China and the Manchus

s that the Empress Dowager was breaking up. Her last political act of any importance, except the nomination of the heir to the throne, w

at she would thus enjoy a further spell of power until the child should be of age. But on the following day the Empress Dowager also died; a singular coincidence which has been attributed to the determinati

fter all, the final power to accept or reject their measures was vested in the Emperor, which really left things very much as they had been. The new charter was not found to be of much value, and there is little doubt that the Manchus regarded it

try where everybody is supposed to have his price, and that due notice of anything important is sure to leak out, must have been rather astonished when, without any warning, they found China in the throes of a well-planned revolution, which was over, with its object gained, almost as soon as the real gravity of the situation was realized. It is true that under the Manchus access to off

out of the sixteen conspirators were arrested and executed; Sun Yat-sen alone escaped. A year later, he was in London, preparing himself for further efforts by the study of Western forms of government, a very large reward being offered by the Chinese Government for his body, dead or alive. During his stay there he was decoyed into the Chinese Legation, and imprisoned in an upper room, from which he would have been hurried away to China, probably as a lunatic, to share the fat

Sun Yat-s

thought tha

y I should

incredibly short space of time, half China was ablaze. By the middle of October the Manchus were beginning to feel that a great crisis was at hand, and the Regent was driven to recall Yüan Shih-k?ai, whom he had summarily dismissed from office two

be able to travel, meaning, of course, to gain time, and be in a position to dictate his own terms. On the 30th October, when it

nalism. On railway matters someone whom I trusted fooled me, and thus public opinion was opposed. When I urged reform, the officials and gentry seized the opportunity to embezzle. When old laws are abolished, high officials serve their own ends. Much of

n. In Canton and Kiangsi riots appear. The whole empire is seething. The minds of the people are perturbed. The spirits

to carry out the constitution faithfully, modifying legislation, developing the interests of the people, and abolishing the

d decay,"-a favourite theme around which the novelist delights to weave his romance. This may perhaps account for the tame resistance of the Manchus to what they recognized as the inevitable. They had enjoyed a good span

Emperor was now withdrawn, and it was expressly stated that Imperial decrees were not to over-ride the law, though even here we find the addition of "except in t

ime Minister, and on December 3, the new Empre

e from politics. I, the Empress Dowager, living within the palace, am ignorant of the state of affairs but I know that rebellion exists and fighting is continuing, causing disasters everywhere, while the commerce of friendly nations suffers. I must enquire into the circumstances and find a remedy. The Regent is honest, though ambitious and unskilled in politics. Being misled, he has harmed the people, and therefore his resignation is accepted. The Regent's seal is cancelled. Let the Regent receive fifty thousand taels annually from the Imperial household allowances, and hereafter the Premier and the Cabinet will con