d. In
January 1910 the French line from Hanoi to Yunnan-fu was opened;[78] the
railway from Shanghai to Nanking was opened for through traffic in 1909.

Provincial Assemblies constituted. A senate formed.

The progress of the anti-opium movement and the dispute over the control
of the Imperial Maritime Customs have already been chronicled. A notable
step was taken in 1909 by the institution of elected assemblies in each
of the provinces. The franchise on which the members were elected was
very limited, and the assemblies were given consultative powers only.
They were opened on the 14th of October (the 1st day of the 9th moon).
The businesslike manner in which these assemblies conducted their work
was a matter of general comment among foreign observers in China.[79] In
February 1910 decrees appeared approving schemes drawn up by the
Commission for Constitutional Reforms, providing for local government in
prefectures and departments and for the reform of the judiciary. This
was followed on the 9th of May by another decree summoning the senate to
meet for the first time on the 1st day of the 9th moon (the 3rd of
October 1910). All the members of the senate were nominated, and the
majority were Manchus. Neither to the provincial assemblies nor to the
senate was any power of the purse given, and the drawing up of a budget
was postponed until 1915.[80]

Anti-dynastic movements. Riots in Hu-nan.

The efforts of the central government to increase the efficiency of the
army and to re-create a navy were continued in 1910. China was credited
with the intention of spending L40,000,000 on the rehabilitation of its
naval and military forces. It was estimated in March 1910 that there
were about 200,000 foreign-trained men, but their independent spirit and
disaffection constituted a danger to internal peace. The danger was
accentuated by the mutual jealousy of the central and provincial
governments. The anti-dynastic agitation, moreover, again seemed to be
growing in strength. In April 1910 there was serious rioting at
Changsha, Hu-nan, a town whence a few years previously had issued a
quantity of anti-foreign literature of a vile kind. The immediate causes
of the riots seem to have been many: rumours of the intention of the
foreign powers to dismember China, the establishment of foreign firms at
Changsha competing with native firms and exporting rice and salt at a
time when the province was suffering from famine, and the ap