combined the functions of a civil governor as well. And in 1876 the Military Governor of Shenking was created the Governor General of Fengtien (as the Chinese call Mukden). The Military Governor was also the commander-in-chief of all the military forces of the province, except the garrison at Port Arthur and in its immediate neighborhood at the tip end of the Liaotung Peninsula, which was under the command of the Superintendent of Trade for the Northern Ports. In 1876 also the Civil Governor of the Mukden Prefecture was raised to the rank of a Provincial Governor, and as such he was made a colleague of the military governor. He governed the country with the famous Five Boards of War, Punishment, Ceremony, Construction, and Finance. Each of these was presided over by a president and a vice-president and had a staff of many secretaries. The Board of Punishment often had the greatest number of officials on it-a rather significant sidelight on the administration activities of those days.

The

At first the military régime received the prime emphasis; but as years went on, came the Chinese from the southern provinces. And with the increase of agricultural and commercial population, the need for and the prestige of the civil government rose steadily. Mukden Province was the first to have a civil governor acting on an equal footing with the military governor. The first agricultural immigration from Shantung and from Chihli, which crowded into the valley of the Liao and spread over South Manchuria, was of course the primal cause of this. And the Kirin Province followed in the wake of the Province of Mukden in claiming a civil governor of its own. The primitive Province of Amur has ever been under military rule. The coming of the civil government has served in Manchuria as in many other countries of the world as the gauge of the forward march of civilization.

In 1907, as the result of memorials from Hsu Shihchang and from Tang Shaoyi, the office of the Tsungtu or Viceroy of Manchuria was created. He was to reside at Mukden and in him was vested the supreme authority over the Three Eastern Provinces. At the head of each of the provincial governments was placed a governor who discharged his civil functions under the direction of the Viceroy. These provincial governors ranked next to the Viceroy and were stationed at the capital cities of the three provinces. The Viceroy was to supervise both the civil and military policies and activities of the Three Provinces, and from time to time was expected to make his round over the different sections of his domain. In his hand the Viceroy held the power to dictate both domestic and foreign policies for the province. Only in crises of extreme gravity was he expected to visit the Central Government at Peking, confer with the ministers of state, and present matters to the throne. The immediate motive which inspired this change in the governmental system of the Three Provinces was to do away with the everlasting petty personal jealousies and friction among the civil and military governors of the provinces, who had been on equal footing and had constant temptation to dispute the shadowy and often puzzling boundaries of their respective authorities. As these changes were put into play, however, the shadows were darkening over the closing days of the Manchu Dynasty at Peking.

The revolution of 1911, with the abdication of the last of the Manchu Emperors in February, 1912, did not bring a very radical change in the administrative machinery of the provincial governments in China. In Manchuria Viceroyalty was abolished. The office of Tutu was created for a Military Governor, who was placed at the head of each of the Three Provinces. He held both the military and civil authority of the province