1
=盛宣懷=盛宣懷，字杏蓀，江蘇武進人。 以諸生納貲爲主事，改官直隸州知州，累至道員。 嘗贊置輪船招商局，開採湖北煤鐵礦，李鴻章頗信任之。 英商擅築鐵軌，首滬逕寶山訖吳淞，上海道數阻，弗聽。 宣懷與英官梅輝立折辯，償銀二十八萬有奇，始歸於我。 光緒五年，署天津道。 時鴻章督畿輔，方嚮新政，以鐵路、電報事專屬宣懷。 宣懷以英、丹所設水陸綫漸侵內地，迺集貲設津滬陸綫，建電報學堂，並援萬國公例與爭，始克嚴定條款。 會訂水綫相接合同，於是與輪船招商同爲商辦兩大局。 八年，英、法、德、美議立萬國電報公司，增造自滬至香港水綫，壟利權。 宣懷復勸集華商自設緣海各口陸綫，以絕覬覦。
Sheng Xuanhuai, whose style name was Xingsun, came from Wujin in Jiangsu. Having entered office by purchase as a licentiate, he served as a secretary, was later reassigned to prefect of Zhili Subprefecture, and eventually rose to the rank of circuit intendant. He had helped set up the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company and develop Hubei's coal and iron mines, and Li Hongzhang placed great confidence in him. British merchants had laid railway track on their own from Shanghai via Baoshan to Wusong; the Shanghai daotai tried repeatedly to stop them, but they paid no heed. Xuanhuai argued the case with the British official Mei Huili, paid compensation of more than 280,000 taels, and only then did the line come back under Chinese control. In the fifth year of the Guangxu reign (1879), he acted as Tianjin daotai. Li Hongzhang was then supervising Zhili and pushing new policies; he entrusted railway and telegraph affairs entirely to Xuanhuai. Seeing British and Danish land and submarine lines gradually pressing inland, he raised capital for a Tianjin–Shanghai land line, founded a telegraph school, and invoked international law in dispute—only then were the terms firmly fixed. Once contracts were signed to link the submarine cables, telegraphy and the China Merchants' line stood as the two great merchant-run enterprises of the age. In the eighth year (1882), Britain, France, Germany, and the United States proposed a Universal Telegraph Company and extra Shanghai–Hong Kong cables to corner the profits. Xuanhuai again urged Chinese merchants to fund land lines at coastal ports, so as to forestall foreign encroachment.
2
十年，署天津海關道。 會法越搆釁，海防急。 迺移金州礦貲治蘇、浙、閩、粵電綫，便軍事，而部議指爲含混，科以降級調用。 左宗棠爲言於上，事下南洋大臣曾國荃等，上其績狀，始改留任。 十二年，授山東登萊青道。 法領事林椿詣煙臺與訂越南北圻綫約，朝旨既報可矣，而張之洞執言不可行。 宣懷曰：「今琿春、海蘭泡欲接俄綫，俄方有挾求。 法既許接綫，彼必易就範。 且英、丹皆與約，奚拒法！」 總署然之。 果不數年而俄約成。 十八年，除眞。 滬上織布局廠災，宣懷籌設華盛總廠，復任彌漢冶鐵廠虧耗。 於是之洞賞其才，與王文韶交薦之，遂擢四品京堂，督辦鐵路總公司。 入覲，奏言築路與練兵、理財、育才互爲用，並請開銀行，設達成館，稱旨，補太常寺少卿。 與比訂貸款草約。 二十四年，詔趣造粵漢路。 宣懷建議貸美款歸自辦，具改歸商辦本末以上； 而言者盛毀其所爲遲滯，被訶責。 宣懷具報曲折，上乃慰而勉之。 宣懷自請解職，仍留京會議洋貨稅則。 已而徐桐劾兩局有中飽，適剛毅按事南下，銜命察覆。 宣懷具以實對，奏上，被溫旨。
In the tenth year (1884) he acted as Tianjin customs daotai. War broke out between France and Vietnam, and coastal defense suddenly grew urgent. He diverted Jinzho mining funds to build telegraph lines in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong for military use; the ministry found his accounts unclear and ordered him demoted and transferred. Zuo Zongtang pleaded his case at court; the matter went to Nanyang minister Zeng Guoquan and others, who reported his record, and he was allowed to stay in office. In the twelfth year (1886) he was appointed intendant of the Deng-Lai-Qing circuit in Shandong. The French consul Lin Chun came to Yantai to sign a Tonkin cable agreement; the court had approved it, but Zhang Zhidong insisted it must not proceed. Xuanhuai said: "Hunchun and Hailanpao now seek to link with Russian lines, and Russia will use that as leverage. If France is allowed to connect its line, the Russians will be easier to bring to terms. Britain and Denmark have both signed similar agreements—why refuse France alone?" The Zongli Yamen accepted his view. Within a few years the agreement with Russia was indeed concluded. In the eighteenth year (1892) he received confirmation in his substantive post. After fire destroyed the Shanghai weaving mill, Xuanhuai organized the Huasheng General Mill and again shouldered the Hanyang Ironworks' deficits. Zhang Zhidong then admired his ability; he and Wang Wenshao recommended him