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. And now this Grand Secretary whom kings and courts had
honoured, whom emperors and presidents had feted, and our own
government had spent thirty thousand dollars in entertaining, was
once more stripped of his yellow jacket and peacock feather, and
fined the half of a year's salary as a member of the Foreign
Office, which was the amusing sum of forty-five taels or about
thirty-five dollars gold, and it was said in Peking at the time
that only the intercession of the Empress Dowager saved him from
imprisonment or further disgrace.
During the whole regency of the Empress Dowager only two men have
occupied the position of President of the Grand Council--Prince
Kung and Prince Ching. While the former was degraded many times
and had his honours all taken from him, the latter "has kept
himself on top of a rolling log for thirty years" without losing
any of the honours which were originally conferred upon him. The
same is true of Chang Chih-tung, Liu Kun-yi and Wang Wen-shao,
three great viceroys and Grand Secretaries whom the Empress
Dowager has never allowed to be without an important office, but
whom she has never degraded. Need we ask the reason why? The
answer is not far to seek. They were the most eminent progressive
officials she had in her empire, but none of them were great
enough to be a menace to her dynasty, and hence need not be
reminded that there was a power above them which by a stroke of
her pen could transfer them from stars in the official firmament
to dandelions in the grass
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