It was
known that as a pendent to this Great Britain was about to insist
on the autonomy of Tibet,--a development which greatly hurt
Chinese pride.
On the 15th August, 1912, the deplorable situation was well-
epitomised by an extraordinary act in Peking, when General Chang
Cheng-wu, one of the "heroes" of the original Wuchang rising, who
had been enticed to the capital, was suddenly seized after a
banquet in his honour and shot without trial at midnight.
This event, trivial in itself during times when judicial murders
were common, would have excited nothing more than passing interest
had not the national sentiment been so aroused by the chaotic
conditions. As it was it served to focus attention on the general
maladministration over which Yuan Shih-kai ruled as provisional
President. "What is my crime?" had shrieked the unhappy
revolutionist as he had been shot and then bayonetted to death.
That query was most easily answered. His crime was that he was not
strong enough or big enough to compete against more sanguinary
men, his disappearance being consequently in obedience to an
universal law of nature. Yuan Shih-kai was determined to assert
his mastery by any and every means; and as this man had flouted
him he must die.
The uproar which this crime aroused was, however, not easily
appeased; and the Advisory Council, which was sitting in Peking
pending the assembling of the first Parliament, denounced the
Provisional President so bitterly that to show that these
reproaches were ill-deserved he invited Dr.
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