The new charter was not found to be of much value, and there is little doubt that the Manchus regarded it in the light of what is known in China as a "dummy document," a measure to be extolled in theory, but not intended to appear in practice.

Suddenly, in September 1911, the great revolution broke out, and the end came more rapidly than was expected.
It must not be imagined that this revolution was an inspiration of the moment; on the contrary, it had been secretly brewing for quite a long time beforehand.

During that period a few persons familiar with China may have felt that something was coming, but nobody knew exactly what.
Those who accept without reservation the common statement that there is no concealment possible in a country where everybody is supposed to have his price, and that due notice of anything important is sure to leak out, must have been rather astonished when, without any warning, they found China in the throes of a well-planned revolution, which was over, with its object gained, almost as soon as the real gravity of the situation was realized.

It is true that under the Manchus access to official papers of the most private description was always to be obtained at a moderate outlay; it was thus, for instance, that we were able to appreciate the inmost feelings of that grim old Manchu, Wo-jen, who, in 1861, presented a secret memorial to the throne, and stated therein that his loathing of all foreigners was so great that he longed to eat their flesh and sleep on their skins.
The guiding spirit of the movement, Sun Yat-sen, is a native of Kuangtung, where he was born, not very far from Canton, in 1866.

After some early education in Honolulu, he became a student at the College of Medicine, Kongkong, where he took his diploma in 1892.