CHAPTER XVI 



CONCLUSION^ 



Some General Remarks on the Rebellion, the Causes 

 which have produced it ; the people and future 

 Possibilities 



DURING the past two years events in China have 

 followed so rapidly on one another that it is scarcely 

 wise to attempt to discuss any phase of the situation 

 other than that presented at the moment. Much history has 

 been made in a very short period, and he would be a bold man 

 who ventured to predict, other than in a general way, the possi- 

 bilities or probabilities of the near future. Such conflicting 

 accounts of the progress of events have been published that it 

 is next to impossible for the man in the street to obtain any- 

 thing like an accurate idea of the situation. According to a 

 certain section of the foreign Press the Chinese in dethroning 

 the Manchu Dynasty emancipated themselves from a verit- 

 able Kingdom of Belial, and in its stead have established a 

 promising Utopia. The more reliable section of this Press, 

 however, takes a rather different view. That there has been 

 a tremendous upheaval is perfectly obvious, but what the 

 permanent result will be is undeniably obscure. The progress 

 of the revolution has been amazingly rapid, and the results to 

 date have been achieved with a minimum loss of life. Much 

 privation and suffering has been wrought among all classes, 

 but on the whole the dynastic dethronement has been more 

 peaceably brought about than changes of a similar character 

 in the past. 



It cannot be said that the revolution came as an unexpected 

 event to those intimately acquainted with China. On the 

 contrary, the surprise was that it had been so long deferred. 



