But
Yuan Shih-kai's first care after that coup d'etat had been to
promulgate with the assistance of Dr. Goodnow and others, a bogus
Law, resting on no other sanction than his personal volition, with
an elaborate flummery about three candidates whose names were to
be deposited in the gold box in the Stone House in the gardens of
the Palace. Therefore since the provisional nature of this
prestidigitation had always been clear, the learned doctor's only
solution is to recommend the overthrow of the government; the
restoration of the Empire under the name of Constitutional
Monarchy; and, by means of a fresh plot to do in China what all
Europe has long been on the point of abandoning, namely, to
substitute Family rule for National rule.
Now had these suggestions been gravely made in any country but
China by a person officially employed it is difficult to know what
would have happened. Even in China had an Englishman published or
caused to be published--especially after the repeated statements
Yuan Shih-kai had given out that any attempt to force the sceptre
on him would cause him to leave the country and end his days
abroad [Footnote: The most widely-quoted statement on this subject
is the remarkable interview, published in the first week of July,
1915, throughout the metropolitan press, between President Yuan
Shih-kai and General Feng Kuo-chang, commanding the forces on the
lower Yangtsze.
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