It is perhaps
unnecessary today to do more than note the fact that the peace of
the country was badly strained by this procedure; but thanks to
moderate counsels and the wisdom of the President no open breach
occurred and there is reason to believe that this experiment will
not be repeated,--at least not in the same way. [Footnote:
Although the events dealt with in Chapter XVI have brought China
face to face with a new crisis the force of the arguments used
here is in no wise weakened.]
The difficulty to be solved is of an unique nature. It is not that
the generals and the Military Party are necessarily reactionary:
it is that, not belonging to the intellectual-literary portion of
the ruling elements, they are less advanced and less accustomed to
foreign ways, and therefore more in touch with the older China
which lingers on in the vast agricultural districts, and in all
those myriad of townships which are dotted far and wide across the
provinces to the confines of Central Asia. Naturally it is hard
for a class of men who hold the balance of power and carry on much
of the actual work of governing to submit to the paper decrees of
an institution they do not accept as being responsible and
representative: but many indications are available that when a
Permanent Constitution has been promulgated, and made an article
of faith in all the schools, a change for the better will come and
the old antagonisms gradually disappear.
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