speaking the average life of each new system has been less than six months, after which a new system quite contrary to the last succeeded it.  Thus the whole country has been at a loss to know where it stood and how to act; and thus the dignity and credit of the Government in the eyes of the people have been lowered down to the dust.  There are many subjects respecting internal and diplomatic affairs which we can profitably discuss.  If you wish to serve the country in a patriotic way you have many ways to do so.  Why stir the peaceful water and create a sea of troubles by your vain attempt to excite the people and sow seeds of discord for the State?

XI.  THE ASSEVERATIONS OF THE PRESIDENT

One or two points more, and I am finished.  These will be in the nature of a straight talk to the Chou An Hui.  The question I would ask in plain words is, who is the person you have in your mind as the future Emperor?  Do you wish to select a person other than the Great President?  You know only too well that the moment the President relieves his shoulder of the burdens of State the country will be thrown into confusion.  If you entertain this plot with the deliberation of a person bent upon the destruction of the country, then the four hundred million of people will not excuse you.

Is the man you have in mind the present President?  Heaven and earth as well as all living creatures in China and other lands know what the President swore to when he took the oath of office as President.  Rumours have indeed been circulated, but whenever they reached the ears of the President he has never hesitated to express his righteous mind, saying that no amount of pressure could compel him to change his determination.  All officials who have come into close contact with the President have heard such sentiments from the lips of the President on not a few occasions.  To me his words are still ringing in my ears.  General Feng Kuo-chang has conveyed to me what he was told by the President.  He says that the President has prepared a “few rooms” in England, and that if the people would not spare him he would flee to the refuge he has prepared.  Thus we may clearly see how determined the President is.  Can it be possible that you have never heard of this and thus raise this extraordinary subject without any cause.  If the situation should become such that the President should be compelled to carry out his threat and desert the Palace, what would you say and do then?

Or, perhaps, you are measuring the lordly conduct of a gentleman with the heart of a mean man, saying to yourself that what the President has been saying cannot be the truth, but, as Confucius has said, “say you are not but make a point to do it,” and that, knowing that he would not condemn you, you have taken the risk.  If so, then what do you take the President for?  To go back on one’s words is an act despised by a vagabond.  To suggest such an act as being capable of the President is an insult, the hideousness of which cannot be equalled by the number of hairs on one’s head.  Any one guilty of such an insult should not be spared by the four hundred million of people.