With the fleet in the hands of the Southern
Confederacy, which had not yet been formally dissolved, the Peking
Government was powerless in the whole region of the Yangtsze;
consequently, after many vain manoeuvres to avoid this reasonable
and proper solution, it was at last agreed that things should be
brought back precisely where they had been before the coup d'etat
of the 4th November, 1913--the Peking Government being
reconstituted by means of a coalition cabinet in which there would
be both nominees of the North and South--the premiership remaining
in the hands of General Tuan Chi-jui.
On the 28th June a long funeral procession wended its way from the
Presidential Palace to the railway station; it was the remains of
the great dictator being taken to their last resting-place in
Honan. Conspicuous in this cortege was the magnificent stagecoach
which had been designed to bear the founder of the new dynasty to
his throne but which only accompanied him to his grave. The
detached attitude of the crowds and the studied simplicity of the
procession, which was designed to be republican, proved more
clearly than reams of arguments that China--despite herself
perhaps--had become somewhat modernized, the oldest country in the
world being now the youngest republic and timidly trying to learn
the lessons of youth.
Once Yuan Shih-kai had been buried, a Mandate ordering the summary
arrest of all the chief monarchist plotters was issued; but the
gang of corrupt men had already sought safety in ignominious
flight; and it was understood that so long as they remained on
soil under foreign jurisdiction, no attempt would be made even to
confiscate their goods and chattels as would certainly have been
done under former governments.
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