jointly, and he was raised to fourth-rank capital official and superintendent of the Railway Company. At audience he argued that railways, troop training, finance, and education reinforced one another, and asked to open a bank and a Dacheng Hall; the throne was pleased and he was made vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. He signed a draft loan agreement with Belgium. In the twenty-fourth year (1898) an edict ordered the Canton–Hankou Railway built without delay. Xuanhuai proposed an American loan to bring the line back under Chinese management and submitted a full account of reverting it to merchant operation; but critics loudly attacked his slowness, and he was rebuked. Xuanhuai reported the full circumstances; the throne consoled him and urged him on. Xuanhuai asked to be relieved of his post but stayed in the capital to negotiate foreign-goods tariffs. Soon Xu Tong accused both bureaus of skimming funds; Gangyi was then investigating in the south and was ordered to review the case. Xuanhuai answered with the full facts; when his report reached the throne he received a warm edict in reply.
3
二十六年，拳禍作，各國兵艦紛集江海各口。 宣懷倡互保議，電粵、江、鄂、閩諸疆吏，獲同意，遂與各領事訂定辦法九條，世所稱東南保護約款是也。 又電奏請下密詔平亂，發國電國書懲禍首，卹五忠，所言動關大計。 事寧，加太子少保，除宗人府府丞。 明年，充辦理商稅事務大臣。 以和約既成，償費過鉅，迺奏豫籌四策，而注重加稅。 復以債款稱息負累劇，請婉商各國，分攤免息。 嗣與各國商加稅免釐，議垂成，英忽中悔。 厥後宣懷數續議，仍無效。 是歲奏設勘礦總公司。 越二年，而有爭粵漢廢約事，滬寧、蘇杭甬踵之，眾大譁。 詔禁宣懷干預，命唐紹儀代督兩局。 宣懷遂奏罷鐵路總公司。 後四年，浙路事益棘，上終以宣懷諳路政，復召見問籌策。 宣懷言：「既借款，不應令商造； 既商造，不應再藉款。 民情可用，不順用之恐激變。」 上是之，拜郵傳部右侍郎。 命甫下，而浙路總理湯壽潛因言宣懷短，請離路事。 壽潛獲嚴譴，宣懷亦不復久居中，仍命詣滬辦商約。
In the twenty-sixth year (1900) the Boxer upheaval began, and foreign warships crowded the river and sea ports. Xuanhuai proposed mutual protection, telegraphed the governors of Guangdong, the lower Yangzi, Huguang, and Fujian, won their assent, and with the consuls fixed nine articles—the Southeastern Protection pact of later fame. He also telegraphed memorials asking for secret edicts to restore order, national wires and letters to punish the ringleaders and honor five loyal dead—each proposal bearing on the fate of the realm. When order returned he was made junior guardian of the heir apparent and assistant director of the Imperial Clan Court. The following year he was appointed minister for commercial tax affairs. With the peace treaty signed and indemnities crushing, he memorialized four advance measures, stressing higher tariffs. He also argued that interest on the debt was ruinous and asked the powers, through quiet negotiation, to share the burden and waive interest. He later negotiated higher tariffs in return for abolishing likin; the deal was nearly done when Britain suddenly withdrew. Xuanhuai tried again several times afterward, to no avail. That year he memorialized to establish the General Mining Survey Company. Two years later disputes erupted over scrapping the Canton–Hankou contract, then Shanghai–Nanjing and Suzhou–Hangzhou–Ningbo lines, and public outcry was fierce. An edict barred Xuanhuai from further involvement and put Tang Shaoyi in charge of both bureaus. Xuanhuai then memorialized to dissolve the Railway Company. Four years later the Zhejiang railway crisis worsened; the court still judged Xuanhuai expert in railway affairs and summoned him again for counsel. Xuanhuai said: "Once you borrow foreign funds, you should not leave construction to merchants; once merchants build, you should not borrow again. Popular feeling can be harnessed; ignore it and you risk violent upheaval." The throne approved, and he was appointed vice minister of the Ministry of Posts and Communications. Hardly had the appointment been issued when Zhejiang railway director Tang Shouqian attacked Xuanhuai's faults and asked to leave railway work. Shouqian was severely reprimanded; Xuanhuai did not long remain at court either and was again sent to Shanghai to negotiate commercial treaties.
