central government--which is
another way of saying that the provinces did not see why all the spoils
should go to Peking.

A month after the rebellion in Szechuan had broken out, the great
revolution began, and met with the most astonishing success from the
very outset. Within a few weeks practically the whole of southern China
was in the hands of the revolutionaries, and the Throne in hot panic
summoned Yuan Shih-kai from his retirement to its assistance; after
some hesitation and delay he came--but too late to save the dynasty and
the Manchus, though there is no shadow of doubt that he did his best
and tried his utmost to save them. With Wuchang, Hankau, and
Hanyang--the three form the metropolis, as it may be termed, of
mid-China--in the possession of the revolutionaries, and other great
centers overtly disaffected or disloyal, the Regent opened the session
of the national assembly, and it forthwith proceeded to assert itself
and make imperious demands with which the Throne was compelled to
comply--this was within a fortnight after the attack on Wuchang that
had begun the revolution. On November 1st the Throne appointed Yuan
Shih-kai Prime Minister, and a week later the national assembly
confirmed him in the office; he arrived in Peking on the thirteenth of
the month, was received in semi-regal state, and immediately instituted
such measures as were possible for the security of the dynasty and the
pacification of the country. But ten days before he reached Peking the
Throne had been forced to issue an edict assenting to the principles
which the national assembly had set forth in nineteen articles as
forming the basis of the Constitution; these articles, while preserving
the dynasty and keeping sacrosanct the person of the Emperor, made the
monarchy subject to the Constitution and the Government to Parliament,
with a responsible Cabinet presided over by a Prime Minister, and gave
Parliament full control of the budget.

Here, then, was the triumph of the constitutional cause, and Yuan
Shih-kai and most of the moderate progressive Chinese would have been
well satisfied with it if it had contented the revolutionaries of the
south. But from the beginning the southerners had made it plain that
they were determined to bring about the abdication of the dynasty, the
complete overthrow of the Manchus, and the establishment of a
republican form of government, nor would they lay down their arms on
any other terms. In a short t