The inauguration. ceremony tode place at the Chu gen Tang (Hall of Exalted Aim) which was originally Dullt a a-residence for President Yuan "Shih-kai_in the Central. Lake Park. Only Chinese and Japanese attended the ceremony. Afterwards the foreign pressmen were received there by certain members of the new government In whose name Mr. Tang Erh-ho made the customary inspiring eldress, with the usual assurances of geod-will,, Open. Door, collaboration, respect for 'Treaties, reconstruction, and all the usual bog of tricks, "A few questions were hastily put and hastily answered, One question, as to the eral status, of the new Yovernment, appeared to be quite poser' almost, us if It had not been previously considered, After con-Siderable hesitation, it was disposed. of by the statement that the government, was on a revolutionary basis. 'The whole impression one got fof. the new' government and its Installation was that of a very hasty improvisation rushed through with out mich care or forethought.
To-day the new government was proclaimed, by means of © powerful Joud speakers, from the top of the 'Tien An Men (Heavenly Peace Gate), from where, in the course)ot the last quarter of a century so many other Promising governments have been proclaimed amid the usual plaudits the' populace. In this. ease, the applause oF any kind of enthusiasm was distinelly noticeable by its absence, There were probably. less than 10,000 persons present, more than half of whom were school-boys and schoolgirls who were ordered to attend,' and. also Inege numbers of Sapanese, with the Rising Sun much evidence, to welcome the new brother, 'The rest of the spectators, one gathered, were there to listen to tthe police and other bands discourse ing sweet music, to seo the cruckers being Jet off, and above all to watch the dragon' dances and the stilt @ancers—these Inst surely ho allusion to the situation of the new overn-
The clock has also been put back ten years or more, as regards the personnel of the new government. The names of about nine persons have been so far given out as participating. in same, They belong either to the: former Anfu or Chibli patty. (Those two names have a ghostly sound and seem to evoke memories of a dead and buried past). Most of the members of the new government are very. ancient gentlemen—they were getting, fon in age already in the days of the former republic—who have for the last dozen years or s0 taken no part a the government of the country.
To name a few of the better known, we have: Gen, Chi Hsieh-yuan, £ormer "Tuchun of Kiangsu, aged 58 Gen. Chiang Chao-tsung, once a pre: mier for about ten days, aged 14 years: Wang Komin, formerly Minis. for of Finance at various times, aged 88 years; Tung Kang, a. former Minister of Justice, aged 68 years; Wang Yi-tang, former leader of the Anfu Party, aged 60 years and Tang. Erh-ho, former Minister of Education, aged 60 years.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.