he Pilo and Chia Sheng died from his horse. Ask them why they did
these things, they will say they did not know. Once I wrote a piece
of poetry containing the following lines:

"Ten years after you will think of me,
The country is excited. To whom shall I speak?"

I have spoken much in my life, and all my words have become subjects
for meditation ten years after they were uttered. Never, however,
have any of my words attracted the attention of my own countrymen
before a decade has spent itself. Is it a misfortune for my words or
a misfortune to the Country? My hope is that there will be no
occasion for the country to think of my present words ten years
hence.

CHAPTER XI

THE DREAM EMPIRE

"THE PEOPLE'S VOICE," AND THE ACTION OF THE POWERS (FROM SEPTEMBER TO
DECEMBER, 1915)

The effect of Liang Ch'i-chao's appeal was noticeable at once: there
were ominous mutterings among all the great class of "intellectuals" who
form such a remarkable element throughout the country. Nevertheless
there were no overt acts attempted against the authority of Peking.
Although literary and liberal China was now thoroughly convinced that
the usurpation which Yuan Shih-kai proposed to practise would be a
national disgrace and lead to far-reaching complications, this force
were too scattered and too much under the power of the military to
tender at once any active opposition as would have been the case in
Western countries. Yuan Shih-kai, measuring this situation very
accurately, and aware that he could easily become an object of popular
detestation if the people followed the lead of the scholars, decided to
place himself outside and beyond the controversy by throwing the entire
responsibility on the Tsan Cheng Yuan, the puppet Senate he had erected
in place of the parliament destroyed by his _coup d'etat_ of the 4th
November, 1913. In a message issued to that body on the 6th September,
1915, he declared that although in his opinion the time was
inappropriate for making any change in the form of State, the matter
demanded the most careful and serious consideration which he had no
doubt would be given to it. If a change of so momentous a character as
was now being publicly advocated were decided in too great a haste it
might create grave complications: therefore the opinion of the nation
should be consulted by the method of the ballot. And with this _nunc
dimittis_ he officiall