He was repeatedly
approached by the highest personages to give in his adhesion to
Yuan Shih-kai becoming emperor, but he persistently refused
although grave fears were publicly expressed that he would be
assassinated. Upon the formal acceptance of the Throne by Yuan
Shih-kai, he had had conferred on him a princedom which he
steadfastly refused to accept; and when the allowances of a prince
were brought to him from the Palace he returned them with the
statement that as he had not accepted the title the money was not
his. Every effort to break his will proved unavailing, his
patience and calmness contributing very materially to the vast
moral opposition which finally destroyed Yuan Shih-kai.
Such was the man who was called upon to preside over the new
government and parliament which was now assembling in Peking; and
certainly it may be counted as an evidence of China's traditional
luck which brought him to the helm. General Li Yuan Hung knew well
that the cool and singular plan which had been pursued to forge a
national mandate for a revival of the empire would take years
completely to obliterate, and that the octopus-hold of the
Military Party--the army being the one effective organization
which had survived the Revolution--could not be loosened in a
day,--in fact would have to be tolerated until the nation asserted
itself and showed that it could and would be master.
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