Ir is always hazardous to venture on prophecy, but yet every Shanghai resident must just now find himself forecasting the probable destiny of the great and important Settlement which has cost so much money to found, to develope, and to govern; and in the well-being of which so many foreigners are largely interested, Of course, it is possible that sinister predictions may come true, and that we may be reduced by the narrowing of the stream of the Hwangpoo to utter insignificance. The appeals to Peking to get the Woosung Bar dredged have hitherto been regarded' as idle fancies, and a deaf ear has been turned to the careful and urgent memorials that have been from time to time addressed to the representatives of Foreign Powers. All we can do is to hope that the last letter of the Chamber of Commerce on this subject may meet with more acceptance than its predecessors, and will not be pigeon-holed as so many former memorials have been, If energetic action succeeds in inducing the Ministers to press this vital point on the Imperial Government, however, and -our continuance is secured, we must be prepared for existence under changed conditions. The Chinese are rapidly taking possession of some of our most eligible situations, and are swarming thick and fast in our streets. It is too late to say they never should have been allowed to come in, They are here, in ever-inerensing numbers. This is an accomplished fact. What will be the result? Some prophets of ill say that the place is ruined. We cannot endorse this gloomy and hopeless view. The ports opened so ominously on the first of April will not, in all likelihood, as we have previously shown, become great and thriving Settlements in a fow months. It is obvious that there is not now sufficient capital or sufficient clan in the foreign merchant to induce him to repeat the experiment made at Hankow, and to erect vast hongs at Tchang, Wuhu or Wenchow. lo do
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.