45 



Leading Articles in the Reviews 



THE CHINESE REVOLUTION. 



Why the Manchus have Fallen. 



Mr. Stephen Bonsal, writing in the North 

 American Rcvinv, gives the following explanation as 

 to how it IS the .Manchu dynasty has been repudiated 

 by the people of China : — 



From first to last every concession wrung from the Throne 

 has been cancelled or ils effect nullified. In 1910, after many 

 pelays and much shuffling of the cards, the .Senate, or Upper 

 House of the Parliament, that was not to be perfected until 

 191 7, as-emb'ed in Peking. Half of its members were selected 

 by the Ke^cnt from anong that class of tried public men who 

 in England are summoned to the Privy Council. The other 

 half, it is true, were elected, but not by a popular vote. The 

 members %v<re the choice of provincial notables and of the 

 business guilds. Tney »er.', one and all, men of property and 

 of subst..n:e. To gag the assembly in case of need a Manchu 

 Prince was appointed to preside over its deliberations. But all 

 these precautions were of no avail. To the surprise and dismay 

 of the Court, this body from the very moment it was called into 

 existence revealed itself as more insistent upon radical reforms 

 and popular representation than even the provincial diets had 

 been, and its members insisted upon sending repeated petitions 

 10 the Throne asking that the more popular branch of the 

 National Assembly be immediately convened. 



These petitions were rejected or ignored, and then the 

 people, particularly the student bodies, began to play disquiet- 

 ing rdlis. Arn.e 1 with petitions with millions of signatures 

 attached, the students broke into the Senate Chamber, made 

 fiery speeches, and gave other and more convincing evidence of 

 their sincerity One cut off his finger, another his hand, the 

 next an arm, and the climax was reached when a fourth opened 

 his t«;lly with a knife and bespattered the monster petition with 

 his life's blood. The great throngs of people that had gathered 

 ihcn rushed to the palace, where, being refused audience, they 

 camped in the courtyard. When the Chinese students sang the 

 " .Marseillaise" in the halls of Confucius, the Regent yielded 

 and an edict was issued convoking the National Assembly, or, 

 rather, the lower and more popular branch, for 1913 — a gain of 

 four years. 



Reluctant concession begat, as usual, more extravagant 

 demands, the Throne shuffled, and the open break came at a 

 moment when most of the demands had been acceded to. To- 

 day the Revolution is rampant in many provinces and all- 

 poiverful in not a few. Indeed, its astonishing successes have 

 been greater outside than within the area of the military opera- 

 tions now in progress. The practical surrender of the Throne, 

 as contained in the pathetic edict of November 1st, may slay the 

 ' hand of the Revolution .and should certainly strengthen the 

 position of Yuan Shi-R'ai and of those who are seeking a 

 formula with which to save the country from the impending 

 anarchy. It may well be, however, that the confession of the 

 boy Kmperor will be taken by the Chinese people as the 

 valedictory of the Manchu clan 



AmiuuE OF China to Japan. 

 In The E<ut and the Wat for January Rev. A. J. 

 Brown writes on the new life of China. He quotes 

 ("olonel John Hay, who said that the political storm- 



.ceiitrc of the world has shifted to China, and " who- 

 ever understands ihit empire and its people has a key 

 to world-politics for the next five centuries" : — 



I The Japanese arc eager to counsel the Chinese in ihisforinalivc 

 peiod. For two or three years after the Russo-J.ipan war their 



j prestige was great, and China appeared to be willing to follow 

 the nmbiiious islanders. Japanese advisers were influential in 

 ihaping Chinese military and political affairs, and thousands of 

 Chinese students flocked to Japan for instruction. But recently 



the sentiment of the Chinese has undergone a marked change. 

 The Chinese are offended by the assumption of superiority 

 which has characterised the Japanese since their victory over 

 Russia. The number of Chinese students in Japan has dwindled 

 from approximately 1 5, coo to 4,000. But Japanese agents 

 who are trying to" influence China's policy find themselves 

 rebuffed. If the Chinese were to be inspired with a national 

 spirit, and come to realise that in union is strength, then, with 

 the weapons of modern warfare in their hands, and moving, not 

 as individuals, but as a united country of 446,000,000 people, 

 they would become the mightiest power that the world has 

 seen. This inspiration witli a national spirit, this fusing of 

 individualism into the unity of a majestic nation, is now taking 

 place before our eyes. 



How Many Chinese? 



The editor of The East and the West challenges 

 the common impression that the population of Cjiina 

 was 400 millions, or, as the Rev. A. J. Brown earlier 

 in the same number says, 446' millions. The editor 

 remarks : — 



It is a severe shock to learn that our reckoning has been out 

 by nearly a hundred millions. According' to a census which 

 has just been published by the late Chinese Government, the 

 number of its people is 312,420,025. Our figures are taken 

 from the Chinese Cabinet Gazdtc, which is the oldest news- 

 paper in the world. It was not thought possible to count each 

 separate individual, but the families were counted, and were 

 then multiplied by fire. 



If the number of inhabitants given above be correct — and it is 

 more likely to be correct than any previous estimate — the 

 population of China is three million less than the population of 

 India as shown by its last census. 



YUAN SHIH-KAI. 



The Last Hope of the Manchus. 

 According to an interesting sketch of the life of 

 " the foremost man in China," printed in the Oriental 

 Review (Xew York), Yuan Shih-Kai was born fifty- 

 two years ago in the Province of Hona'i : — 



He was adopted as a boy by a soldier uncle, and in 1S82 he 

 went with a Chinese detichment to the assistance of the King 

 of Korea, then threatened by a revolution. He remained, in 

 that kingdom for twelve years, becoming Imperial Resident at 

 the early age of twenty-six, and continuing to hold that post 

 uniil the war with Japan in 1894-95 expelled the Chinese from 

 the peninsula. Nominally as Chine?e .Minister to Korea, he 

 dictated the policy of the Korean Gpvcrnment in its dealings 

 with other countries, and when the longhak-dong insurrection 

 occurred in 1S94, he telegraphed to China, and had troops sent 

 to Asan, Korea. 



This being in violation of the Tientsin treaty 

 between Japan and China, Japan also despatched 

 troops, and proposed to Yuan that China and Japan 

 co-operate in the carrying out of Korean reforms. 

 Yuan, desiring a free hand in Korean affairs, caused 

 the Korean Government to inform the Japanese that 

 " Korea would carry out her proposed reforms of 

 her^ own accord, but that the first thing required was 

 that Japan withdraw her troops." Though his tactics 

 in Korean diplomacy were bold and clever, Yuan did 

 not stand to his guns. .Vs a matter of fact, he fled 

 from Seoul to Tientsin, leaving the Koreans in the 

 hands of the Japanese. We condense the following 



