railroads over which he was to travel were clearly marked, with
all the ports and cities at which he expected to stop. He was
photographed with Gladstone, and hailed as the "Bismarck of the
East," but when he returned to Peking, for no reason but
jealousy, "he was treated as an extinct volcano." The Empress
Dowager invited him to the Summer Palace where he was shown about
the place by the eunuchs, treated to tea and pipes, and led into
pavilions where only Her Majesty was allowed to enter, and then
denounced to the Board of Punishments who were against him to a
man. And now this Grand Secretary whom kings and courts had
honoured, whom emperors and presidents had feted, and our own
government had spent thirty thousand dollars in entertaining, was
once more stripped of his yellow jacket and peacock feather, and
fined the half of a year's salary as a member of the Foreign
Office, which was the amusing sum of forty-five taels or about
thirty-five dollars gold, and it was said in Peking at the time
that only the intercession of the Empress Dowager saved him from
imprisonment or further disgrace.

During the whole regency of the Empress Dowager only two men have
occupied the position of President of the Grand Council--Prince
Kung and Prince Ching. While the former was degraded many times
and had his honours all taken from him, the latter "has kept
himself on top of a rolling log for thirty years" without losing
any of the honours which were originally conferred upon him. The
same is true of Chang Chih-tung, Liu Kun-yi and Wang Wen-shao,
three great viceroys and Grand Secretaries whom the Empress
Dowager has never allowed to be without an important office, but
whom she has never degraded. Need we ask the reason why? The
answer is not far to seek. They were the most eminent progressive