Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 347 (Color Image)

0347	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

THE PRESENT SITUATION IN CHINA 263

the Boxer outbreak, were stigmatised as alarmists,

whilst those who pooh - poohed the chances of

trouble were afterwards abused for their want of

foresight. The same will happen again at the

present time, the fact being that prophets fail to

realise that there are such thousands of unforeseen

circumstances that none can foresee, which will

divert popular feeling and action into unexpected

courses. This makes it wrong to make definite

prophecies, as their fulfilment is a pure gamble,

and it is only the irresponsible man, with a

limited local knowledge, who ventures to do so.

If he turns out to be right he can say " I told you

so," whilst if he is wrong his prophecies are too

unimportant to be remembered. At the present

time it is universally admitted by all who know

China that the country has never been in such a

rotten state, and that the experiment of a republic

has proved a most dismal failure. The people,

especially the upper classes, are not educated up

to the requirements of a liberal form of govern-

ment, and it will be many years before they attain

to it. Not only do all the evils under the Imperial

regime still exist, but they are multiplied, owing

to there being many heads instead of one. In the

old days millions poured into the Court at Peking,

and a good deal of the money was spent in the

service of the State, whilst smaller sums, more

or less regulated by precedents, and in a sense

recognised as legitimate perquisites for underpaid

officials, were received by officials. At the present

time the millions go into the pockets of the bigger

officials, such as Chang Tso-lin in Manchuria,

Wang Chan-yüan, late governor of Hupei, and

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