8. When the provisional united government shall have been recognised by the foreign Powers, foreign relations shall be directly in charge of that government.
9. When the government system has been determined all foreign loans and indemnities shall be paid when due and the provinces should continue to send their usual contributions.
10. The Edict by which the Emperor surrenders the government shall be printed and copies promulgated throughout the country. An Edict will also be issued to the soldiery so as to acquaint them and prevent mutiny.
And before I commence this concluding chapter, there will be need to explain that the date of writing is placed at its head because of the rapidity with which changes are coming to the land and the people. In a footnote will be seen the Edict referred to. It stands alone among all edicts that have ever been issued in China. Of all political documents this may be taken as that which will shake the very centre of the world if it is carried into practical effect. So important is it that it were futile for one placed as the author is in the centre of this Empire to endeavour to analyse just what it may mean. What this Imperial Republic of China—for this is what now has come—will develop into only the future can show. Not within the power of any living man is it possible to-day to foretell. As one writes his pen tremulously travels lest telling what appears to-day as unshakable fact will even before this volume is published turn out, in this land of political elasticity, to be nothing but absurdity. But discarding altogether the cloak of the prophet, and drawing his everyday deductions from everyday experience throughout out China's Revolution, one may now with confidence declare unhesitatingly that this country will make international headway as never before.
The Republic of China is now among the Powers of the world.
The Republicans of China, new-born into a life full of highest promise to mankind, now have free way. In them, if they are wise and good, as wise and good as we believe them anxious to be, we shall soon see on the horizon of the East a nation whose power will be ultimately predominant on the earth, upon whose integrity will undeniably depend the peace of the world. And whilst, if the Republicans rise to the best within them, if they are given foreign support such as their unparalleled political conduct deserves, if they are successful in keeping from their own ranks a dangerous spirit of office-seeking and petty jealousy—in short, if they reach to the zenith of the power that is expected of them by the West, they will make their country, huge as it is, in perhaps less time than the changing era took in Japan, the greatest Empire in the Far East. As I write the Powers, lynx-eyed as ever, are observing China. During the last four months China has been watched as no other nation was ever watched, and she has rushed through her great national drama with appalling speed. She is breathless. Nervously, with a wonderful confidence coming from her newly won emancipation, China is looking questioningly to the West. She knows that all the Powers are closely scrutinising her every movement through political eyeglasses. Having taken the plunge, she knows that they all expect her to break finally from the furrows of the ages—she is almost out of her national depths, and looks half-trustingly only to the Powers, lest she should get out of her depths. She knows that although not all show to her an unmingled friendly attitude—for some would prey upon her speedily, if left alone—it is her duty to herself to watch her political horizon far away. The protest by the Chinese over the Dynasty that has ruled over them for two and a half centuries has been made in every part of China. It is not confined to one or more populous cities or provinces as at first was thought it would be, but this protest against Manchu ascendancy has received approval wherever the Chinese reside. Never in the history of any revolution have the people been more united in sentiment, or has established authority more quickly admitted the justice of that sentiment than the one which has now convulsed China from centre to circumference. Charles I. defended his crown on the battlefield, and yielded only to the genius of Cromwell. Louis XVI. thought to conciliate his political foes by concessions of so humiliating a nature as to forfeit national respect. Both of these kings lost their heads on a scaffold, the one by his hypocrisy, the other by his weakness. Thus far the Revolutionists throughout the country have manifested no barbaric desire for blood. There have been some disgusting acts of brutality in connection with the execution of their enemies. Often have they cut out the hearts and livers of their enemy and, devouring these human organs, and often drinking the human blood, have thought they have added to their bravery. But this sort of thing has been only on a very comparatively small scale. Generally speaking, their behaviour has been good. In the highest degree were they to be commended for their respect for personal safety and property, and the proclamations of their leaders—General Li, Wu Ting Fang, Sun Yat-sen, and others like-minded—had been worthy of the great end they professed to have in view. The United States declared war against Spain because of cruelties to the inhabitants of Cuba, but the burning of Hankow and reported butcheries at Nanking and other places belittle in their inhuman crimes any practised by Spanish soldiers on Cubans. But these things were the forerunners of the Republic of China, and now that Republic has been won. The leaders are now more confident than ever of the good days coming.
Lest one should be led to condemn the confidence shown by her leaders and the makers of the Republic, however, we must remember that into the most populous nation of the world reform had come in four months which came to other countries who fought for their liberty only after years of fearful war. We are inclined, perhaps, we who expect more from the Chinese than perhaps we ourselves are capable of, to ridicule the efforts of this Republican Party, and to believe that all going on around us is a mere political make-believe. We are inclined, perhaps, almost totally to discount the ability of the members of the Republican party, men who, for the most part, have risen from the mediocrity of the nation. And I confess myself to have been during these months of active war among the number who pessimistically looked out upon a changing China. But, now that the critical days of the Revolution are passed, even the most cautious European in China—I mean cautious in regard to snatching at political straws which float down the stream of Chinese national life—even he must, if he be unbiased, acknowledge that history can show us no parallel to what is daily going on around us.
I am perfectly aware that many of the ambitions of the Republican party as it now is are at present unrealisable. I know that many of the old-time practices and corruptions against which their leaders so vehemently proclaimed will in the very nature of things be found necessary to continue. I cannot, however, discount the extreme sincerity of the main leaders, men who with no other motive than that of benefiting their fellow-nationals, are prepared to work hard and unostentatiously for the permanent good of their country. These are the real reformers. Many of them for years have been China's real reformers, but their light has been under the national bushel. About them little has been known, and as often as not they have been despised as a dangerous faction in the country. In the press they have been cried down. The Manchu Government have been hunting them to do them to death—the leaders, at all events. There have been thousands of smaller men, however, sent abroad to light the fuse; but all of them have had their lights under the national bushel. It has come, in the main, in the march of education, and this morning, looking back over the years, it is a wonderful thing to be able to have in this document the product of the toiling of years of China's enlightened educated sons.
Since the Reform Edict of 1898 more articles have appeared in both the English and Chinese Press in China upon the subject of education than upon any other. To laud and to praise education has been the fashion—innumerable sticks of incense have been lit and set up to education in China. Education, however, was the means of winning the Revolution, and now the educated men are to have full sway. To them, as never before, the country is looking for right guidance: China has always looked to her scholars for guidance, but this is a new kind of scholar, with a new kind of learning.
And education, as has been pointed out by a writer on Chinese affairs, is a kind of tree which bears two manners of fruit—good and evil. It is a kind of petrol which may drive the individual or the State at a spanking pace along the path of progress, or it may explode with disastrous results to the car and all on board. The general discontent which prevails in so many of the leading nations may be traced directly to the wider spread of education. The industrial classes in the present day are better paid, better fed, better clad, better housed, and work shorter hours than ever before, but through education their aspirations for still more favourable conditions have been tenfold increased, and their efforts to obtain them are becoming always more and more determined.