ce, We learn that quite recently no less The Hoppo of Canton is at his old tricks have (EY junks, all coming from Hainan, aby ttt seized by his cruisers, Of these twenty Were bound to Hongkong, and tional object is desired and sought by the Chinese Authorities at Canton, "They wish to injure as much as possible the trade of this rt. And in some measure, it must be confessed, they have succeeded. Long since, the Harbour Master ted a serious decline in the junk trade of the colony, and rightly ascribed it to the action of the Canton Customs cruisers. Nor is it wonderful that state of blockade in which the port Shus placed should do great injury to its com Chinese traders have little faith lity or the will of the British Government to protect them from the exact tions of the Hoppo's gunboats, Many of them, of the risks of the trade, transferred their vessels to other waters, and a good number of junks have been confiscated and their owners ruined. Chinese traders are naturall losing heart, They know that if they send a junk to-an outport, there is a. chance that they may never s. They have no assurance that on 3g Foochow and paying the Fuhkien dues they will not estopped just outside the Ly-ce-moon Pass and com-led to satisfy the illegal demands of the to enter the harbour of Hongkong. It is not nton Hoppo as well, before being suffered surprising, then, that the local junk traffic is being crippled and reduced, and that the long, whose prosperity is intimately asso-with it, should be feeling it too. Nor is it vellous that the merchants of Hong-Kong should regard the circumstance with owing uneasiness, rendered the greater from fact that Her Majesty's Consul at Canton has in the past upheld, on most occasions, the action of the Hoppo, and the British Government itself turned' a deaf ear to their appeal against the blockade maintained round the port by Chinese revenue cruisers.
Bat it is traly wonderful how patient under Row utterly indisposed the British Goverarevocation British officials have grown, and
ment is to do anything bat address mild remonstrances to those who have attacked British interests and insulted the British name. British foreign policy has certainly changed for the worse. It is wavering and mid, when it should be prompt, bold, and English officials have grown exasperatingly slow in conducting negotiations, or sise they allow things to be deferred again and again to suit Oriental convenience' The Chinese are acute observers. They have marked Se change lis has one fed of Benin, and. they "have not. failed English policy since the signing of the Treaty
take advantage of it. They hold the English cheap, and many even begin to imme at the recent additions to Chinese moval and mi power have had the effect dating them urged the other day, firmness is a quality that is especially needed in all her relations with the Chinese. The best way of treating, the Peking Goverment in its present constitution undoubtedly is this. The British Government, having made up its mind that its requeste are just, should prefer them with the alternative of war. The Chinese would yield, time and money be saved, and a good deal of bad feeling avoided. As we at the time remarked, Earl Carnarvon's ill-advised reply to the memorials sent him on the subject of the blockade of this port, would soon, and is now beginning, to bear fruit. Squeezing and exactions of every kind are increasing all over the South of China, and if junks trading to Hongkong are to be seized at this rate, where is the matter to end? of the Buddhist temple of Fukushoji (Zen sect) and indented for a week's inces-fant prayer, 'The consequence has been that from the morning of the 24th An, till 1st Sept., there was a constant success of priests in attendance at the altar, who, usual, kept up the almost monotone' prayers, accompanied by the large drum and small gong. Others of the farmers proceeded to exorcise the which it had taken possession of the empty water reservoirs. purpose grand. musters were held on the 28th, 29th and 30th, of all the Hiogo people, who with much "drum, gong, couch and bell music marched round the fields by torch-light, and if the dragon in question was not either smoked out or driven Away by the noise it was not from any of energy on the part of the performers. whole of the body of some two thousand men went to the rendezvous house at the extreme West of then came the large bell of the ward, na largo a drum as they could muster and' a gong, the whole being interspersed with mon and dried grass stuck on bamboos, From the n boys, who each held unlit torches formed of the procession went past the large ro-fields on the North of the road (where was a fire at which they lit their torches), along one of the narrow bridle paths running' through between the fields, up to a point on the Minato watercourses high up above the northera bridge. As the long boas of men wended its way along the narrow pati in Indian file it was wafded by hundreds of spectators who collected amongst the tr on the banks of the river, and well we looking at it was. Loud cri mamoi no, l'yaku ni kome ito mo she (a prayer far raiv, that rice may be che mixed up with the iustramental music (2) the whole made a body of sound equal to any Tichborne Release Meeting that has yet been held, At s spot close by the watercourses the torches were thrown on a pile by each bearer as he came up to the bonfire, and the flaro from this heap showed so bright against the sky that many people thought that the devouring element was at work, and rang the Kobe na! bells, As the people filed up on to the edge of the watercourses, the former torch bearers with their ward, who were posted among the were suppl with Inoterns by men connected,
trees for that purpose, The way then was taken along the bank of the river to the old Hiogo road, where with renewed clamour the whole party went through the main street of the town, the sides of which were lined with the old men and the women who were left in charge of the place, and as each section marched through its ward the members retired to their homes, whereby the procession was soon reduced to a skeleton.
The fact that on the afternoon of the 30th, one or two heavy showers freshened up the air, did not prevent the full programme hein; carried out on the evening of that day, an as we write (on the Tuesday afternoon) there is every promise of moister and cooler weather.
The head priest of the temple where the praying takes place, is, like all those we have met, Sciremely courteous and obliging to those who approach him in the proper manner,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.