An
attempt was also made to win over waverers by an indiscriminate
distribution of patents of nobility. Princes, Dukes, Marquises,
Viscounts and Barons were created in great batches overnight only
to be declined in very many cases, one of the most precious
possessions of the Chinese race being its sense of humour. Every
one, or almost every one, knew that the new patents were not worth
the paper they were written on, and that in future years the
members of this spurious nobility would be exposed to something
worse than contempt. France was invited to close the Tonkin
frontier, but this request also met with a rebuff, and
revolutionists and arms were conveyed in an ever-more menacing
manner into the revolted province of Yunnan by the French
railways. A Princedom was at length conferred on Lung Chi Kwang,
the Military Governor of Canton, Canton being a pivotal point and
Lung Chi Kwang, one of the most cold-blooded murderers in China,
in the hope that this would spur him to such an orgy of crime that
the South would be crushed. Precisely the opposite occurred, since
even murderers are able to read the signs of the times. Attempts
were likewise made to enforce the use of the new Imperial
Calendar, but little success crowned such efforts, no one outside
the metropolis believing for a moment that this innovation
possessed any of the elements of permanence. Meanwhile the
monetary position steadily worsened, the lack of money becoming so
marked as to spread panic.
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