reorganise her army, and this proposal was strongly supported by Yuan Shih-Kai, with what result is not yet known.

The Court, which on the approach of the foreign troops had fled from Pekin to Si-an Fu, started on the return journey on October 6. It proceeded very leisurely, and at much expense to the towns on the road. By the end of the year it had reached Kai-feng-fu, the capital of Honan, where it halted to await the course of events in Pekin. It resumed its journey towards Pekin in the beginning of December.

M. Beau replaced M. Simon as French Minister at Pekin, and M. Lessar succeeded M. de Giers as Russian Minister. Admiral Sir Edward Seymour's term of service was extended so long as the situation in China was critical, and he was then replaced by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge.

It was announced that Chang Te-yi would succeed Lo Fengluh as Chinese Minister in London, but the change has not yet taken place.

Early in the year an Imperial Decree ordered Yuan ShihKai, the Governor of Shantung, to proceed to Pekin to assist in the peace negotiations. Later, when Li Hung Chang died, he was appointed to succeed him as Viceroy of Chihli. The rise of Yuan Shih-Kai has been phenomenally rapid, and at the age of forty-three he is probably the youngest official who has held such high position. He first came into notice as Chinese Resident in Corea when China, as the suzerain Power, required to have a strong man to keep the King of Corea straight, in the early days of the emergence of the Hermit Kingdom from seclusion into the arena of international relations with the outside world. In 1898 Yuan Shih-Kai was Commandant of the Chief Army Corps in the metropolitan provinces and at the time of the coup d'Etat which deposed the Emperor the fate of the Throne lay in his hands. He sided with the Empress-Dowager, and his reward was the Governorship of Shantung. When the Boxer rising occurred he threw the Empress-Dowager's cause over and sided with the Yangtze Viceroys who refused to be drawn into the antiforeign movement. While Governor of Shantung he issued a proclamation promising to protect foreign missionaries and their converts; and went out of his way to invite missionaries to return to their work on the ground that they set a good example, and did not interfere with the course of Chinese justice. As Li Hung Chang's successor in the Viceroyalty and as Imperial Commissioner for the North he is one of the coming men, and even now he and Jung-lu are the two men who have most influence with the Empress-Dowager.

The death of Li Hung Chang at the age of seventy-eight occurred on November 7. He had outlived by some years the great reputation he had made, and his removal from the scene had no immediate effect on Chinese politics. For some years he had been suspected of being the tool of Russia, and, from whatever motive, it is true that he was willing and even anxious to put

Russia in such a position in Manchuria as would have meant in a few years the absolute cession of that country. His influence with the Court, especially in international questions, was so great that it is probable that had he lived much longer Manchuria would have been practically lost to China; and his death now leaves the patriotic provincial viceroys, who still hope to preserve the integrity of China, in a much stronger position. By order of the Empress a temple is to be erected to his memory; and the title of marquess is conferred on his eldest son and successors for twenty-three generations. Li Hung Chang himself had the rank of earl.

Owing to the disturbed condition of the north and the seizure by the allies of the Pekin-Shanhaikuan railway, there were no earnings out of which to pay the February coupon for interest due to the British bondholders. The contract for the railway loan gives the bondholders the right to take possession of the railway in the event of such default, and the Chinese Government was desirous that the bondholders should take over the railway. The explanation probably is that, as the railway was at the time under Russian military occupation, the Chinese hoped that Great Britain and Russia would quarrel over the affair. The bondholders were ready to take over such a valuable asset, but the British Government discouraged the transaction and pointed out to China how her credit would suffer at this juncture if the Government repudiated its liability; and money was then found to pay the coupons.

Both the Pekin-Tien-tsin railway and the Paotingfu-Pekin railway were brought into Pekin, breaches being made in the city wall to admit the lines. On February 21 the PekinShanhaikuan railway, which since the commencement of hostilities had been under Russian control, was handed over to the British military authorities, who continued to run it throughout the year. In spite of the disturbed state of the country and the interruption of trade, the receipts under British management far exceeded those which the line had yielded when under native control. The British military authorities extended the line beyond Pekin as far as the city of Tungchow, which is at the head of the navigation of the Peiho River.

The city of Tien-tsin continued to be under the control of the so-called Provisional Government, consisting of Commissioners nominated by the principal Powers. Much good work was done in improving the city. The city walls were removed and new roads and canals were constructed, and under the supervision of the Provisional Government the work of improving the navigation of the river Peiho was begun. After the withdrawal of the army of occupation from the province of Chihli the Chinese authorities requested that the city of Tien-tsin should be handed back to them, but for the present the military occupation continues.

A dispute which at one moment seemed likely to have very

serious consequences arose between the British and Russian military authorities over the ownership of a small strip of land at Tien-tsin. The land in question was being used by the British to make a siding for the railway which was mortgaged to British bondholders. The Russians on their part claimed that this land formed part of the recently acquired Russian concession. British and Russian sentries were posted within a yard of each other in order to maintain rival rights. Before a collision occurred it was agreed by the two Governments that work should be temporarily suspended, and that the dispute should be referred to arbitration.

The Russian concession at Tien-tsin, which was obtained from Li Hung Chang the previous year, and which stretches along the left bank of the river Peiho opposite the British concession, was opened with much ceremony on July 13. Its acquisition was viewed with alarm by those interested in the prosperity of the port, for at this part of the river there is barely room for steamers to moor; and any wharves or other works which the Russians might construct on their side would seriously obstruct navigation.