4
宣統改元，奏言推廣中央銀行，先齊幣制，附陳辦法成式。 逾歲，命充紅十字會會長。 先是日俄戰爭，宣懷與呂海寰等謀加入瑞士總會，中國有紅十字會自此始。 既拜命入都，時朝廷方整麗幣制，遂敕還郵部本官，參與度支部幣制事。 晉尚書，數上封事，凡收回郵政，接筦驛站，規畫官建各路，展拓川藏電線，釐定全國軌制，稱新政畢舉，而以鐵路收為國有，致召大變，世皆責之。
At the start of the Xuantong reign he memorialized to expand the central bank, unify the currency first, and attached model regulations. A year later he was appointed president of the Red Cross Society. Earlier, during the Russo-Japanese War, Xuanhuai and Lü Haihuan and others had worked to join the Swiss headquarters—the origin of China's Red Cross. Once appointed he went to the capital; the court was reforming the currency, and he was ordered back to his post in the Ministry of Posts to take part in Board of Revenue currency work. Promoted to minister, he submitted many sealed memorials—recovering the post, taking over relay stations, planning state-built railways, extending Sichuan–Tibet telegraph lines, fixing the national gauge—and was praised for completing the new policies; yet railway nationalization provoked catastrophe, and the world blamed him.
5
先是給事中石長信疏論各省商民集股造路公司弊害，宜敕部臣將全國幹路定為國有，其餘枝路仍準各省紳商集股自修。 諭交部議，宣懷復奏言：「中國幅員廣袤，邊疆遼遠，必有縱橫四境諸大幹路，方足以利行政而握中樞。 從前規畫未善，致路政錯亂紛歧，不分枝幹，不量民力，一紙呈請，輒準商辦。 乃數載以來，粵則收股及半，造路無多； 川則倒帳甚鉅，參追無著； 湘、鄂則開局多年，徒供坐耗。 循是不已，恐曠日彌久，民累愈深，上下交受其害。 應請定幹路均歸國有，枝路任民自為，曉諭人民，宣統三年以前各省分設公司集股商辦之幹路，應即由國家收回，亟圖修築，悉廢以前批准之案，川、湘兩省租股並停罷之。」 於是有鐵路國有之詔，並起端方充督辦粵漢、川漢鐵路大臣。
Earlier the supervising censor Shi Changxin had memorialized on the abuses of provincial merchant-funded railway companies, urging that trunk lines nationwide be made state property while branch lines remain open to local subscription. An edict sent the matter to the ministry; Xuanhuai memorialized again: "China's territory is vast and its frontiers remote; only great trunk lines running in all directions can serve administration and hold the center firm. Earlier planning was poor, leaving railway policy chaotic: trunk and branch were not distinguished, popular capacity was not weighed, and any petition won merchant approval. For several years Guangdong has raised barely half its shares and built little track; Sichuan's books are deeply in the red, with nothing recovered from pursuit; Hunan and Hubei have kept offices open for years, consuming funds to no purpose. If this continues, years will pass, popular burdens will deepen, and court and country will both suffer. Trunk lines should be made wholly state-owned and branches left to private initiative; the people should be told that merchant trunk lines approved before the third year of Xuantong must be recovered at once for construction, all prior approvals revoked, and Sichuan and Hunan rent shares halted." Thereupon came the edict nationalizing railways, and Duanfang was appointed to supervise the Canton–Hankou and Sichuan–Hankou lines.
