Jusr as we were soothing ourselves with the belief that China was quiet, news of a disturbing character reaches us from the South. It is rather pro-yoking to have to turn one's attention from the Home papers, and their topics of absorbing interest, to such degraded and besotted folly as the rumours circulated by Chinese literati; but painful asit isto lay down a graphic picture of the burning Louvre or the marvellous cross-examinations in the Tichbourne case, and to take up stupid story about "little pills" and "evil spirit powder," we do well to consider the matter which lies nearest lo us, as bitter experience proves that we dare not afford to treat these subjects with the contempt they so richly mer It is the old story witl ious, for the anti-foreign party in China are sadly destitute of invention. Like the managers who cater fur the taste of an East end audience, they know that tain well worn expedients never fail to bring down the house; and ssu they do not tax their ingenuity to invent new situations, or fresh dramatic effects. It is necessary for the villain of the piece to be a recreant of the blackest dye. Plenty of cork on his face and red paint ov his lauds, are all that are needed to bring down the bravoes of the mob audience; so there is no need to make him tall sense or lay plots with intelligence. In like manner, in China, "any stick will do to beat a dog," and 80 any falsehood will do to fasten on a foreigner. There is no attention paid to trath or to probability. Nothing can be more incoherent than the stories told all over the country, about the nefarious practices of the Christians. They are as inconsistent and absurd as the accusations brought by Hopkins the witch-finder against the bedridden women of Lancashire; still they serve the purpose of their circulators, and tend to fan the flame of ill-will between the native heathen and the European priests and their converts.
We must beware and not regard the news from the City of Rams as unimportant, because much of it is ridiculous and puerile. We have ceased to place any credit in spells, amulets, charms, talismans and philtras. Every now and then we meet with some man of culture and intelligence, like Mr. Julian Charles Young, who has an evident Dolief in ghost stories; but men subject to these peculiar hallucinations are not often to be found, and even in fiction we rather object to the introduction of supernatural machinery. Amongst the Chinese, enlightened as they are in many respects, the belief in occult arcs is very prevalent. The stories circulated at Tientsin, and the proclamations which were placarded in this Settlement about Trinity Church, in the autumn of 1869, prove this. In spite of the philosophic elevation of his creed, the Chinaman is a bond slave to super= stations to which a peasant even in the Middle Ages would have been ashamed to bow. He believes in genii, in dos mons, in incantations, in diablerie of all kinds, Even the high officials are not ashamed to introduce the subject of Feng-sh ney into their proclamations and public documents. Indeed we must conclude that the superstitions connect ed with the various forms of geomancy are articles of the national creed, and are honestly and truly believed. Still, with regard to the "evil spirit powder," &., we suspect that malice prompts many of the tales that are spread abroad, and that the owingly diffi ity of which they are themselves convinced, in order to promote ill-feeling and to set the popular mind against the Western men and the Western faith. The tales are so hackneyed, and the pretences so slender, that we se believe able and acute men, howsoever pedantic they may be, would place nee in them. It is diflizalt of course to speak positively, as an ill brood of consequences be expecled from the union of ignorance and malignity.
Before us, however re one or two uncomfortable cards ave posted about accusing foreigners of filthy practices, similar no doubt to those att buted to them in the " Death-Islow to Corrapt Doctrine appeals are made for the heads of foreigners at the moderate sums of $200 and even $50 each, and the cited to destroy the pels. We furth learn that the abusive tone of the city mob is beginning to show itself towards the converts, and that some of the foreign Missionaries have been treated with supercilious insolence. In fuct, there are the seeds of "a very pretty quarrel," and we shall watch with anxiety for the news that the next few steamers will bring. We must of course make allowance for exaggerations. Already, a number of amplifications of the tacts we are in possession of, have been dif fassed about the Settlement. We hope all may continue quiet; but if mal ters do take a cross turn, we shall not be surprised.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.