Other Powers also, who can have no real use for a separate concession or settlement, took advantage of the general confusion to secure one, and now Tien-tsin boasts five or six separate concessions-a state of things which will inevitably give rise to troublesome international disputes in the future.

Early in the year it became known that, side by side with the Treaty of Peace which the foreign Powers in concert were negotiating with China, Russia was on her own account trying to negotiate a separate treaty about Manchuria. Li Hung Chang used every endeavour to obtain the Empress's consent to the Russian terms; but Chinese public opinion, in so far as it could make itself heard, and the powerful Yang-tsze Viceroys Liu Kun-yi and Chang Chih-tung were strenuously opposed to the Russian demands. These, after various modifications, took the following shape: (1) The civil administration of Manchuria to be restored to China. (2) Russia to maintain a military force for the protection of the Manchurian railway. (3) Russia to assist China in keeping order. (4) No munitions of war to be imported, and no military force to be maintained in Manchuria without Russia's consent. (5) Chinese officials who prove themselves obnoxious to Russia are not to be retained in office. (6) No foreigners except Russians to be employed in organising land or sea forces in North China. (7) The district of Chinchow to pass under Russian administration. (8) No mining or railway concessions to be granted to foreigners in Manchuria, Mongolia, or Turkestan. (9) Indemnity to be given for injury to Russian interests and for Russian expenses in Manchuria. (10 and 11) The damage caused to the Manchurian railway may be liquidated by granting new concessions, or

THE PLAGUE.

In regard to the plague the year 1901 has been the gloomiest since the outbreak of that fell malady in 1896-7. The returns of mortality from it in 1900 seemed to encourage the hope that in diffusive power, if not in the virulence of its onslaught on those actually attacked by it, the disease was wearing itself out. In the Bombay Presidency, where the plague deaths in 1898 and 1899 had reached, in round numbers, 104,000 and 117,000 respectively, they fell in 1900 to 38,000. But though the first weeks of 1901 offered no indications of a serious recrudescence of the plague, February had not begun before the mortality returns showed an ominous upward tendency. In March they were over 2,000 a week, and though a slight decline followed, it was only illusory. In August the plague deaths in the Bombay Presidency were above 13,000, and in October they passed 31,000 and came within little more than 7,000 of the entire mortality from the same disease in 1900. For December the figure was 22,100, and the whole year showed a total of 155,000. In Bombay City the plague deaths were nearly 19,000, and other large quotas of mortality from that cause-ranging between -23,000 and 32,000-were furnished by Kolhapur, Sattara, Dharwar and Belgaum.

The development of plague mortality in some other parts of India was only little less serious. Calcutta showed a slight decline-from 8,300 in 1900 to 7,800 in 1901; but the rise in the case of several Bengal districts was such that, for the Presidency as a whole, the total had more than doubledrising from 35,800 to 77,900. The figures for the North-West Provinces and the Punjab rose from about 100 and 500 respectively to 8,100 and 15,200, and the total plague mortality outside the Bombay Presidency increased from 53,000 to 117,000.

BURMAH.

The Viceroy's autumn tour consisted of a visit to Burmah, and was made by land by way of Assam and Manipur; he reached the frontier on November 21, and held a durbar of the Shan chiefs at Mandalay on November 26 and at Lashio on December 2; he gave them some excellent advice, but the most important speech was one made a little later, in which he announced his decision that the railway was not to be extended to the Chinese frontier or to Bengal by way of Assam. His Excellency continued his tour to Rangoon, and from there returned to Calcutta by sea.

III. INDIAN FEUDATORY STATES.

NEPAL.

Sir Bir Shumsher, who had been Prime Minister since 1887 and was a really good ruler, died suddenly, though not quite unexpectedly, last April. He was peacefully succeeded by his brother, General Deb Shumsher, but in June another brother, Chundra Shumsher, managed to arrest Deb, and with the King's (Dhiraj's) sanction imprisoned him and proclaimed himself Prime Minister. The revolution is said to have been a bloodless one; if so, it is the first one which has been so managed in Nepal. The ostensible reason for Maharajah Deb Shumsher's deposition was that he was introducing changes into the government of the country which were objectionable to the principal persons in the State; but the real cause of it was no doubt merely Chundra Shumsher's desire to supplant his brother, and it is not likely that any change will result, either in the internal or external policy of Nepal. Towards the end of the year it was reported that Maharajah Deb Shumsher had escaped from Dhumkota, where he was a state prisoner, into Darjiling. It seems probable that we are not yet at an end of revolutions in Nepal.

PATIALA.

The late Maharajah died in November, 1900. He has been succeeded by his son, Bhupendur Singh, a boy of about ten years of age, who was installed on the gadi by the LieutenantGovernor of the Punjab in October last. It has been decided that the new Maharajah will have an English tutor until he is fourteen, and he will then complete his studies at the Aitchison Chiefs' College at Lahore. A Council of Regency, composed of Sirdar Gurmukh Singh, Khalifah Sayyid Muhammed Hussein and Lala Bhagwan Das, has been formed for carrying on the administration, but a British officer, Major Dunlop Smith, C.I.E., has been placed in charge of all the Phulkian States, which will still remain under the LieutenantGovernor of the Punjab. An assessment of the Land Revenue will be carried out under another British officer, Captain Popham Young.

KAPURTHALA.

The State has sustained a great loss in the death of Sirdar Bhagat Singh, who died on October 23. He had rendered faithful service for thirty years, rising through various important offices to that of Minister in 1897. Not long ago he was appointed by Sir Mackworth Young to a seat in the Legislative Council of the Punjab.