It is instructive to watch the gradual steps by which the people in Peking who profess to administer government have gradually plucked up courage to assume the title and dignity thereof, When General Li Yuan-hung was chased out last June, three former Ministers came back to divide among them all the departments: the fact that their resignations had been accepted by President Li and that they had no right to be there made no difference to them nor, it would seem, to anybody. Nobody challenged them and for a while they kept very quiet. Presently they began to issue gov-emmental pronouncements called, if we remember rightly, Cabinet orders. Still, nobody challenging them and a few companions hav-me been enticed to take over portfolios, they grew bolder; and shortly after Dr. Wellington Koo had joined the troupe as star performer. at the. Waichiaopu, the "orders" were styled "mandates."" The latest development is found in a message from Reuter of September 30, which speaks of "the mandate which the Governing Cabinet intended to issue," ete. Here is glorification indeed. By virtue of what lawyers call ""user,"? the creatures of Marshal sao Kun and the Chihli party have become a government and are tacitly recognized as each even by foreign Powers. We are, therefore. to deduce that constitutions and legal processes are wholly unnecessary and that nractically anyone may attain Ministerial rank and honour. if he is content to claim the nest and sit still until people grow tired of looking about to see who will turn him out. Why, as the. "S%nwannae" asked the other day. does Tsao Kun take the trouble of going through the costly process of a legal election to a presidency already his in fact for what it may be worth?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.