compromise was arranged: pigtails were adopted but big feet were
rejected; the new absurdity was accepted and the old one retained. This
characteristic compromise shows how much England and China have in
common.

The Manchu Emperors soon became almost completely Chinese, but
differences of dress and manners kept the Manchus distinct from the
more civilized people whom they had conquered, and the Chinese remained
inwardly hostile to them. From 1840 to 1900, a series of disastrous
foreign wars, culminating in the humiliation of the Boxer time,
destroyed the prestige of the Imperial Family and showed all thoughtful
people the need of learning from Europeans. The Taiping rebellion, which
lasted for 15 years (1849-64), is thought by Putnam Weale to have
diminished the population by 150 millions,[31] and was almost as
terrible a business as the Great War. For a long time it seemed doubtful
whether the Manchus could suppress it, and when at last they succeeded
(by the help of Gordon) their energy was exhausted. The defeat of China
by Japan (1894-5) and the vengeance of the Powers after the Boxer rising
(1900) finally opened the eyes of all thoughtful Chinese to the need for
a better and more modern government than that of the Imperial Family.
But things move slowly in China, and it was not till eleven years after
the Boxer movement that the revolution broke out.

The revolution of 1911, in China, was a moderate one, similar in spirit
to ours of 1688. Its chief promoter, Sun Yat Sen, now at the head of the
Canton Government, was supported by the Republicans, and was elected
provisional President. But the Nothern Army remained faithful to the
dynasty, and could probably have defeated the revolutionaries. Its
Commander-in-Chief, Yuan Shih-k'ai, however, hit upon a better scheme.
He made peace with the revolutionaries and acknowledged the Republic, on