FARCE. 457 FAR EASTERN QUESTION. almost any light piece in which the comic goes to preposterous lengths. Consult: Petit <ic Julleville, /.</ com4die et lea tini ins in France au moyen &ge (Paris, 1886) ; ami Repertoire du the'&tre comique en Franae uu mi, i/i n age (Paris, 1880) ; Inchbald, -1 Collection of Farces and Other Afterpieces (London, 1815). FARCY. See Glanders. FARDEL-BOUND (OF. fardel, burden, Sp., Port, fardel, diminutive of fardo, pack, from Ar. fiirdul, bundle of merchandise -f bound). A dis- ease of cattle and sheep, characterized by impac- tion of the fardel-bag, or third stomach, with food, which is taken in between the leaves of this globular stomach, there to be fully softened and reduced. When the food is unusually tough, dry, or indigestible, consisting, for example, of over- ripe clover, vetch, or rye-grass, the stomach can- not moisten and reduce it with sufficient rapid- ity; fresh quantities continue to be taken in, until the overgorged organ becomes paralyzed, its secretions dried up. and its leaves affected with chronic inflammation. The slighter cases, so com- mon among stall-fed cattle, are 'loss of cud,' in- digestion, and torpidity of the bowels. In severeT form there are also fever, grunting, bloating of the first stomach, and sometimes stupor or epilepsy. The overgorged stomach can, moreover, be felt Im- pressing the closed fist upward and backward underneath the false ribs on the right side. The symptoms often extend over ten days or a fort- night. Purgatives and stimulants are to be given. FAR EASTERN QUESTION. The name commonly given to the complex problem of mod- ern international politics growing out of the acquisition of interests in farther Asia and the Pacific by the Western Powers, with the rivalries consequent thereon, and the close contact of Oriental and Occidental peoples. Ever since the Portuguese mariners of Prince Henry the Navi- gator entered upon the quest of an eastward route to the Indies, and Columbus and his suc- cessors began their explorations to the west- ward, there may be said to have been a Far Eastern Question in embryo, but it remained for the rapid expansion of the world powers in the closing years of the nineteenth century to make it one of the most vital questions in world poli- ties. For many years previously the European Powers had been chiefly concerned with the Eastern Question (q.v.) which had to do with Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire, and the western gates to Asia. The expansion of Russia arcross Asia to the Pacific ; the spread of Brit- ish commercial interests throughout the farther East ; the growing ambition of Germany to estab- lish trade supremacy in the East as an outlet for her capital and industry; and the rise of French colonies and protectorates in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, brought into this distant part of the world the old rivalries of Europe. The decline of the Chinese Empire, which seemed destined to become an easy prey for the European nations. increased the eagerness of the Powers. Still the potentiality of resistance and endurance sup posed to be latent in the ancient empire acted as a restraining influence, till the war between Japan and China in 1894-95 revealed China's weakness and showed the advent of a new power te be reckoned with in that part of the world. The Chinese-Japanese War, therefore, marked a distinct epoch in the development of the Fai Eastern Question. When the terms of the Treat] • a' Shimonoseki (1805) became known, Ru ia, taking a lesson from the treatment she had re- ceived at the hand-, of the Powers at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, sought successfully to deprive Japan of some of tin' unit, of conquest and to gain advantages for herself. Stepping in as friend and protector of China, Russia was able a little later to secure as her reward the posses' sion of the southern part of the Liao-tung Penin- sula, wit h its two valuable harbors of Port Arthur and Ta-lien-wan. Great Britain obtained Wei hai wci as an offset to Russia's acquisition, with right to possession bo long as Russia held Port Arthur and Ta lien-wan. Germany, which had cooperated with Russia in the repression of Japan, obtained, as compensation for the murder of two missionaries, the port of Kiao-chau and important concessions for operations in Shan- t mig Province. In 1898 the fortunes of war established the United States, which had already annexed the Hawaiian Islands, in the Philippine-.. The United States has always advocated the preserva- tion of the integrity of China, and the adminis- tration of President McKinley secured from t lie Powers interested in the East a nominal guaranty of the so-called 'open door' policy in China, that is, of equal rights of trade for all nations, with- out regard to spheres of influence. The value of this guaranty unless the demand for its observ- ance is backed up by force is open to question. In 1900 the Boxer movement involved China in a war with the Western Powers, which seemed Im a while to threaten the integrity of the Empire. The situation at the close of the century may be thus briefly summed up: (1) Russia aiming at the possession or control of Manchuria, partly because of its value as a populous province, hut. more especially as insuring a direct outlet for the great Siberian railway system to the open sea ; (2) Germany seeking to exploit for tic benefit of her own trade and capital the rich Shan-tung and Yellow River country; (3) Great Britain endeavoring with halting and uncertain diplo- macy to strengthen her position in the Yang-tse Valley, with a view to retaining her valuable commerce and a sphere of intluence in case of partition, and to establishing ultimate connec- tion by railway with Burma and India, holding, at the same time, to the open-door policy for all China as best; (4) France in the south leaning on the strong arm of Russia for support in her designs for colonial aggrandizement, and striving through shrewd diplomacy and the acquisition of railway concessions to connect with the Russian railways from the north, cutting across the Brit- ish sphere on the upper Yang-tse; (5) off the Chinese coast, Japan, watchful, ambitious, and aggressive, determined to hold its own with the European Powers, desirous of a position on the mainland in case of partition of China, but pre- ferring to join Great Britain and the L T nited States in a policy looking toward the mainte- nance of the integrity of China and the open door; (til the United States, with commercial interests in the East second only to those of Greal Britain, averse to seizing territory, and while declining to unite with any other Power, seeking independently the same end as Japan.
