Thad no intention of conspiring against the Chinese Government or of taking service with the Secret Society. I made enquiries of all Chinese I met, with a view to newspaper letters. Finally I thought Tcould wit! a certain amount of risk, get sufficiently into their councils to obtain information which might be of serious value to foreigners, 'This I maintain, was my sole object in every subterfuge' and criminal act in which I may appear information could not be obtained in a less desperate und risky manner. Although L do not propose to take much trouble to prove this in mere self-defence if prosecuted (in the same way as T emphatic ly refuse to mention or identify any individuals that I may have been told in gossip have some connection with the movement), yet to free myself from imputation of disloyalty tomy Service, T point out that a genuine conspirator of the meanest capacity would have taken precautions to conceal himself, Thiuking superficially, I suppose my action would have been to at least abstain from voluntarily giving accounts of my actions which enable any one to prosucute me for half-a-dozen misdemeanours to have gone to Hongkungunder an assumed tae atid in disguise which T id every opportunity to assume; tu have put out all known, which has been done by many toy ingenuity ty boy ud ship arms un-others of no greater ability than myself and to run away or commit suicide who found that the gaff was blown' or the game was up'—expressions used to me by staid and responsible people within the last few days. I suppose that when I found myself " free agent ut Shanghai yesterday, there was no warrant out to prevent me leaving the country (for which T had the or, of "making a hole in the Whangpoo." From the moment 1, after serious reflection, decided to investigate the matter, I likewise resolved if placed in an equivocal position before I had proved my intentions, to take philosophically any consequences there might eas a punishment for an error of
fetched as it may sound to those who judgment, in which T amy probably, far-don't know me, disposed to be more severe to myself than others would be. Nothing but the knowledge to hinelf that ho had but a very passing interest in the things or their use could have made any one so extremely careless as I was in observing secrecy with regard to the smuggling of arms from Hongkong; a carelessness which could not fail to sug: gest to the mercenary or unreliable among the men with whom I have come in contact: in the business, how easy it would be to betray and make capital out of me. On none have I ever enjoined the necessity of loyalty to me; and yet I have found in many unexpected quarters, acquaintances of an hour and common Chinese coylies with whom I have hardly spoken, willing tw suffer punishment rather thaw' give information which they think might damage me. If then I had been working con amore on behalf of the conspirators, I maintain I could have done it, and a rebellion could at this moment be in full swing which nothing but foreign intervention could crush. Why did I not? Because I realised that their scheme would break over unfore-[seen rocks before it was half through Decause mine is not a character to hold Feomumanding position in such dangerous times, where a man must be physically strong, reckless, prompt in action, and practised in arms and men; because I knew that when the time came to give me the reward promised, the national deceit would come out and they would cast a foreigner aside as a drained cup. Although not by action, yet by my inaction, which I am ashamed to own can be called no less than deceit, the movement on which the whole rebellion turned has failed. They will now lie back for months or years before they try again; and before that, sri narrow an escape may have taught the Chinese Government the advisability of so changing its internal policy as to render such convulsions unnecessary for ever. For this result also, what have T gained? Loss of my money and position; probability of two parate prosecutions, resulting possibly Jong terms of imprisonment and coniscation (by fine) of my clothes, books, and manuscripts; and a notoriety' which' will stand in the way of further respectable employ in China, meaning four years' hard {Tabour at the Janguaye thrown away. The moral is the old one, the story of Tearus soar not near the sun on wax wings.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.