Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



583 



THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 



A Repl BLic : Pros axu Cons. 

 Mr. Archibald Colquhoun discusses in the 

 Fortnightly Rrcim' the chances of a Republican 

 Government in China. He says : — 



China has been extraordinarily well and peaceably governed 

 in the past. The family and village system, briefly oiitline<l, 

 which is applied, iiiiitnlK mutandis, to towns or pans of towns, 

 has provided the machinery for keeping law and order at (lie 

 miniinum of cost and with the maximum of consideration for 

 the people themselves for they interpret the law and put it iti 

 force in their own persons. Each village, each town, each 

 province, is entirely self-contained and autonomous. There 

 are many reasons and circumstances which point to the 



-sibility of China being successfully split up into aulono- 



A'.!//"'/-!- RtVi('.V.\ 



[Cliin.i. 



The Slicing of the Melon. 



mouii Stales. The real <lifficully begins when we try to provide 

 the connecting link to federate those Stales into a homogeneous 

 hole. 



The difficulty lies in the clioicc of a capital and 

 the constitution of a central power. To the Re- 

 formers — 



rhc word " Jemoctacy " is not to them a shibbulclh. They 

 . jntcm(lale a republic as the only means of getting rid of the 

 Manclius, who stand for leaction in Chinese politics, but they 

 intend to set up a strong central authority ; and, following the 

 precedent of the Turkish revolution, that authority will, at all 

 events to begin with, be a military one. It seems likely that 

 any attempt to establish a genuinely democratic system would 

 throw the whole political power into the hands, not of indi- 

 viduals, but of groups. At its best a republican form uf 

 government impose^ on the individual citizen a rcsi>onsil>iliiy fur 

 which the Chinese millions are not ready ; at its worst il means 



vernmcnt by an oligarchy, as in Mexico. 



There is something Ici be said for the plana, as given 10 me by 

 trie reformers, of a milit.iry domination to last for a term of 



years, followed by a transition period, and leading up to full 

 constitutional government. If he persists in propping up the 

 dynasty Iheie will probably be a split, northern China remain- 

 ing monarchical and the centre and south setting up a republic 

 or republics. Such a settlement cannot be permnneiit, and as it 

 would inevitably open the door for foreign intervention it is to 

 be hoped, in the true interests of China, that it will be avoided 

 at all costs 



AuMiKAL Sevmol'r's VltWS. 



In the Conihill for December Admiral Sir Edward 

 Seymour writes on Chinese changes. He gives a 

 moht succinct and business-like account of the develop- 

 ment of Europe in China, and adds his conclusions 

 on current movements. He says : — 



The various provinces of China often difl'er in their language 

 so as to be unable to imderstand each other ; they have no 

 i)ation;il feelin;^, and are, in fact, quite devoid of what we call 

 jiatriulisni. My own experience on various occasions has very 

 plainly shown me that the natives of the \orth and of the South 

 of China have no common love of country, no inner feeling thai 

 theirs is one nation, which, in spite perhaps of internal 01 

 domestic differences, should become one and united when a 

 lurrign enemy is at their door. 



THE VELLOW PtKIL. 

 I believe the idea or name of "the Yellow Peril" originated 

 with an illustrious and v^ry intelligent personage, but I must 

 say that I cannot share in the anticipation. There is no love 

 lost between China and Japan, and their condiination against 

 other countries could only be ihe result of very bad diplomacy 

 on the part of the latter. Indeed, I no more expect China alone, 

 or a combined China and Japan, to try to emulate the campaigns 

 of Allila or Timoor, than I do to see France and (jermany 

 combine together to invade the United Stales. 



THE KtVOLUTlONAKY OUTLOOK. 



The present revolution in China is the most startling change 

 of a governnienl since the great French cataclysm. Its ap- 

 parent complete success is the best proof of how much it was 

 required, and of how worthless, retrograde, and out of date 

 the rule of the .Manchus had become. No one can pity them, 

 nor could anything have brought reform while they still held 

 actual jjower. Their departure from China would seem the 

 lii>l thing, except for the question of iheir replacement. 

 .\llhough a representative of ibe old Ming dynasty exists, 

 placing him on the throne is almost cut of the question. 

 The idea of the leaders of the rebellion seems to have been to 

 have a Republic. Drastic changes are sometimes best, but in 

 this case the more moderate one to a Constitutional monarchy 

 will l)e the wisest experiment. Is it possible that China vtill 

 try to rival the hitherto unprecedented metamorphosis of her 

 neighbour, J.ijian ? 



Causes of the Revolt. 



.\dachi Kinnosuke contributes to the Amtrican 

 Rniciv of Revinvs a survey of the Chinese revolt. 

 !lc inquires into causes. First, he places the cry of 

 the empty stomach. Hundreds of millions of Chinese 

 are starving to-day, and they know that this is 

 largely due to the pitiless sysletn of grail, or squeeze, 

 exacted by the officials. Ne.xl comes hatrcil of the 

 Man'thu. Young China is Nationalist, and marks 

 the awakening of a great race to consciousness of a 

 great heritage. Third, the writer puts the reform 

 programme of Emperor Kwanghsti, who during his 

 short reign of six months inaugurated or proclaimed 

 a great scries of reforms. litis young Manchu 

 I'rince gave the anti-dynastic uprising its cardinal 

 articles of faith. The revolutionists are the genuine 



