Censor Hsia had heard that a petition had been signed by a number of old officials of the Manchu regime, and also knew that several of the literati were engaged, not secretly, but in the full light of day, in a movement to prove to (he people that the President was merely the guardian of the Manchu Emperor's rights until that young monarch should be old enough to assume the reins of power himself, and that the fact should be reoognized early.
Prominent among these was one Lao Nan-hsuan, an elderly Hanlin. who was once a Magistrate, and who, it may be remembered, distinguished himself by being the only member of the National Assembly (the Tsechengyuan, which, at "he latter end of the Manchu days, acted as a sort of "parliament" Peking) who stood out fo~ punishment of married men guilty of a-adultery with unmarried women which he, but no others, regarded as a crime.
Lao Nan-hsuan also distinguished himself at the time of the Boxer 1g by advocating the suppress sion of the Boxers to avert disaster to the country, his arguments being presented throuch Shih-kai, who was then Governor of Shantung. From the tim of the revolution until just prior to the attack upon Tsingtao he resided it the German leased territory, and there studied Buddhism what time Viceroy, and now chief of the Bureau for the compilation of the history of the Ching Dynasty, who had told him that "the President intends to recover power for the young Emperor and would gladly retire, if he could find someone to succeed him." This is an excellent opportunity, Lao suggested to the Secretary of State, to help the President out of a difficulty, and he stated that he would pave the way by preparing public opinion for the return of the Manchus, and had written a pamphlet on the "true Interpretation of Republicanism" with that object.
Lao referred to the benefits which accrued by Yuan Shih-kai listening to his advice during the Boxer movement, and hazarded the obit ion that the advice he was now giving him to restore the Manchus was of more value and "would save President Yuan." Lao wrote everal letters mentioning the desirability of a public movement being inaugurated, and among others om he persuaded was another Hanlin named Sung Vu-jen, one of those engaged in compiling the history of the Chings.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.