terday ousted the Russians.
Peking itself was in danger when Li Hung Chang was sent to the
Mikado to sue for peace. Luckily for China a Japanese assassin
lodged a bullet in the head of her ambassador; and the Mikado,
ashamed of that cowardly act, granted peace on easy conditions.
China's greatest statesman carried that bullet in his _dura mater_
to the end of his days, proud to have made himself an offering for
his country, and rejoicing that one little ball had silenced the
batteries of two empires.

By the terms of the treaty, Japan was to be left in possession
of Port Arthur and Liao-tung. But this arrangement was in fatal
opposition to the policy of a great power which had already cast
covetous eyes on the rich provinces of Manchuria. Securing the
support of France and Germany, Russia compelled the Japanese to
withdraw; and in the course of three years she herself occupied
those very positions, kindling in the bosom of Japan the fires
of revenge, and sowing the seeds of another war.[*]

[Footnote *: The Russo-Japanese war lies outside of our present
programme because China was not a party to it, though it involved
her interests and even her existence. The subject will be treated
in another chapter.]

The effect of China's defeat at the hands of her despised neighbour,
was, if possible, more profound than that of her humiliation by
the English and
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French in 1860. She saw how the adoption of Western methods had
clothed a small Oriental people with irresistible might; and her
wisest statesmen set themselves to work a similar transformation
in their antiquated empire. The young Emperor showed himself an
apt pupil, issuing a series of reformatory edicts, which alarmed
the conservatives and provoked a reaction that constitutes the
last act in this tremendous drama.

ACT 5. THE BOXER WAR

The fifth act opens with the _coup d'etat_ of the Empress
Dowager, and terminates with the capture of Peking by the combined
forces of the civilised world.

Instead of attempting, even in outline, a narrative of events, it
will be more useful to direct attention to the springs of action.
It should be borne in mind that the late Emperor was the adopted son
of the Dowager Empress. After the death of her own son, Tung-chi,
who occupied the throne for eleven years under a joint regency
of two empresses, his mother cast about for some one to adopt in
his stead. With motives not difficult to divine she chose among
her n