THE COMET AND THE CHINESE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1340, 30 March 1883, Page 3

THE COMET AND THE CHINESE.

; Considerable oxcHomcnt^haa : ' been caused at Pekiri ;latoly (says'the Pekin ;pf The Times): by the impeaohment;';of two of tiio Cabinet Ministers on a charge of bribery, This |a such an ordinary everyday affair that it would aliivpst certainly have been hushed over with ut nominal pennlty at most if it had nqtbeon for the appearance .of the: comet. English readers may .■wonder.what possible bearing the eaniot can have ohtho course of justice, but they manage things in a peculiar way in China. Ninaty-nino out of ovory hundred firmly -believe that tho comet is specially sent by Heaven to warn the Emperor, that there : ls.misgovornnicnt going on somewhere in his dominions, and that if ihe evil is not checked and the wicked officers dismissed, calamities'auoli as iusutreotion, famine, and'floods will spoodily overtake the people, The first thiim that naturally occurs; to the native mind is to,ask who 'among the probable offenders is specially pointed put, and, when it is found out that two', Irish in power, are actually tinder an accusation for gross corruption, they stand a very good chance cf being made scapegoats for the rest, whatever the merits of the chso may be. An amusing memorial addressed to the Emperor was lately published in the -Pekin Gazette, iu which a Censor called his Majesty's attention to the comet, describing its appearance as resembling a silk'ribbon soveral yards in length, and ,' rivalling in brilliancy the rising sun, He "quotea several passages from anoient 'history, showing the invariable connexion betvfcon 'phenomena of the kind and abuses in the administration of the State, and concludes that these men, condeinnod asjhey aro by general report, aro most probably the culprits. The accused, however, are high in favor, and seem making a good tight for it, and possibly enough may succeed in fixing the blame on somo of their subordinates. It illustrates well the general corruption to say that 1 a belief in their guilt is almost assumed as a matter of course by all olmsos. It is, indeed, tho one vico above 'moThers that is dragging the country down, and makes nno well despair of reform. Censor after censor has called attentiou to it, but still tho evil goes on; and, whilo tho men highest in power aro known to accept large bribes unblushingly, and as a matter of courso bestotr the patroua','o of the Empiro, all reform lower down tho scalo m hopeless.