6
宣懷復與英、德、法、美四國結借款之約，各省聞之，群情疑懼，湘省首起抗阻，川省繼之。 湘撫楊文鼎、川督王人文先後以聞，詔切責之，諭：「嚴行禁止，儻有匪徒從中煽惑，意在作亂者，照懲治亂黨例，格殺勿論。」 宣懷又會度支部奏收回辦法：「請收回粵、川、湘、鄂四省公司股票，由部特出國家鐵路股票換給，粵路發六成，湘、鄂路照本發還，川路宜昌實用工料之款四百餘萬，給國家保利股票。 其現存七百餘萬兩，或仍入股，或興實業，悉聽其便。」 詔飭行。 四川紳民羅綸等二千四百餘人，以收路國有，盛宣懷、端方會度支部奏定辦法，對待川民，純用威力，未為持平，不敢從命。 人文復以聞，再切責之。 趙爾豐等復奏：「川民爭路激烈，請仍歸商辦。」 不許，川亂遂成，而鄂變亦起，大勢不可問矣。 資政院以宣懷侵權違法，罔上欺君，塗附政策，釀成禍亂，實為誤國首惡，請罪之，詔奪職，遂歸。 後五年，卒。
Xuanhuai then signed loan agreements with Britain, Germany, France, and the United States; the provinces heard of it with alarm, Hunan resisted first, and Sichuan followed. Hunan governor Yang Wending and Sichuan governor Wang Renwen reported in turn; an edict sharply rebuked them: "Strictly forbid it; if ruffians stir trouble with intent to rebel, treat them as rebels and kill without inquiry." Xuanhuai and the Board of Revenue jointly memorialized on recovery: recover the stocks of Guangdong, Sichuan, Hunan, and Hubei and exchange them for state railway bonds—60 percent for Guangdong, principal for Hunan and Hubei, and for Sichuan more than four million taels spent at Yichang in materials to be paid in state bonds bearing guaranteed interest. The remaining more than seven million taels may stay invested or go into industry, as holders wish." An edict ordered it carried out. More than 2,400 Sichuan gentry and commoners led by Luo Lun, on nationalization and the recovery plan drawn up by Sheng Xuanhuai, Duanfang, and the Board of Revenue, declared that Sichuan had been treated with naked force, not fairness, and refused to comply. Wang Renwen reported again and was rebuked once more. Zhao Erfeng and others memorialized again: "Sichuan's railway struggle is fierce; we ask that the line be returned to merchant management." The request was denied; disorder spread in Sichuan, mutiny broke out in Hubei, and the realm's fate was beyond reckoning. The Constitutional Advisory Council charged him with abuse of power, deceiving the throne, distorting policy, and causing catastrophe—the chief culprit of the state's ruin—and asked that he be punished; an edict removed him from office, and he went home. Five years later he died.
7
宣懷有智略，尤善治賑。 自咸豐季葉畿輔被水菑，嗣是而晉邊，而淮、徐、海，而浙，而鄂，而江、皖，皆起募款，籌賑撫。 因討測受菑之故，益究心水利，其治小清河利尤溥。 唯起家實業，善蓄藏，稱富，亦往往冒利，被口語云。
Xuanhuai was resourceful and especially adept at famine relief. From the late Xianfeng floods in Zhili through the Shanxi frontier, the Huai–Xu–Hai region, Zhejiang, Hubei, and Jiang-Anhui, he repeatedly raised funds and organized relief. Studying the causes of calamity, he devoted himself further to waterworks; his regulation of the Xiaoxiao River brought especially wide benefit. Yet he had risen through industry, was skilled at hoarding wealth, was reputed rich, and was often accused of grasping profit—talk the public never ceased.
