To his duties as viceroy were added those of the superintendent of trade, and from that time until his death, with a few intervals of retirement, he practically conducted the foreign policy of China. He concluded the Chifu convention with Sir Thomas Wade (1876), and thus ended the difficulty caused by the murder of Mr Margary in Yunnan; he arranged treaties with Peru and Japan, and he actively directed the Chinese policy in Korea. On the death of the emperor T’ungchi in 1875 he, by suddenly introducing a large armed force into the capital, effected a coup d’état by which the emperor Kwang Sü was put on the throne under the tutelage of the two dowager empresses; and in 1886, on the conclusion of the Franco-Chinese war, he arranged a treaty with France. Li was always strongly impressed with the necessity of strengthening the empire, and when viceroy of Chihli he raised a large well-drilled and well-armed force, and spent vast sums both in fortifying Port Arthur and the Taku forts and in increasing the navy. For years he had watched the successful reforms effected in Japan and had a well-founded dread of coming into conflict with that empire. But in 1894 events forced his hand, and in consequence of a dispute as to the relative influence of China and Japan in Korea, war broke out. The result proved the wisdom of Li’s fears. Both on land and at sea the Chinese forces were ignominiously routed, and in 1895, on the fall of Wei-hai-wei, the emperor sued for peace. With characteristic subterfuge his advisers suggested as peace envoys persons whom the mikado very properly and promptly refused to accept, and finally Li was sent to represent his imperial master at the council assembled at Shimonoseki. With great diplomatic skill Li pleaded the cause of his country, but finally had to agree to the cession of Formosa, the Pescadores, and the Liaotung peninsula to the conquerors, and to the payment of an indemnity of 200,000,000 taels. By a subsequent arrangement the Liaotung peninsula was restored to China, in exchange for an increased indemnity. During the peace discussions at Shimonoseki, as Li was being borne through the narrow streets of the town, a would-be assassin fired a pistol point-blank in his face. The wound inflicted was not serious, and after a few days’ rest Li was able to take up again the suspended negotiations. In 1896 he represented the emperor at the coronation of the tsar, and visited Germany, Belgium, France, England, and the United States of America. For some time after his return to China his services were demanded at Peking, where he was virtually constituted minister for foreign affairs; but in 1900 he was transferred to Canton as viceroy of the two Kwangs. The Boxer movement, however, induced the emperor to recall him to the capital, and it was mainly owing to his exertions that, at the conclusion of the outbreak, a protocol of peace was signed in September 1901. For many months his health had been failing, and he died on the 7th of November 1901. He left three sons and one daughter.
(R. K. D.)
LILAC,[1] or Pipe Tree (Syringa vulgaris), a tree of the olive family, Oleaceae. The genus contains about ten species of ornamental hardy deciduous shrubs native in eastern Europe and temperate Asia. They have opposite, generally entire leaves and large panicles of small regular flowers, with a bell-shaped calyx and a 4-lobed cylindrical corolla, with the two stamens characteristic of the order attached at the mouth of the tube. The common lilac is said to have come from Persia in the 16th century, but is doubtfully indigenous in Hungary, the borders of Moldavia, &c. Two kinds of Syringa, viz. alba and caerulea, are figured and described by Gerard (Herball, 1597), which he calls the white and the blue pipe privets. The former is the common privet, Ligustrum vulgare, which, and the ash tree, Fraxinus excelsior, are the only members of the family native in Great Britain. The latter is the lilac, as both figure and description agree accurately with it. It was carried by the European colonists to north-east America, and is still grown in gardens of the northern and middle states.
