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 VIII

reorganization of the Chinese government, after the evacuation of the capital by the allies in 1860, gave evidence that the lesson so rudely taught by the foreign armies was to be of profit to the empire. Hitherto what little attention had been bestowed upon foreign affairs was intrusted to the Colonial Board, the department which had to do with the intercourse of the tributary nations, Korea, Annam, and other adjacent countries. Yielding to the demand of the envoys of the allied powers, a board of foreign affairs was organized, termed the Tsung-li Yamen. With this department the diplomatic representatives, whose permanent residence at Peking had been secured as the chief result of the war, were to hold direct intercourse, and with it their business was to be transacted.

The emperor, who had fled at the approach of the allied armies, having died soon after their withdrawal from the capital, was succeeded by his infant son, and upon the organization of the Tsung-li Yamen, Prince Kung, an uncle of the young ruler, was designated as its president. He was a man of intelligence and proved to be a wise statesman with liberal tendencies, who recognized the necessity of his country's maintaining intercourse with the outside nations. With him was