Show CHANGES IN CHINA two important events of recent occurrence in the empire the death of prince chun the father of the present emperor of china has been accompanied by two changes says the philadelphia press which betoken great alterations in the spirit tendency and avowed purpose of the powerful ant inscrutable and often invisible great personages who sway the destinies of china surround the throne and wield despotic power yet are of ten unknown not only to europe but to europeans long resident in china the first of these changes relates to the access of foreign ambassadors to the presence of the emperor aitor chinese this is accompanied by the kotow or thrice prostration a degrading ceremony lo 10 european eyes though a mere matter of ordinary respect under chinese conventions lord amherst in 1816 refused peremptorily to submit to this in spite of unbroken russian and dutch precedents and broke off all negotiations the continued refusal of the chinese authorities was one of the causes of war in 1856 by england and france and while china offered to permit our own minister to have an audience if he would bend one knee slightly this was refused there is the best authority for saying that if the southerner who was our minister had had the same cool insistence as the mild mannered northerner who was secretary of legation full concessions would have been made then they were not war came and brought foreign troops to peking and it was not until 1873 that under a peremptory demand the chinese government permitted an audience since then the nonage of two emperors has been a convenient pretext for delay and it marks a great advance that the chinese government ern ment without awaiting a demand has fixed a time for an audience on european terms the other change is the announcement that the able advanced and enlightened li hung chang is to pass from bis post as viceroy of chi li the first vice regal post in the empire and become a member of the grand council of state in peking instituted in 1730 by the emperor yung ching this must not be confounded with the four grand secretaries of which li is already a member as one of the two on this board the grand council is in many senses the supreme executive power in the empire originally organized for military purposes and composed of danchus Man chus it had at the beginning of the year but one muncha and four chinese two of these are on the board of foreign affairs the translation of li to this high post will be universally ver sally accepted in china and by those intelligently familiar with its affairs as a proof that his liberal views are to be paramount and as the first step the long expected extension from tien tsin to Tung chow is confidently expected li is an old man and aging he has had one stroke of paralysis but he is the ablest of his race and lus new post ought to enable him to overcome the bureaucratic resistance has so long balked his better plans anc frustrated bis wiep policy |