The discussion which raged was suddenly terminated on the night of the 29th February (1912) when without any warning there occurred the extraordinary revolt of the 3rd Division, a picked Northern corps who for forty-eight hours plundered and burnt portions of the capital without any attempts at interference, there being little doubt to-day that this manoeuvre was deliberately arranged as a means of intimidation by Yuan Shih-kai himself.  Although the disorders assumed such dimensions that foreign intervention was narrowly escaped, the upshot was that the Nanking Delegates were completely cowed and willing to forget all about forcing the despot of Peking to proceed to the Southern capital.  Yuan Shih-kai as the man of the hour was enabled on the 10th March, 1912, to take his oath in Peking as he had wished thus securing full freedom of action during the succeeding years. [Footnote:  The defective nature of this oath of office will be patent at a glance:  “At the beginning of the Republic there are many things to be taken care of.  I, Yuan Shih-kai, sincerely wish to exert my utmost to promote the democratic spirit, to remove the dark blots of despotism, to obey strictly the Constitution, and to abide by the wish of the people, so as to place the country in a safe, united, strong, and firm position, and to effect the happiness and welfare of the divisions of the Chinese race.  All these wishes I will fulfil without fail.  As soon as a new President is elected by the National Assembly I shall at once vacate my present position.  With all sincerity I take this oath before the people of China.  “Dated the tenth day of March in the First Year of the Republic of China (1912).”

(Signed) Yuan Shih-kai.]

It was on this astounding basis—­by means of an organized revolt—­ that the Central Government was re-organized; and every act that followed bears the mark of its tainted parentage.  Accepting readily as his Ministers in the more unimportant government Departments the nominees of the Southern Confederacy (which was now formally dissolved), Yuan Shih-kai was careful to reserve for his own men everything that concerned the control of the army and the police, as well as the all-important ministry of finance.  The framework having been thus erected, attention was almost immediately concentrated on the problem of finding money, an amazing matter which would weary the stoutest reader if given in all its detail but which being part and parcel of the general problem must be referred to.

Certain essential features can be very rapidly exposed.  We have already made clear the purely economic nature of the forces which had sapped the foundations of Chinese society.  Primarily it had been the disastrous nature of Chinese gold-indebtedness which had given the new ideas the force they required to work their will on the nation.  And just because the question of this gold-indebtedness had become so serious and such a drain on the nation, some months before the