Severat notable signs have lately appeared, that the Chinese are beginning to appreciate the power and value of newspapers. We have ourselves had occasional hints, in the shape of explanations from mandarins and remonstrances from Peking, that the utteranceseven of the W.-C. Herald are cared for; but a foreign paper naturally stirs the officials much less than one printed in Chinese, where their own doings and current events are discussed before the eyes of all their subjects. We called attention last week, to the excitement caused by the late controversy in the Skunpao, as one proof of the attention which newspapers are beginning to create, And though this was the most striking, it was not the first instance in which the local manda-tins had been disturbed by the outspoken comments of that paper. Another notable case was the publication the other day, by the Shanghai merchants, of their petition to the Taotai against barrier taxation. It was not sufficient to address His Excellency; they wished to gain for their complaint "publicity far and near"—in other words, to enlist the weight of public opinion' in their favour, in a manner of which they were beginning to appreciate the value. As most of our readers are no doubt aware, two Chinese newspapers are published in "Hongkong, under foreign auspices and we remember noting one morning, when passing through the colony, a Chinaman lying on a sofa and reading his morning' paper, as a rather amusing and striking sign of the times.
Thus for, however, the pioneer journals of the Native Press have been conducted under foreign guidance. The action of the authorities in the case of Yang Yeh-liu proved that this was still necessary on Chinese soil. No Chinaman could dare to criticise the acts of his superiors, hardly indeed even those of his equals. He would risk oppress sion in the one case, and prosecution and perhaps personal violence in the other. The laws of China and their administration have to undergo amendment and purification before a native Press, in the Western sense of the word, can become possible. As yet, the protection of foreign inw is necessary to ensure free discussion. Even the new paper which is projected in Shanghai, in opposition to the Shunpao, is to be conducted, we hear, under foreign auspices. In Hongkong, however, this is not necessary; the English law there protects Chinese and Foreigner alike; and there has been made the first essay of a genuinely Chinese newspaper. Native shareholders have just started a daily paper called the T'sun-wan-yat-po or Universal Circulating Herald, of which the China Mail of the 5th instant reviews the first number. And the appearance of the first daily Chinese newspaper ever published under purely native direction, is an incident so notable that we make no apology for transcribing our contemporary's precis of its contents—" The editorial page of the first number opens with a complete reproduction of the last Peking Gazette, occupying 2} columns. This is followed by a column and a half of 'Canton items,' which include a decided variety such as the capture of certain vagabonds at Fatee, the robbery of a traveller en route to Fatshan, a'poetical effusion, a short essay against the belief in the transmigration of souls, another on the evils of kidnapping, and a rather apocryphal story ofa fox.' A fire, a robbery and two burglaries follow, with some very nonsensical records of the birth of human monstrosities. True, the editor expresses, in a short sentence at the end, a belief that they are rubbish, but his dictum will, we fear, carry little weight after the gravity of the announcement, Foreign news? takes the next place, and this department certainly seems to be creditably filled. The Dutch victory over the Achinese, French doings in Tonquin, the appointment of Consuls by Japan, the Hongkong Jury list, the death of Dr. Livingstone, Baron Reuter's Persian concession, the indemnity to the Empress Hugenie, the proclamation of Venice being no longer a free port, the Emperor of Japan's present to the President of Peru having been placed in the public museum—these and similar items fille lange space. Of course the coolie trade is touched on, two articles being devoted to it, one of which states that England, Germany, France and Russia are the powers most opposed to it. The currency question, tea adult teration and opium, Ube article on the latter, by the way, gives particulars of its first cultivation in China) are all touched on with more or less ability. The advantages of steam and foreign gunnery, the anti-rebel expedition recently "noticed in these columns, and some remarks on the importance of newspapers, come next. In fact, with singular appositeness, considering that the paper is Chinese, the articles which most closely answer to our leaders? come last. The editor expresses his -disbelief in the alleged amelioration of the condition of coolies in Peru, reprobates the worship of certain heathen deities, and discourses on the Russian occupation of Khiva in a tone strongly resembling that adopted by the London correspondent of the Daily Press, Finally, an article on foot-binding, con-dernning the practice, and some very apropos suggestions to the Chinese Government how to become rich and powerful, by the study and adoption of Western arts and sciences, the reorganization of its administration, and the suppression of corruption, closes what may be termed the editor's department."—The tone of the articles seems to be, on the whole, very satisfactory; and the antecedents of the men connected with the venture, to be a guarantee that they will be, as they promise, "progressive and anti-obstructive." We hail with pleasure the growth, apparent from these several indications, of an appreciation by
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.