nsider that our
former edict allowing all persons to report to us is, for obvious
reasons, superfluous, with the present legitimate machinery at hand.
And we now command that the privilege be withdrawn, and only the proper
officers be permitted to report to us as to what is going on in our
empire. As for the newspaper Chinese Progress, it is really of no use
to the government, while, on the other hand, it will excite the masses
to evil; hence we command the said paper to be suppressed.

"With regard to the proposed Peking University and the middle schools
in the provincial capitals, they may go on as usual, as they are a
nursery for the perfection of true ability and talents. But with
reference to the lower schools in the sub-prefectures and districts
there need be no compulsion, full liberty being given to the people
thereof to do what they please in this connection. As for the
unofficial Buddhist, Taoist, and memorial temples which were ordered to
be turned into district schools, etc., so long as these institutions
have not broken the laws by any improper conduct of the inmates, or the
deities worshipped in them are not of the seditious kind, they are
hereby excused from the edict above noted. At the present moment, when
the country is undergoing a crisis of danger and difficulty, we must be
careful of what may be done, or what may not, and select only such
measures as may be really of benefit to the empire."

I submit the above edict to the reader requesting him to study it, and,
if necessary to its understanding, to copy it, and see if the Empress
Dowager has not preserved the best there is in it, viz., "the Peking
University, and the middle schools in the provincial capitals," "full
liberty being given to the people with reference to the lower schools
in the sub-prefectures and districts to do as they please." How much
oil would be cast on how many troubled waters can only be realized by
the unfortunate priests and dismissed officials and people upon whom
"there need be no compulsion"!

Three days after the foregoing, on September 29th, she issued another
edict purporting to come from the Emperor, ordering the punishment of
Kang Yu-wei and others of his confreres. Now, if it is true that Kang
Yu-wei advised the Emperor to behead Jung Lu and imprison the Empress
Dowager, for no cause whatsoever, how would you have been inclined to
treat him supposing you had been in her place? The decree says:

"All know that we