Since my last communication we have had numerous startling surprises, contr dietary rumours, and sagacious ' speculntions. Intest hearing la that the tid of danger is rapidly receding, and future sailing will be on safe and tranquil waters. 'There are those who tell us that cardinal questions are already disposed of, and that only minor points remain to be dealt' with. "Among: other:'on\dits, the natives have it that Foreign Ministers have obtained all they wanted, and that our relations with.the _Middle.. Kingdom are henceforth to be of the most amicable and enduring character. We are not quite s0 credulous as to accept these representations without reserve. Indeed, if we are correctly informed, we must unhesitatingly pronounce them entirely opposed to facta. " It was only on the 6th inst. that we-were favoured with a letter,. froma gentleman not far removed from the capital, in which occurs the following—' We have great news. A grand meeting of the Ministers was held on the 24th ult., at the American Legation. The business was then unknown. It now'turns out "(the news has come fromthe Tsung-li. Yamen, and is perfectly reliable and semi-official), that the Biinisters assembled to meet some one from the Chinese Foreign Office, with reference, to a proposal of the Government as a basis for closing these long-continued negotiations, What do you think it was? I fancy I see you guessing. " Prepare yourself for a cold bath. The banishment of the Fu and Hsien, and the execution of fifteen of the mob! " A nice state of things, one thinks, between the Legations and the Government, must have existed before the latter could have dared to propose auch a finish as this!" Thus writes our correspondent, and were we at liberty to mention his name, the ace of his testimony could not be doubted. If, then, by the reported pacific settlement be meant such demands on the one hand, and such com-Pliances on the other, we must reject the' announcement as utterly unworthy of eredence. That propositions of the nature described have been advanced by the Teung-li Yamen may be true; but that they have been assented to by Foreign Ministers, we cannot believe. "If it had been affirmed that the Tsung-li Yamen had proffered to send the mob into exile, and the officials, three instead of two, to the execution ground, we might, possibly, have found some reason in the -proposala, "But that the mob should be decapitated, and the mandarins left with their. heads. their shoulders,—what reason can there be in that? In other words, why should the assassin's weapon be destroyed, and the assassin himself be suffered to escape? Presented in plain English, the proposals just amount to this;—tite scoundrel' Chen is to have his fame and honours and freedom preserved intact; the rascally'Fu and' Hsien are to be placed in office: out of sight of foreigners; and fifteen miserable creatures of no consequence are to be sacrificed, in appeasement of barbarian wrath. "Life for lite," said Tseng-kwo-fan, tis the cellent principle of our Chinese juris prudence, and life for. life we will give." And here, according. to a somewhat singular mode of computation, is the fulfilment of his vaunting pledge. For the valuable lives of twenty foreigners and scores of natives, fifteen of the thousands of fiends who combined for their brutal butchery are to undergo the extreme penalty of the law, and all the rest-are to go free.. And: that such overtures should. be seriously made by the Chinese Govei ment, after nearly four months: of diplonscy respecting the' rights of the case! What is it, but adding insult to insult and. wrong to wrong 1' The Foreign' Minis. ters, we are fully assured, will never o terrain any scheme for terminating this painful: business, which does not compris execution of the three: most heinous criminals. 'Fewer of the mob and these may do; but the mob en masse, without these, will leave, the guiltiest of the guilty at large, and the'truest ends of justice unined. It is simple frivolity to speak of sensitiveness in -regard - to' the execution of native' officials.' Those con—versant with Chinese' history know: full well, that. when' consonant -with the passing: caprice of superiors vested with the requisite powers, the head of.a.culpable official. is taken with as little concern or ceremony as the head of a beggar.: And we should have: heard' nothing' of: loch squeamishness in this instance, ifthe mur-dorers had not been the cherished proteges of Tséng-kwo-fan,- and -their lamented victims despised strangers from the insignificant. countries of the West. We think it is about time- the: Chinese were made to realize that such affected delicacy is, in the esteem of outraged nationalities, a hollow pretence and & revolting mod 'The condition of things in China, so faras foreigners are concerned, is bad enough now; but let the' Ministers be beguile: any pretext whatever, into compact whicl leaves unpunished, in proportion.to thei deserts, the three official villains who were the prime movers in the Tientsin Massacre, and, depend upon it, ere many years have Which' shal it bet Unyielding firmness assed, we shall see it infinitely worse.
in: such comprehensive measures as shall guarantee a long and prosperous and penceful security; or pusillanimous concessions, which must inevitably expose us to the action of still darker and bloodier plots against our interests and our lives? "Ifa thoroughly humane, and merciful and righteous policy be the aspiration of Foreign Ministers in Peking, we are sure the former and not the latter will bathe course which they will pursue.
We have still to that s6-little is positively known of what the Ministers think and propose with to existi complications "in China, but we have re satisfaction in the assurance that they are displaying unwonted energy and solicitude in the conduct of negotiations. " Even Mr. Low and his -estimable are said to "have materially ince the change of their residence from the hills to Peking." The former is thus delineated by 8
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.