k unseen. Though the
mandarinate, at the head of which stood Yuan Shih-kai, left no stone
unturned to save itself from its impending fate, all was in vain. Slowly
but inexorably it was shown that a final reckoning had to be faced.

The reasons are not far to seek. Too long had the moral sense of
educated men been outraged by common fraud and deceit for any
continuance of a regime which had disgraced China for four long years to
be humanly possible. Far and wide the word was rapidly passing that Yuan
Shih-kai was not the man he had once been; he was in reality feeble and
choleric--prematurely old from too much history-making and too many
hours spent in the harem. He had indeed become a mere Colossus with feet
of clay,--a man who could be hurled to the ground by precisely the same
methods he had used to destroy the Manchus. Even his foreign supporters
were becoming tired and suspicious of him, endless trouble being now
associated with his name, there being no promise that quieter times
could possibly come so long as he lived. A very full comprehension of
the general position is given by perusing the valedictory letter of the
leader of the Chinese intellectuals, that remarkable man--Liang
Ch'i-chao, who in December had silently and secretly fled from Tientsin
on information reaching him that his assassination was being planned. On
the even of his departure he had sent the following brilliant document
to the Emperor-elect as a reply to an attempt to entrap him to Peking, a
document the meaning of which was clear to every educated man. Its
exquisite irony mixed with its bluntness told all that was necessary to
tell--and forecasted the inevitable fall. It runs:--

For the Kind Perusal of the Great President:--

A respectful reading of your kind instructions reveals to me your
modesty and the brotherly love which you cherish for your humble
servant, who is so moved by your heart-touching sympathy that he
does not know how to return your kindness. A desire then seized him
to submit his humble views for your wise consideration; though on
the one hand he has thought that he might fail to express what he
wishes to say if he were to do so in a set of brief words, while on
the other hand he has no desire to trouble the busy mind of one on
whose shoulders fall myriads of affairs, with views expressed in
many words. Furthermore, what Ch'i-chao desires to say relates to
what can be like