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It was generally understood that the Chihli
Farty, having successfully expelled Li Yuan-hung, would
lose no time in putting Tsao Kun in his place, either by.
bribing or coercing the two Fouses of Parliament to elect
him, or else by placing him in the premiership, where he
would, according to the terms of the Provisional Constitu-
The h
tion, automatically aseme the functions of President.
courage appears, however, to have failed them as regards
the latter plan, which would of course have been a very
open challenge to their opponents; while the former plan
seems for the moment to have fallen through owing to the
disintegration of Parliament, which set in rapidly after
11 Yuan-hung's withdrawal, several hundreds of members
#lipping quietly out of the capital. Of these some 250
or more have assembled in Shanghai, where they indicate
their intention of fimctioning as a "arliament as soon as
their mmbers reach a quorim. As regards the parliamentary
rump left in Peking, it was recently announced that they
numbered 582 of both Houses, just enough to constitute the
required quorum for a Fresidential election, namely two
thirds of the full number of 870 members, (274 in the
pper and 596 in the Lower l'ouse). Amongst these however
/are a
1