WHERE POWER RESIDES IN CHINA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1586, 18 January 1884, Page 2

WHERE POWER RESIDES IN CHINA.

(From the London Spectator). We are often asked where, in the great empire of China, power really resides, and we 'believe tho best short statement is this:—Subject to certain immovable customs,, the emperor, in his capacity of father of the people, can in theory givo any order, and can in practise punish with decapitation or exile any official or person who disobeys it, He is, in all serious affairs, however, obliged to consult, though not to obey, a large group of princes of his dynasty and groat mandarins, who divide the departments and the great viceroyalties among themselves. The dynasty, moreover, being foreign, is compelled to respect the army to some extent; while this army is, for financial reasons, so limited in number that it is difficult to garrison the empire, and impossible to hold it down for an hour. It is . the tradition of the court, therefore, never seriously to offend either the army or the people in such a way as to provoke emeutes, more especially in Pekin.' At present tho emperor is a boy, only just twelve years of age, and all real authority belongs to a widow of the last fullgrown emperor, Hien Fung—who is called the Empress Mother, but is not the mother of the emperor—to Prince Kung, Li Hung Chang, the favorite of the native Chinese, and two- or three less known high officials. They can send out any order they please, and are obeyed, but they cannot afford to risk the insurrection which would follow any great aflVont tor the pride of the people, such as the session- 'pi Touquin would':be., China, infac(is':a more solid Turkey, with s'ultan, pashas, army and mob-sharing power in unequal degrees. .As in Turkey, too, all four are bound in the chain of a law which annot be mo'diijed.