastern southeast-ern Europe, and Russia wants an open way for her ships through the Hellespont. As we look at it the "sick man" is in more danger m Europe . than he has been since Napoleon's power was bioken at Waterloo. It the programme is carried out, what then? ; Can these combined powers assimilate with the Chinese and change their nature, or will they all b Chinaized? If they seize, partition apd appropriate China, following the custom ot each one in the past, they will train Chinamen as soldiers to police the j countries they propose to steal. WJien this goes l on for two or three generations, when, too, through contact with the armies they wi(l station on those countries a mighty contingent o half-breeds half-breeds shall have reached matmity, suppose an insurrection shall be started, that the millions there shall change from logs and become fire brands, then what? If one million or ten millions of them are killed it will not matter, their ranks will close up and the loss will not be noticed. Suppose they turn westward and begin their march. It has often been seen that when grasshoppers grass-hoppers enough are piled upon a railroad track, they will stop the fastest and heaviest trains. In olden times Imperial Rome sent her armies to subdue the light-haired Goths. After a while the Goths returned the visit, ravaged the country coun-try and burned thejaeveh-hilled city. It will be a serious business for-Hhe countries that break the 1 awful inerita of China, and set those millions i there in motion. v 3L tv But it looks exceedingly 4ik a qoncerted move- ment among the strong powers of Europe to par- tition and appropriate the Celestial empire. All ' are crazy tor more land and more trade. They do k not quite see their way clear to attempt a raid I on our continent, but in China they see a vast I empire bound and helpless under the supersti-I supersti-I tions of ages, they believe it will be an easy con-1 con-1 quest, and their promises of three years ago do I not worry them in tho least.