214 



The Review of Reviews. 



assistants, and in binding them to himself in strongest 

 bonds of loyalty." 



HIS ARROGANCE IN KOREA. 



At Seoul, Yuan took to himself the title of Resident, 

 in imitation of the British representative in India. His 

 arrogance knew no bounds. He would not attend 

 diplomatic meetings with the other members of the 

 diplomatic corps, but at an earlier hour. He showed 

 an especial contempt for Japan. In 1894 he was rudely 

 disillusioned, and his arrogance all went, and he dis- 

 appeared from Korea so rapidly as to leave his women- 

 folk behind to the mercies of those to whom he had 

 been so haughty. 



HIS LOYALTY OF SOUL< 



In general Mr. Allen says : — 



Loy.ilty li.is been shown to be one of Yuan's chief character- 

 istics, .ind, judging from the press notices, he was loyal to the 

 throne in the extremity just experienced, and only advocated or 

 consented to alxlicalion when that seemed to be inevitable. As 

 has been said before, the quicker mind of Tang doubtless 

 greatly influenced Yuan in bringing him gradually to recognise 

 tlic revolutionists, of whose government he is now the head. 

 IS HE THE MAN NEEDED ? 



.\s to the future, Mr. Allen's forecast is as follows : — 

 The situation needs a powerful, masterful man, of intense 

 conviction and strenuous energy. Yuan has presumably but a 

 half-hearted interest in the present movement, even if it has 

 carried him to heights of which he could never even have 

 dreamed in his most arrogant days in Korea, and his former 

 energy has been sapped by his mode of life. He will doubtless 

 give place to someone more fully equal to the occasion if out- 

 side influences do not supervene to the more or less dismember- 

 ment of that great empire wliicii has so often and for so loirg 

 felt the yoke of foreign control. 



If tranquil times supervine, Yuan should be as good a head 

 as China can at once secure. He is loyal, open to conviction, 

 astute in his selection of associates and advisers, and has a 

 foreign education that has opened his mind to progress along 

 modern lines and the danger that lies in weakness, disorder, 

 and unpreparedness. 



ARE THE CHINESE OUR EQUALS? 



Yes, replies .Mr. E. H. I^irker, whose experience 

 entitles him to be heard. He writes in the Asiatic 

 Quarterly Review for July on the Chinese revolution. 

 He says the Republic ought to succeed, if the conflict- 

 ing interests of the [apanese, Europeans, and Americans 

 can refrain from creating complications and difficulties. 

 A LAND OF " No-government." 



The removal of the dynasty only slightly affects 

 Chinese life : — 



Cities, municipalities, villages, ail aggregations in China, 

 govern themselves ; trade governs itself ; shipping governs 

 itself ; families and communities govern themselves. The 

 money taken from the people is in no way spent upon the 

 people. Thus, even in tile heyday of Mancliu rule, if every 

 mandarin in the lOmpire had lieen suil<lenly and simultaneously 

 smitten with paralysis, no great harm Houid have been done to 

 the general activities of popular life, so long as there were no 

 breaches of the iniblic peace. .Anarchy, in its best and freest 

 sense of " no Government," exists throughout Cliina. 

 (HR F.Ql'ALS OR EVEN SUPERIORS ! 



The writer proceeds to show that there is more 

 freedom in China than in almost any country excepting 



Great Britain. Every man is as good as his neighbour 

 in China. Any peasant may rise to be Viceroy. There 

 is absolutely no caste feeling. The minds of the Chinese 

 are still absolutely unchained and free. There is no 

 such besotted ignorance as prevails in Russia : — 



In my opinion the Chinese as a nation are not more pre- 

 judiced than we ourselves, and, man for man, I consider them 

 quite our intellectual equals ; in the " lower orders " even our 

 superiors. Even if the "yellow races" did succeed in asserting 

 themselves, I suspect we self-complacent "whites" would be 

 none the worse for it. 



CHINA A DE.MOCRACV. 



A patriarchal country in name, China has alway- 



been a democratic cbuntry in fact. Hence, so far a^ 



practical facts are concerned, the present transition 

 need give little trouble : — 



The Chinese, man for man, are fully our equals intellectuallr. 

 however far back they may have fallen behind us in mailers ot 

 discipline, economy, administration, the arts of war, finance, 

 and practical law. They are quite as capable as we are of 

 evolving their own form of Christianity, which, on its owij 

 hypothesis, was intended for them as much as for us. Judaea is. 

 nearer to China than to .-\merica. 



INDIA'S HERCULES. 



This was Rama Murti Naidu, whose feats of strength 

 are described in the Indian Revinp by Mr. Saint Nihal 

 Singh. He won the name of the " Indian Hercules " 

 by letting an elephant weighing four tons walk over 

 his abdomen ; a twelve horse-power motor-car run 

 over his shoulder and back ; two country carts loaded 

 to the limit of their capacity with men and boys from 

 his audience pass over his shoulders and thighs ; 

 bearing a stone weighing three thousand pounds on 

 his chest and back, and letting men break a large rock 

 on it with heavy sledge-hammers ; and snapping 

 asunder a stout chain about one-eighth of an inch in 

 thickness by merely raising his shoulders. He is a 

 most popular figure in Inciia, and receives wherever 

 he goes the reception of a prince. With high thinking 

 he combines plain living, being a pure vegetarian. " .V 

 couple of hours after his night performance is over he 

 takes a light meal of rice, pulse, greens, or one or tw& 

 vegetables, all mixed together, and weighing not more 

 than half a pound in all. He takes water, or some- 

 times plain soda, and that, too, very moderately,, 

 disdaining tea, cofTee, cocoa, and spirituous litjuors. 

 He leaves his bed at eight o'clock in the forenoon,, 

 when his favourite drink is ready for him. 'I'his i.<; 

 made from almonds, cummin seed, and black pepper, 

 weighing in all two pounds, soaked o\ernight, made 

 into a fine pulp, then mixed with a pint of water, 

 strained through a piece of muslin, and sweetened 

 with sugar. An hour later he eats a quartet of .1 

 pound of raw fresh butter. Breakfast is served at om 

 o'clock in the afternoon. It is about the .same son 

 of meal that he eats after his performance. At four 

 o'clock he takes a drink similar to the one already 

 described, made from almonds, wheat bran and milk, 

 and eats a sort of pudding made by boiling together 

 clotted cream, honey, butter, and sugar." 



