reasonable, the condition must have been desperate, when the
reformers had to begin killing the greatest of their opponents,
and imprisoning those who had given them their power, though
neither of these at that time had raised a hand against them.
Have you noticed how ready we are to forgive those on our side
for doing that for which we would bitterly condemn our opponents?
The same people who condemn the Empress Dowager for beheading the
six young reformers stand ready to forgive Kuang Hsu for ordering
the decapitation of Jung Lu, and the imprisonment of his
foster-mother.

There were two powerful factions in Peking, the progressives,
headed by Prince Ching; and the conservatives, headed by Jung Lu.
Now the Empress Dowager may have reasoned thus: "The progressives
and reformers have had their day. They have tried their plans and
they have failed. The only result they have secured is peace--but
peace always at the expense of territory. Now I propose to try
another plan. I will part with no more ports, and I will resist
to the death every encroachment." She therefore took up Li
Ping-heng, who had been deposed from the governorship of Shantung
at the time of the murder of the German missionaries, and
appointed him Generalissimo of the forces of the Yangtse, where
he no doubt promised to resist to the last all encroachments of
the foreigners in that part of the empire while Jung Lu was
retained in Peking as head of all the forces of the province of
Chihli and the Northern Squadron. She then appointed Kang Yi,
another conservative, equally as anti-foreign as Li Ping-heng, to
inspect the fortifications and garrisons of the empire, and to
raise an immense sum of money for the depleted treasury. In his
visits to the southern provinces, Kang Yi at this time raised not