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CHAPTERIIICONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1915F. L. PrattThe deliberate and orderly advance of the Chinesenation towards real constitutionalism which was begun inKM 4, was rudely checked in ]!)lf), arid, at the moment ofwriting, political affairs in China are in a lamentable stateof chaos. Four provinces are in more or Jess active revolt ;a fifth has declared independence, bu1 in a hesitatingand uncertain minor key, and the remainder professvarying degrees of loyalty to the Central Government.The legality of the continuance in office of His ExcellencyYuan Shih-kai has been openly questioned, and a MilitaryGovernment that has been organized in Canton haseven gone so far as to proclaim General Li Yuan-hungPresident of the Republic.n >SU( 1 circumstances there isDiffi oltiein seemingMet With something of irony in the words "Constitutional Development, 1915" that head thisarticle. Most of the development that has taken place inthe period under review, May.li>15May, 1916, hasbeen unconstitutional rather than constitutional. Yet itmight be argued that, just as juvenile life is attended byailments which are apparently abnormal, but which, inreality, are designed to prepare the system to resist theattacks of disease in maturer years, a new state system mustneeds encounter obstacles at the beginning if it is to makerapid and confident progress in after days. The theory ofconstitutionalism is understandable to every man of intelligence, but the practice is dependent upon a number of factorsthat the theorist in his enthusiasm is likely to overlook. InChina, in the opinion of the writer, a mistake was madeafter the Maiiclms had been dethroned in adopting a speciesof constitutionalism that could only have been successful ifthe national electorate had attained a high level of politicalintelligence. The political medicine forced upon an emaciated patient in a very low condition as a result of prolonged