The Rutland Daily Globe

The New Emperor of China

The North China Herald gives some particulars respecting the new emperor, which appear to show that there has been some mistake about the identity of his majesty and his father. The paper says, "A boy named Tsaitien, a cousin of the late emperor, is the new ruler of China, under the style and title of Kwang-su. Early on the morning following the death of the late emperor it was rumored in Pekin that a grandchild of his eldest uncle, the prince of Tun, had been elected for the succession in the absence of a direct heir, but in the course of the day it became known that the two empresses—i.e. the empress dowager and the empress mother of T'ung Che, the well known regents during the late minority, had selected the only son of the seventh prince, the prince of Ch'un. The child, who it at present, it is said, between three and four years old, was designated as successor to the throne in a decree of the empresses, to which sanction was declared in the valedictory manifesto of the departed sovereign. The selection is popularly attributed to the choice of the empress mother, who is a sister of the prince of Ch'un, and consequently aunt by blood as well as marriage to the child. The result shows that the empresses have known how to maintain and exalt the position gained by their coup d'etat in 1861, when they seized the reins of power after the death of Hien-fung."