Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1898 — CHINESE EMPEROR ABDICATES. [ARTICLE]

CHINESE EMPEROR ABDICATES.

Dowager Empress Supreme and Proposed Reforms Are Impossible. An imperial edict issued at Pekin announces that the Emperor has abdicated in favor of the dowager empress. The latter has ordered that henceforth the ministers shall deliver their official reports to her. The edict says the Emperor three times requested the Empress to reassume the government, and that she yielded at the third request. It is difficult to learn accurately what is happening iu the palace. There is little doubt that the reform edicts led to the deposition of the Emperor. The Dowager Empress was content to let the Emperor alone so long as he was merely a figurehead, but when he initiated or sanctioned a policy that was opposed to her views she compelled him to abdicate. Numerous rumors are in circulation, some of which are alarming. One report has it that the Dowager Empress is actuated by the determination to ba tile Marquis Ito, the Japanese statesman, who, it was understood, visited Pekin for the purpose of arranging an offensive and defensive alliance between China and Japan. When the Emperor received Marquis Ito in audience the other day hi’ showed him great honor, and expressed the hope that he would give advice respecting the proposed reforms. Another report says that violent scenes occurred between the Dowager Empress and the Emperor in the Tsung-li-Ynmen. The Empress is believed to be greatly incensed by Russia's passivity and by the degradation of Li Hung Chang, and is now courting Russia with all her might.