"Li Ping Hêng had taken up his private residence in the southeastern corner of Pecheli, close to the Shantung frontier, and the Boxer movement, already started in a tentative way in the latter province, now received an immense impetus from the occurrences alluded to and was carefully nurtured and fostered by that cashiered official—more respected than ever by his countrymen. Other high officials were known to be in sympathy with the new departure and to give it their strongest approval and support, such as Hsü Tung, Kang I, and men of the same stamp and standing, and their advice to the throne was to try conclusions with foreigners and yield no more to their demands. However mistaken may have been their reading of foreigners, and however wrong their manner of action, these men—eminent in their own country for their learning and services—were animated by patriotism, were enraged at foreign dictation, and had the courage of their convictions: we must do them the justice of allowing they were actuated by high motives and love of country—but that does not always or necessarily mean political ability or highest wisdom. … "The Chinese, an intelligent, cultivated race, sober, industrious, and on their own lines civilised, homogeneous in language, thought, and feeling, which numbers some four hundred millions, lives in its own ring fence, and covers a country which—made up of fertile land and teeming waters, with infinite variety of mountain and plain, hill and dale, and every kind of climate and condition—on its surface produces all that a people requires and in its bosom hides untold virgin wealth that has never yet been disturbed—this race, after thousands of years of haughty seclusion and exclusiveness, has been pushed by the force of circumstances and by the superior strength of assailants into treaty relations with the rest of the world, but regards that as a humiliation, sees no benefit accruing from it, and is looking forward to the day when it in turn will be strong enough to revert to its old life again and do away with foreign intercourse, interference, and intrusion: it has slept long, as we count sleep, but it is awake at last and its every member is tingling with Chinese feeling—'China for the Chinese and out with the foreigners!'