Sun Yat-sen to the
capital treating him with unparalleled honours and requesting him
to act as intermediary between the rival factions. All such
manoeuvres, however, were inspired with one object,--namely to
prove how nobody but the master of Peking could regulate the
affairs of the country.
Still no Parliament was assembled. Although the Nanking
Provisional Constitution had stipulated that one was to meet
within ten months i. e. before 1st November, 1912, the elections
were purposely delayed, the attention of the Central Government
being concentrated on the problem of destroying all rivals, and
everything being subordinate to this war on persons. Rascals,
getting daily more and more out of hand, worked their will on rich
and poor alike, discrediting by their actions the name of
republicanism and destroying public confidence--which was
precisely what suited Yuan Shih-kai. Dramatic and extraordinary
incidents continually inflamed the public mind, nothing being too
singular for those remarkable days.
Very slowly the problem developed, with everyone exclaiming that
foreign intervention was becoming inevitable. With the beginning
of 1913, being unable to delay the matter any longer, Yuan Shih-
kai allowed elections to be held in the provinces. He was so badly
beaten at the polls that it seemed in spite of his military power
that he would be outvoted and outmanoeuvred in the new National
Assembly and his authority undermined.
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