spirit of loyalty as against other nations is strong,
but the sense of unity between the widely separated
parts of the country is still weak. Whether the
people are expecting the new Government instantly
to right all wrongs, remedy all abuses, and usher
in an era of unexampled prosperity, and whether,
when they find that the millennium does not at
once come, they will become restive, remains to
be seen. It remains to be seen also whether the
Provinces will submit to governmental measures
which do not please them. Revolutions start
easily among such an enormous population, spread
over a vast territory in which there are yet so few
railroads that distant provinces are difficult to
reach. Mongolia is likely to become a Cave of
Adullam. Manchus, too few to fight, are numer-
ous enough to fan embers of discontent and in-
trigue with foreign foes. Flood and famine may
again make millions desperate. The army is a
precarious dependence, as Yuan Shih Kai found
to his sorrow when he faced a mutiny after his elec-
tion to the Presidency. Americans who remember
the guerrilla warfare which followed the war be-
tween the States will be slow to take pessimistic
views of an outbreak of ignorant Chinese soldiers,
whose pay was in arrears, who feared that they
were to be disbanded without their just dues, and
whose cupidity was excited by the hoarded riches
of wealthy nobles and merchants. When society

-183-