e in the
Reigning House, and simultaneously the revolutionary party raised
its banner and gathered its supporters from every part of the
country. As soon as the revolt started at Wuchang the troops all
over the country joined in the movement to overthrow the Manchu
Dynasty. The members of the Imperial Senate, most of whom were
members of the constitutional party, could not help showing their
sympathy with the revolutionists. At last the imperial household
issued a proclamation containing Nineteen Articles--a veritable
_magna charta_--but it was too late. The constitutional government
which was about to be formed was thus laid aside. What the imperial
family did was the mere organization of an advisory council. A
famous foreign scholar aptly remarked: "A false constitutional
government will eventually result in a true revolution." In trying
to deceive the people by means of a false constitutional government
the imperial house encompassed its own destruction. Once His
Excellency Yuan Shih-kai stated in a memorial to the throne that
there were only two alternatives: to give the people a
constitutional government or to have them revolt. What happened
afterwards is a matter of common knowledge. Therefore I say that the
government which the imperial family attempted to form was not a
constitutional government.

Mr. Ko: Thank you for your discussion of the attempt of the imperial
household to establish a constitutional government; but how about
the Provisional Constitution, the parliament and the cabinet in the
first and second years of the Republic? The parliament was then so
powerful that the government was absolutely at its mercy, thereby
disturbing the peaceful condition of the country. The people have
tasted much of the bitterness of constitutional government. Should
you mention the name of constitutional government again they would
be thoroughly frightened. Is that true?

Mr. Hu: During the first and second years of the Republic, in my
many conversations with the members of the Kuo Ming Tang, I said
that the republic could not form an efficient method of control, and
that there would be an over centration of power through the adoption
of monarchical methods of ruling, knowing as well as I did the
standards of our people. When the members of the Kuo Ming Tang came
to draw up