Two months ago, a number of respect= able Chinese petitioned the Taotai to use his influence to have the opium shops in the Foreign Settlements closed. A moving picture was drawn of the temptations these houses offered, and of the abysses of moral and pecuniary ruin into which they were the means of seducing the native youth. The Taotai, as in duty bound, endorsed the memorial on to the Foreign authorities; and the latter assented to the wish it expressed. Orders were given by the Municipal Councils, in each Settlement, that the houses in question should be closed. The order was obeyed, and the female attendants referred to in the Memorial, were scattered; some returning home or finding other employment, some finding refuge in brothels. For the class of house attacked was a simple tavern, of which there were not more than fifty in the whole Anglo-Ameri-cant Settlement. The Native brothels, which are really opium shops also, were not even hinted at. Such as it was, however, the measure was a good, if a trifling one, and it was carried out. One is always puzzled to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.