sinister sort; friendly representations from the genuinely well-disposed Powers did a good deal to bring the combatants to a mutual understanding.  But throughout the revolution, as in the final result, the great outstanding, commanding figure was Yuan Shih-kai himself.  Evidently a man of great gifts, he knew how and when to yield and how and when to be firm; the compromise which solved the situation—­at all events, for the time—­was mostly his work; statesman and patriot, he saved his country.  And it will always redound to his credit that he can not be charged with faithlessness to the Manchus, for he did all that was possible for them, standing by them to the last.  By retaining the “Emperor” as the priestly head of the nation, pater patriae, according to Chinese ideas, he has left something to the Manchus and at the same time contrived that the republican form of government shall bring as slight a shock to “immemorial China” as can be imagined.

What does this “immemorial China”—­meaning thereby the great bulk of the Chinese, the un-Westernized Chinese—­think of the republic?  In other words, is the republic likely to last?  What sort of republic will it probably be, viewing the situation as it stands?  At one of the early stages of the revolution Yuan Shih-kai stated that only three-tenths of his countrymen were in favor of a republic—­in itself, however, a considerable proportion of the population; now that the republic is in existence, will it be accepted tranquilly by the rest?  The majority of these people are the inoffensive and industrious peasants of the interior, who have long been accustomed to bad government; as they will scarcely find their lot harder now, they will probably quietly accept the new order, unless some radical change is made affecting their habits of life, which is unlikely.  Some of the old conservative gentry are opposed to the republic; but, now the Manchu dynasty is gone, whom or what can they suggest in its place that would be received favorably by the country?  The descendant of the Mings?  Or the descendant of Confucius?

Neither seems a likely candidate in present circumstances.  For it may very well be the case that as the revolution has been so largely military, and parts of the army need careful handling, as the recent riots in Peking showed, the Republican Government will assume something of a distinctively military character, and Yuan Shih-kai, as its head, be in a position not very different from that of a military dictator—­as Diaz was in Mexico.  The republic will, of course, have its troubles, and serious ones enough, to face, but the balance of probabilities certainly suggests its lasting awhile.

R.F.  JOHNSTON