“I have reigned for three years, and have always acted conscientiously in the interests of the people, but I have not employed men properly, not having political skill.  I have employed too many nobles in political positions, which contravenes constitutionalism.  On railway matters someone whom I trusted fooled me, and thus public opinion was opposed.  When I urged reform, the officials and gentry seized the opportunity to embezzle.  When old laws are abolished, high officials serve their own ends.  Much of the people’s money has been taken, but nothing to benefit the people has been achieved.  On several occasions edicts have promulgated laws, but none of them have been obeyed.  People are grumbling, yet I do not know; disasters loom ahead, but I do not see.

“The Ss{u}ch`uan trouble first occurred; the Wu-ch`ang rebellion followed; now alarming reports come from Shansi and Hunan.  In Canton and Kiangsi riots appear.  The whole empire is seething.  The minds of the people are perturbed.  The spirits of our nine late emperors are unable properly to enjoy sacrifices, while it is feared the people will suffer grievously.

“All these are my own fault, and hereby I announce to the world that I swear to reform, and, with our soldiers and people, to carry out the constitution faithfully, modifying legislation, developing the interests of the people, and abolishing their hardships—­all in accordance with the wishes and interests of the people.  Old laws that are unsuitable will be abolished.”

Nowhere else in the world is the belief that Fortune has a wheel which in the long run never fails to “turn and lower the proud,” so prevalent or so deeply-rooted as in China.  “To prosperity,” says the adage, “must succeed decay,”—­a favourite theme around which the novelist delights to weave his romance.  This may perhaps account for the tame resistance of the Manchus to what they recognized as inevitable.  They had enjoyed a good span of power, quite as lengthy as that of any dynasty of modern times, and now they felt that their hour had struck.  To borrow another phrase, “they had come in with the roar of a tiger, to disappear like the tail of a snake.”

On November 3, certain regulations were issued by the National Assembly as the necessary basis upon which a constitution could be raised.  The absolute veto of the Emperor was now withdrawn, and it was expressly stated that Imperial decrees were not to over-ride the law, though even here we find the addition of “except in the event of immediate necessity.”  The first clause of this document was confined to the following prophetic statement:  “The Ta Ch`ing dynasty shall reign for ever.”

On November 8, Yuean Shih-k`ai was appointed Prime Minister, and on December 3, the new Empress Dowager issued an edict, in which she said: