those limits would not be reached until China herself should approach Japan directly for peace.

This declination was followed on the same date by a request from Japan to the American minister that in the event of China desiring to communicate with Japan upon the subject of peace, it should be done through the legation of the United States at Peking. The intimation was favorably and promptly acted upon by the Chinese government, as within two days Minister Denby was authorized to transmit direct to Japan overtures for peace. This step led to the assurance from Japan that a peace commission appointed by China would be received in a friendly spirit.

In December, 1894, a peace commission, consisting of Chang Yen Huan,' former minister to the United States and a member of the Tsung-li Yamen, and Shao Yu-lien, a provincial governor, was appointed, and

1 Chang's residence in the United States, where he was held in high esteem, convinced him that China's great need was reform in government in accordance with Western civilization, and on his return to China he became a leading member of the liberal section in Chinese politics. He was a trusted adviser of the emperor in his reform movement after the Japanese war, and when the empress dowager virtually dethroned the emperor and resumed the control of the government, Chang was condemned to decapitation on the charge of malfeasance in office as an adviser of the throne. The American and British ministers intervened to save his life, and his punishment was commuted to perpetual banishment at hard labor in distant Mongolia. When the reactionary party was in the ascendancy in 1900, and the foreign legations besieged, the empress dowager caused him to be beheaded. His death was a great loss to China, as he was a liberal and enlightened statesman and could have rendered his country valuable service in the trying period following the "Boxer" movement. At the suggestion of the American government, Chang has recently been posthumously restored to his honors and the disgrace attaching to his execution removed from his family.

reached Hiroshima, Japan, the place designated for the conference, in January, 1895. After meeting with the Japanese commissioners it was decided by the latter that the Chinese credentials were not in proper form, the conferences were closed, and the Chinese commissioners sent out of the country. The objection to the credentials was purely technical, and the Chinese commissioners offered to have the defect corrected by telegraph to suit the views of the Japanese, but the offer was rejected. The true cause for the failure of these negotiations is most probably found in the fact that a formidable expedition was then ready to sail for the reduction of the fortress of Wei-hai-wei and the capture of the Chinese navy, and the Japanese did not choose to settle upon the terms of peace till this important expedition had accomplished its purpose.

After the capture of Wei-hai-wei, Japan let it be understood through the American legation that it would receive Li Hung Chang, who had been nominated peace commissioner, and on March 19 he landed at Shimonoseki, Japan, with a numerous suite. He was here met by Marquis Ito, prime minister, and Count Mutsu, minister of foreign affairs, and after negotiations continuing through four weeks, terms of peace were agreed upon and a treaty signed. Its leading features were the recognition of the complete independence of Korea and the abandonment of all tribute and vassal ceremonies to China, the cession of the Liaotung Peninsula, Formosa, and the Pescadores Islands to Japan, the payment of a war indemnity of two hundred million taels, the opening of four new ports

by China, and the granting of other commercial privileges.

Soon after the war closed the emperor of Japan sent an autograph letter to the President of the United States, in which he expressed his cordial thanks for the friendly offices extended to his subjects in China by which they were on many occasions afforded succor and relief, and for the services of the representatives of the United States in Tokio and Peking whereby the preliminaries looking to the opening of negotiations and the definite termination of hostilities were adjusted. These acts, his majesty said, tended greatly to mitigate the severities and hardships of war, were deeply appreciated by him, and would tend to draw still closer the bonds of friendship which happily unite the two countries.1

In addition to the friendly service which the United States was able to render both Japan and China during the war in bringing the conflict to a close, the emperor of China invited a citizen of the United States to assist his commissioners in the peace negotiations, and the Japanese commissioners likewise had the benefit of an American adviser in their important labors.

It would trespass upon the bounds marked out for

1 As to peace negotiations, U. S. For. Rel. 1894, Appendix i. pp. 29– 106; 1895, p. 969; History of the peace negotiations between China and Japan, officially revised, Tientsin, 1895; Williams's China, 459; “ Vladimir's" China-Japan War, pt. iii. chaps. vii. and ix., Appendix I-K; Heroic Japan, chap. xxxiii. and Appendix A. For events of the war, U. S. For. Rel. 1894, Appendix i. 44-104; Williams's China, 444–459 ; "Vladimir" (cited), pts. ii. and iii. Appendix D, F-H; Heroic Japan; J. Inouye's Hist. For results of the war, China, Travels in the Middle Kingdom, by Gen. J. H. Wilson, U. S. A., New York, 1901, chap. xx.

upon

this volume to enter at length upon a consideration of the results of the war. It will be sufficient here to state that it dispelled the idea that China might be counted in the near future as a military power. It brought to the attention of the world a new factor not only in the Far East, but in the policy of the Western nations. Japan had demonstrated not only that its people were patriotic and warlike, but that its generals possessed a knowledge of strategy, that it had a wellequipped system of sea transportation, and an advanced knowledge of the methods of supplying and moving large armies, and that it contained within itself the financial resources to maintain a great and expensive war. There will be occasion in a later chapter to chronicle the influence of this conflict in bringing about the release of Japan from the shackles with which she had been bound by the Western nations.

The war swept away the last vestige of the vassalage of Korea to China. But in its stead was substituted a new danger to its autonomy. Japan had completely dominated the government of that country during the hostilities, and at their termination was prepared to reap the benefits of its success in increased commercial privileges, and in its control of the administration of the king. But in the execution of its plans it had to

1 The overwhelming success of the Japanese army in the Chinese war, while unexpected to the world at large, was not a surprise to well-informed military observers. General U. S. Grant, after his visit to China and Japan in 1879, expressed the opinion that "a well-appointed body of ten thousand Japanese troops could make their way through the length and breadth of China, against all odds that could be brought to confront them." Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1887, p. 725.

reckon with the designs of Russia. The government of that great and expanding empire, as its first act of interference, compelled Japan to surrender the best fruit of the war in the retrocession to China of the Liao-tung Peninsula. And since that date it has been a constant competitor with the island empire for favor and privileges at the court of Seoul. It may be that this competition in Korea will bring about the next conflict in the Pacific, and even menace the peace of the world.