reasons, superfluous, with the present legitimate machinery at
hand. And we now command that the privilege be withdrawn, and
only the proper officers be permitted to report to us as to what
is going on in our empire. As for the newspaper Chinese Progress,
it is really of no use to the government, while, on the other
hand, it will excite the masses to evil; hence we command the
said paper to be suppressed.

"With regard to the proposed Peking University and the middle
schools in the provincial capitals, they may go on as usual, as
they are a nursery for the perfection of true ability and
talents. But with reference to the lower schools in the
sub-prefectures and districts there need be no compulsion, full
liberty being given to the people thereof to do what they please
in this connection. As for the unofficial Buddhist, Taoist, and
memorial temples which were ordered to be turned into district
schools, etc., so long as these institutions have not broken the
laws by any improper conduct of the inmates, or the deities
worshipped in them are not of the seditious kind, they are hereby
excused from the edict above noted. At the present moment, when
the country is undergoing a crisis of danger and difficulty, we
must be careful of what may be done, or what may not, and select
only such measures as may be really of benefit to the empire."

I submit the above edict to the reader requesting him to study
it, and, if necessary to its understanding, to copy it, and see
if the Empress Dowager has not preserved the best there is in it,
viz., "the Peking University, and the middle schools in the
provincial capitals," "full liberty being given to the people
with reference to the lower schools in the sub-prefectures and