"vision" intended to impress the missionaries--alienated all foreign sympathy, and on the eve of his complete success his power was shattered by the Government troops, organised and led by "Chinese Gordon." The secret of his power lay in the absence of the legitimate "Son of Heaven" of the old Dynasty, in his claim to a new commission from Heaven itself. [Illustration: YIN CHANG. Minister of War of the Manchu Government at the beginning of the Revolution, and Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Troops in Hupeh Province. TANG SHAO-YI. Peace Commissioner for the Manchu Government and Premier of the Provisional Military Government of the United Republic of China. FENG KUO-CHANG. Commander-in-chief of the First Expedition of the Imperial Troops for the Relief of Hupeh.] Now, General Li Yuan Hung and those associated closely with him made no such claim. The younger Revolutionists were, for the most part, trained in the schools of the West, and their appeal for Western sympathy took a new form. At the time it was impossible to foresee how, in the long run, the idea of a democratic Republic would appeal to a people steeped in the political philosophies of Confucius, with its conception of parental rights and filial duties as the fundamental basis of government. So far, indeed, the claim that from Chihli to Kwang-tung, and from Shantung to Szechuen, the provinces had approved the Republic seems to have been justified. It would seem, then, that, no scion of the old Imperial house being available, the Chinese would have been able to reconcile themselves to the creation of a United States of China, under an elected President, in which case it was at the time interesting to speculate whether a too patent breach with the past might be avoided by retaining a ceremonial "Son of Heaven," who, like the King Archon at Athens or the Rex Sacrificulus of Rome, would continue to offer the traditional sacrifices to the Fountain of Authority. {196} It was to decide this and much more that the Peace Conference of last December was convened, but nothing but disappointment followed. The plenipotentiaries, themselves actually agreeable to the main issue at stake, were overruled by Yuan Shih K'ai. Day after day wires were passing frequently between Yuan and Tang, and all looked anxiously towards Shanghai for the final word of the war. The Republic seemed already to have been born, and the five-coloured flag in Shanghai's streets heralded its dawn. But Yuan was obstinate, obdurate as a mule. In the end, after endless discussions on the situation, he repudiated Tang Shao-yi's power, declared that Tang could not finally negotiate upon any question, although his credentials showed that in him full power had been invested, and in the end the Conference merely "fizzled out."