February 2.
Tas refusal of the Prince Regent to accede to the prayer of the provincial delegates for the earlier grant of @ parliament marks a definite stage, though a negative one, in the history of the constitutional movement in China. That mor ment, it will be remembered, dates from the closing days of 1905 when an Imperial commission under the Dake Tsai Tse left Peking—after an abortive start in September—to make a study of political condi-and governmental policies in other countries." After the mat-enol presented to the Throne by that commission bad been reported upon, a Decree was promulgated on September 1, 1906, announcing that, while the supreme control would remain in the hands of the Throne, the official system would be reformed, laws revised, finances and revenues regulated and "in a few years' time constitutional government would be inaugurated." This promise was confirmed on February 18, 1907, when another Decree stated that "a Constitution and Parliament will be granted to the country"; but it was not until August 27, 1908, that details of the proposed scheme of constitutional government were made known. In Decree of that date the general principles of the constitutional system wore set forth, together with the methods of choosing members of parliament and the preparatory measures to be taken during each of the nine years intervening before the summoning of a parliament. Earlier in the year, on July 22, the regulations for the Provincial Assemblies, that were to be instituted as the first preparatory measure, had been published, and provision was made for the first session of these bodies within a year. On October 14, 1909, the first day of the ninth moon, these Assemblies met and continued their deliberations until November 23.
Before they adjourned, there would appear to have arisen more or less spontaneously among them a keen desire to see a national parliament in existence before the time stipulated by Imperial Decree, and a scheme to give expression to the general wish was proposed by the Chibli Assembly. In accordance with that proposal delegates from fifteen provinces met in Shang-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.