8
=瑞澂=瑞澂，字莘儒，滿洲正黃旗人，大學士琦善孫，將軍恭鏜子。 以貢生官刑部筆帖式，遷主事，調升戶部員外郎。 出為九江道，有治聲，移上海道。 滬地交涉繁，瑞澂應付縝密，頗負持正名。 尤顓意警政，建總局，廓分區，設學堂，練馬巡，中外交誦其能。 光緒三十三年，授江西按察使，遷江蘇布政使。 時江、浙梟匪蠢動，出沒滬、杭孔道，釀成巨案。 侍郎沈家本建議辦清鄉，朝命瑞澂主蘇、松、太、杭、嘉、湖捕務，六屬文武受節度。 瑞澂添募水師，購置兵輪，仿各國海軍制，編成聯隊。 擒獲巨魁夏竹、林聲為，匪徒斂跡。
Rui Cheng, whose style name was Xinru, was a Manchu of the Plain Yellow Banner, grandson of Grand Secretary Qishan and son of General Gongjin. Entering office as a tribute student, he served as a Ministry of Justice clerk, rose to chief secretary, and was transferred to vice director in the Ministry of Revenue. Posted as Jiujiang daotai, he won a name for good government and was transferred to Shanghai. Shanghai's foreign dealings were complex; Rui Cheng handled them with care and earned a reputation for standing firm. He gave special attention to policing: he built a central bureau, mapped districts, founded schools, and trained mounted patrols—praised alike by Chinese and foreigners. In the thirty-third year of Guangxu (1907) he was made Jiangxi judicial commissioner and then Jiangsu administration commissioner. Bandit leaders in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were stirring, raiding the Shanghai–Hangzhou corridor and spawning major cases. Vice Minister Shen Jiaben proposed rural pacification; the court put Rui Cheng in charge of pursuit in Suzhou, Songjiang, Taicang, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou, with civil and military officials of the six districts under his command. Rui Cheng recruited additional river troops, bought gunboats, modeled foreign naval organization, and formed a combined flotilla. He captured the ringleaders Xia Zhu and Lin Shengwei, and the bandits fell quiet.
9
宣統改元，稱疾，乞解職，溫旨慰留。 總督端方密薦其才，遷巡撫。 既蒞事，澄吏治，肅軍紀，嚴警政，條具整飭本末以上，上嘉納，命署湖廣總督。 逾歲，到官，旋實授。 劾罷巡警道馮啟鈞、勸業道鄒履和。 湘民飢變，复糾彈前祭酒王先謙、主事葉德輝、道員孔憲穀阻撓新政狀，中旨分別懲革，繇是威望益著。 其時朝廷籌備立憲，瑞澂希風指，凡置警、興學、設諮議局、立審檢廳，一切皆治辦。 名流如張謇輩咸與交驩，而懿親載澤方用事，則又為其姻婭，聲勢駸駸出南北洋上。
At the start of the Xuantong reign he pleaded illness and asked to resign; a gracious edict urged him to remain. Governor-General Duanfang privately recommended his ability, and he was promoted to governor. Once in post he clarified administration, tightened military discipline, and strengthened policing; he submitted a full reform plan, won imperial approval, and was appointed acting Huguang governor-general. A year later he took up the post and soon received confirmation in the substantive appointment. He impeached and removed police director Feng Qijun and industry director Zou Lvhe. When famine sparked unrest in Hunan, he again impeached the former libationer Wang Xianqian, secretary Ye Dewei, and daotai Kong Xianggu for blocking reforms; the court punished each in turn, and his prestige rose. The court was then preparing constitutional government; Rui Cheng followed its lead—police, schools, provincial assemblies, courts—everything was put in order. Leading figures such as Zhang Jian were all on friendly terms with him; the imperial kinsman Zaize was then in power, and Rui Cheng was his relation by marriage as well, so that his influence steadily eclipsed even the great ministers of north and south.
