No. 149.
Mr. Avery to Mr. Fish.

No. 43.]

Sir: Since the death of the late Emperor there has been no occurrence to justify the many rumors of discontent with the succession. The government has been administered as before, without the least sign of disturbance or disaffection. If there are jealousies in the palace, (and if the imperial princes chafe under the alleged domineering temper of the Empress-Dowager,) the general public know little, if anything, about it. On the 25th of February, the young Emperor was quietly [Page 288] enthroned. The event was not officially notified to the legations, their only knowledge of it being derived from the Gazette. The ceremonies were altogether within the “Forbidden City,” and consisted of the Emperor offering homage before the remains of his late Majesty, at 4.15 a.m., ascending the throne at 6.15 a.m., and afterward receiving homage and congratulations from the ministers and others. The consort of the late Emperor died on the 26th instant. There was a report that she attempted suicide immediately after his late Majesty’s demise, and it is now said she had been ill ever since with grief and disappointment. According to Chinese usage, her childless widowhood involved loss of position and influence, and it is conceivable that she may have preferred death, even if she did not seek it by her own act. The Empress-Dowager, the more influential of the two regents, is also very sick. Her death would probably make another crisis in the government, but the princes and ministers are not likely to be less able to meet it than they were to arrange the new succession. Within the past month a grand council, convoked by Prince Kung and his associates of the Tsung-li Yamen, and consisting of eight other princes, sundry nobles, and mandarins, has been in session, deliberating on affairs of the empire. All efforts to ascertain positively the objects of this unusual convocation and the subjects discussed have been fruitless. It is hardly more than matter of rumor that it has considered, among other things, the policy to be pursued for checking the growing and pernicious habit of opium-smoking, which is gradually sapping the vitality of the nation. On no better authority, I learn that a memorial from Li-Hung-Chang has been considered, asking (1) for the construction of railroad and telegraph lines from Taku, at the mouth of the Peiho, to Peking; (2) for the opening of coal-mines by foreign machinery; (3) for the abandonment of prescriptive hostilities to the Mohammedans. If it is true that such measures have been entertained, even if not approved, by a grand council of China, the fact is full of significance and encouragement. As a rule, I prefer not to write on subjects on which my information is doubtful; but so much importance attaches to the foregoing reports, which are generally believed to be substantially true, that it seemed to me to be a duty to notify them to the Department.

I have, &c.,

BENJ. P. AVERY.