Page:China and the Manchus.djvu/154

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CHINA AND THE MANCHUS

insurrection in Canton startled the capital. One failure followed another, but other brave men took the place of the heroes who died, and the empire was born again to life. The bandit Manchu court was shaken with pallid terror, until the cicada threw off its shell in a glorious regeneration, and the present crowning triumph was achieved. The patriotic crusade started in Wu-chʽang; the four corners of the empire responded to the call. Coast regions nobly followed in their wake, and the Yang-tsze was won back by our armies. The region south of the Yellow River was lost to the Manchus, and the north manifested its sympathy with our cause. An earthquake shook the barbarian court of Peking, and it was smitten with a paralysis. To-day it has at last restored the government to the Chinese people, and the five races of China may dwell together in peace and mutual trust. Let us joyfully give thanks. How could we have attained this measure of victory had not your Majesty's soul in heaven bestowed upon us your protecting influence? I have heard say that triumphs of Tartar savages over our China were destined never to last longer than a hundred years. But the reign of these Manchus endured unto double, ay, unto treble, that period. Yet Providence knows the appointed hour, and the moment comes at last. We are initiating the example to Eastern Asia of a republican form of