10
三年七月，被命會辦川漢、粵漢鐵路。 居無何，督辦端方上言鄂境鐵路收歸國有，詔嘉之。 越月，武昌變起。 先是黨人謀亂於武昌，瑞澂初聞報，憂懼失措，漫不為備，惟懸賞告密，得黨人名冊，多列軍人名，左右察知偽造，請銷毀以安眾心。 瑞澂必欲按名捕之，獲三十二人，誅其三，輒以平亂聞。 詔嘉其弭患初萌，定亂俄頃，命就擒獲諸人嚴鞫，並緝逃亡，於是軍心騷動，翌日遂變。 瑞澂棄城走，詔革職，仍令權總督事，戴罪圖功，並令陸軍大臣廕昌督師往討，薩鎮冰率兵艦、程允和率水師援之，而瑞澂已乘兵艦由漢口而蕪湖而九江，且至上海矣。
In the seventh month of the third year of Xuantong (1911) he was ordered to assist in the Sichuan–Hankou and Canton–Hankou railways. Before long, railway superintendent Duanfang memorialized that railways in Hubei should be nationalized, and the throne commended the proposal. The following month the uprising at Wuchang erupted. Revolutionaries had already been plotting at Wuchang; when Rui Cheng first heard word of it he was alarmed and at a loss, made no real preparations, and only posted rewards for informants; he obtained a rebel roster listing many soldiers, but his staff saw it was forged and urged him to destroy it to calm the troops. Rui Cheng insisted on arresting every name on the list; thirty-two were seized and three executed, and he at once reported that the disturbance was quelled. An edict praised him for crushing the trouble at its start and restoring order in an instant, and ordered strict interrogation of those captured and pursuit of fugitives; army morale was shaken, and the next day the mutiny broke out. Rui Cheng abandoned the city and fled; an edict removed him from office yet left him acting governor-general to redeem himself in battle; Army Minister Yinchang was sent to lead the campaign, Sa Zhenbing with warships and Cheng Yunhe with the river fleet to support him—but Rui Cheng had already fled by gunboat from Hankou through Wuhu and Jiujiang and was nearly at Shanghai.
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黨軍推陸軍第二十一混成協統領官黎元洪稱都督，置軍政府。 既占武昌，復取漢陽，據漢口，乃起袁世凱為湖廣總督，督辦剿撫，節制長江水陸各軍，副都統王士珍副之。 召廕昌還，命軍諮使馮國璋總統第一軍，江北提督段祺瑞總統第二軍，俱受世凱節制。 國璋與黨軍戰於灄口，水陸夾擊，复漢口，連克漢陽，指日下武昌，而世凱授總理內閣大臣，遽令停攻。 復起魏光燾督湖廣，士珍暫權，段芝貴護，又命祺瑞攝之。 時瑞澂已久遁上海，始以失守武昌，潛逃出省，偷生喪恥，詔逮京，下法部治罪，而瑞澂不顧也。 瑞澂居上海四年，病卒。
The revolutionaries made Li Yuanhong, commander of the 21st Mixed Brigade, military governor and set up a military government. After seizing Wuchang they took Hanyang and held Hankou; Yuan Shikai was then appointed Huguang governor-general to direct suppression and pacification, with command over all Yangzi forces by land and water, and Vice Commander Wang Shizhen as his deputy. Yinchang was recalled; military adviser Feng Guozhang was made commander of the First Army and Jiangbei commander-in-chief Duan Qirui commander of the Second Army, both under Yuan Shikai's orders. Guozhang fought the revolutionaries at Xinkou in a combined land-and-water assault, retook Hankou, and captured Hanyang in succession, with Wuchang expected to fall within days; but Yuan Shikai was appointed prime minister and abruptly ordered the offensive stopped. Wei Guangtao was again appointed to supervise Huguang; Shizhen acted in his stead, Duan Zhigui served as guardian, and Qirui was again ordered to act in the post. By then Rui Cheng had long since fled to Shanghai; it was reported that he had lost Wuchang, slipped out of the province in secret, and lived on in disgrace; an edict ordered him seized and sent to the capital for trial by the Ministry of Justice, but Rui Cheng ignored it. Rui Cheng lived in Shanghai for four years and died of illness.
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=【論】=論曰：辛亥革命，亂機久伏，特以鐵路國有為發端耳。 宣懷實創斯議，遂為首惡。 鄂變猝起，瑞澂遽棄城走，當國優柔，不能明正以法。 各省督撫遂先後皆不顧，走者走，變者變，大勢乃不可問矣。 嗚呼！ 如瑞澂者，諡以罪首，尚何辭哉？
The commentary says: In the Xinhai Revolution, the seeds of disorder had long been present; railway nationalization was only the spark. Xuanhuai had in fact originated this policy and was therefore counted the chief culprit. The Hubei uprising broke out suddenly; Rui Cheng at once abandoned the city and fled; the court was irresolute and could not punish him openly by law. Provincial governors then followed one after another without regard for the throne—some fled, some rebelled—and the fate of the realm was beyond reckoning. Alas! For a man like Rui Cheng, to be branded chief criminal—what excuse could he offer?