Tr is sincerely to be hoped that the British Charge d'Affaires, with ti news before his eyes of the aésassination of the one high Chinese official who did his duty in the late er will hesitate no longer asto the grave political import of the massacre of the 21st Jane. Weare glad to believe that Mr, Wade's visit to Tientsin resulted in showing him that something morethana mere local riot was implied by that outbrenk;, though we confessafear that heis even yet not sufficiently alive to the gravity of the situation. We have, still, no word from him of advice or information; no expression of belief that the gravity of the crisis is exaggerated, nor of assurance that he is taking measures for our protection in case of danger. And, in the absence of such proof of consideration and energy, we cannot feel confidence that our interests are being eared for as the urgency of the crisis demands. Bat the attempted murder of Ma-siu-yih will not fail to add one more, and possibly that one the strongest, proof of tie extent and determined nature of the conspiracy by which we find ourselves surrounded.
Itisa strange featureinhaman nature that, amongst a number of men born into this world, there will inevitably found a certain proportion with minds constructed on so peculiar system that no argument, however confirming, no fact, however patent, will induce them to give up an idea once implanted in their brains. The cantion to beware of the man of one book, was not a superfluous one; the man who allows his thoughts to run in seitied groove is generally wanting in that proof of development known as the judicial mind, which enables some me, with almost unerring instinct, at once to catch hold of the slight films of fact floating about, and from them, by ager research, to arrive at just conchisions. A feather, says the proverb, shows how the wind blows, and in this matter there have been a superabundance of feathers to prove the existence of a setted and deeply laid plot. We have before alluded to the wonderful synchronism of ith issue of the kidnapping placards, to which the commencement of the agitation was directly to be attributed. At Pientsin they were posted about the first week in June, in Nanking on the seventh, in Chinkinng on the fourteenth, in Yangchow on the eighteenth, Shanghai on the sixteenth of the same month. We have not informa-lion as to the date they appeared in other localities; but have reason to be-jove that, in most of the large cities of Kiangnan, intervals of but afew days intervened, As to the subject matter of the proclamation, we have now the highest authority, not only for stating that it, was false, but that it was known to be Iulxe at the time, The Tmpetial edict, the proclamations and notes of Ma-sing-yih, of Tseng-kwo-fan, and of Ting-jil-chang, not to speak of others of less note, all acknowledge this. Amidst the number of Chinese officials who were cognisant of the falsity and truculent nature of the proclamation, but one mau was fonnd todo his duty. Ma, Viceroy of the Liang: kiang, Junior Guardianof the Heir Apparent, &e.,&c afforded the solitat tance of a Chi nese official who, in the hour of trial, and without waiting for pressure from without, did that which a just and honourable man would have done. On the ery for protection from the missionaries, he visited their establishment in person, sent his aides to explore the whole of the buildings; and, when these reported favourably, he hesitated not, not only to issue placards denouncing the plot, but (o supplement this by impr soningut least one of the ringleaders. If a report quoted in the Beening Cow of June 20th,—to the effect that this ringleader threatened, in case of his execution, a rising which Ma, or the government of China itself, could not suppress,—be true, it Unrows a strange ight on this, the Intest crime of whic the faction who planned the Tientsin outrage have been guilty; and shows how narrow has been the escape of the foreigners resident at the smaller ports on the Yangtsze. It also lends support to the belief that the rising planned in Shanghai was not so visionary as some people suppose, and that, to the ener getic measnrestaken by our community, to be attributed the fact that, up to this time, we have remained unmolested. There is seldom smoke without fi and it is curious fo recall that, within the last few days, ramours have been rife of the assassination of the British
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.