gn ministers at Peking had to bring up guards from the
fleet for the protection of the legations, and to demand the removal
from the capital of the disorderly Kan-suh soldiery which subsequently
played so sinister a part in the troubles of June 1900. But the
unpleasant impression produced by these incidents was in a great measure
removed by the demonstrative reception which the empress Tsz'e Hsi gave
on the 15th of October to the wives of the foreign representatives--an
act of courtesy unprecedented in the annals of the Chinese court.

The Boxer movement, 1900.

The reactionary tide continued to rise throughout the year 1899, but it
did not appear materially to affect the foreign relations of China.
Towards the end of the year the brutal murder of Mr Brooks, an English
missionary, in Shan-tung, had compelled attention to a popular movement
which had been spreading rapidly throughout that province and the
adjoining one of Chih-li with the connivance of certain high officials,
if not under their direct patronage. The origin of the "Boxer" movement
is obscure. Its name is derived from a literal translation of the
Chinese designation, "the fist of righteous harmony." Like the kindred
"Big Sword" Society, it appears to have been in the first instance
merely a secret association of malcontents chiefly drawn from the lower
classes. Whether the empress Tsz'e Hsi and her Manchu advisers had
deliberately set themselves from the beginning to avert the danger by
deflecting what might have been a revolutionary movement into
anti-foreign channels, or whether with Oriental heedlessness they had
allowed it to grow until they were powerless to control it, they had
unquestionably resolved to take it under their protection before the
foreign representatives at Peking had realized its gravity. The outrages
upon native Christians and the threats against foreigners generally went
on increasing. The Boxers openly displayed on their banners the device:
"Exterminate the foreigners and save the dynasty," yet the
representatives of the powers were unable to obtain any effective
measures against the so-called "rebels," or even a definite condemnation
of their methods.[51]

Four months (January-April 1900) were spent in futile interviews with
the Tsung-Li-Yamen. In May a number of Christian villages were destroyed
and native converts massacred near the capital. On the 2nd of June two
English missionaries, Mr Robinson and Mr Norman, were murde