There are many fine varieties of lilac, both with single and double flowers; they are among the commonest and most beautiful of spring-flowering shrubs. The so-called Persian lilac of gardens (S. dubia, S. chinensis var. Rothomagensis), also known as the Chinese or Rouen lilac, a small shrub 4 to 6 ft. high with intense violet flowers appearing in May and June, is considered to be a hybrid between S. vulgaris and S. persica—the true Persian lilac, a native of Persia and Afghanistan, a shrub 4 to 7 ft. high with bluish-purple or white flowers. Of other species, S. Josikaea, from Transylvania, has scentless bluish-purple flowers; S. Emodi, a native of the Himalayas, is a handsome shrub with large ovate leaves and dense panicles of purple or white strongly scented flowers. Lilacs grow freely and flower profusely in almost any soil and situation, but when neglected are apt to become choked with suckers which shoot up in great numbers from the base. They are readily propagated by means of these suckers.
Syringa is also a common name for the mock-orange Philadelphus coronarius (nat. ord. Saxifragaceae), a handsome shrub 2 to 10 ft. high, with smooth ovate leaves and clusters of white flowers which have a strong orange-like scent. It is a native of western Asia, and perhaps some parts of southern Europe.
[1] The Span. lilac, Fr. lilac, mod. lilas, are adapted from Arab. lilak, Pers. līlak, variant of milak, of a blue color, mil, blue, the indigo-plant.
LILBURNE, JOHN (c. 1614-1657), English political agitator, was the younger son of a gentleman of good family in the county of Durham. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a clothier in London, but he appears to have early addicted himself to the “contention, novelties, opposition of government, and violent and bitter expressions” for which he afterwards became so conspicuous as to provoke the saying of Harry Marten (the regicide) that, “if the world was emptied of all but John Lilburn, Lilburn would quarrel with John, and John with Lilburn.” He appears at one time to have been law-clerk to William Prynne. In February 1638, for the part he had taken in importing and circulating The Litany and other publications of John Bastwick and Prynne, offensive to the bishops, he was sentenced by the Star Chamber to be publicly whipped from the Fleet prison to Palace Yard, Westminster, there to stand for two hours in the pillory, and afterwards to be kept in gaol until a fine of £500 had been paid. He devoted his enforced leisure to his favourite form of literary activity, and did not regain his liberty until November 1640, one of the earliest recorded speeches of Oliver Cromwell being made in support of his petition to the House of Commons (Nov. 9, 1640). In 1641 he received an indemnity of £3000. He now entered the army, and in 1642 was taken prisoner at Brentford and tried for his life; sentence would no doubt have been executed had not the parliament by threatening reprisals forced his exchange. He soon rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, but in April 1645, having become dissatisfied with the predominance of Presbyterianism, and refusing to take the covenant, he resigned his commission, presenting at the same time to the Commons a petition for considerable arrears of pay. His violent language in Westminster Hall about the speaker and other public men led in the following July to his arrest and committal to Newgate, whence he was discharged, however, without trial, by order of the House, in October. In January 1647 he was committed to the Tower for accusations against Cromwell, but was again set at liberty in time to become a disappointed spectator of the failure of the “Levellers” or ultrademocratic party in the army at the Ware rendezvous in the following November. The scene produced a deep impression on his mind, and in February 1649 he along with other petitioners presented to the House of Commons a paper entitled The Serious Apprehensions of a part of the People on behalf of the Commonwealth, which he followed up with a pamphlet, England’s New Chains Discovered, criticizing Ireton, and another exposing the conduct of Cromwell, Ireton and other leaders of the army since June 1647 (The Hunting of the Foxes from Newmarket and Triploe Heath to Whitehall by Five Small Beagles, the “beagles” being Lilburne, Richard Overton, William Walwyn, Prince and another). Finally, the Second Part of England’s New Chains Discovered, a violent outburst against “the dominion of a council of state, and a constitution of a new and unexperienced nature,” became the subject of discussion in the House, and led anew to the imprisonment of its author in the Tower on the 11th of April. His trial in the following October, on a charge of seditious and scandalous practices against the state, resulted in his unanimous acquittal, followed by his release in November. In 1650 he was advocating the release of trade from the restrictions of chartered companies and monopolists.