Your people have come here to-day to inform your Majesty of the final victory.

May this lofty shrine wherein you rest gain fresh lustre from to-day's event, and may your example inspire your descendants in the times which are to come.

Spirit! Accept this offering!" We are told by an eye-witness, Dr Lim Boon-keng, that when this ceremony was over, Sun Yat-sen turned to address the assembly.

"He was speechless with emotion for a minute; then he briefly declared how, after two hundred and sixty years, the nation had again recovered her freedom; and now that the curse of Manchu domination was removed, the free peoples of a united republic could pursue their rightful aspirations.

Three cheers for the president were now called for, and the appeal was responded to vigorously.