The Times reports at some length the ease quoted in several of the last home papers, where a tipsy Irishman knocked off the hat of one of the servants of the Chinese mission, and was sent to prison for two months with hard labour, for the offence! Here is the story "At Marlborough-street, yesterday, J. Donovan, an Irishman, was charged, before Mr. Knox, with being drunk and assaulting Chang Aimaon, servant to one of the Attachés of the Chinese Embassy. The complainant was sworn according to the Chinese custom. A saucer was broken, and he knelt while Dr. Macartney administered the oath in this form—'You shall tell the truth, the whole truth; the saucer is cracked, and if you do not tell the truth, you shall be cracked, like the saucer." The complainant then said that about 2 o'clock the previous afternoon he was walking in Osford-sireer with a friend, when the prisoner came up and struck him heavily on the head, knocking off his cap. A bystander, who saw the assault, called constable and gave the prisoner into custody. Yang Ksi, another servant of one of the Attachés of the Embassy, was with his friend, the complainant, walking a stey or two behind. The prisoner came up an he distinctly saw him strike the complainant on the head with sufficient force to knock off his cap., Frederick Hedge, of 6, Castle-street East, said he was in Oxford-street the previous afternoon, near Vere-street, where he saw the Chinese walking quietly along. The defendant passed them, and deliberately turned round and struck the complainant on the head—it appeared as with his open hand, knocking the complainant's hat off. He seized the prisoner, and detained him until a constable came. Replying to Mr. Knox, witness said the prisoner was quite drunk, and when stopped id he did it because he' "did not like the religion of those people." The prisoner said he was under the influence of drink, and what he did was more out of play than anything else, He know he had no business to do what he did. Mr. Knox regretted the occurrence, nut for sake of the prisoner, but for the stke of the character of the country. The Chinese Ambassador, with his servants, had just landed in England, and about the first day afterwards one of his servants was made the viet abominable conduct of the prisoner. His sentence would show that magistrates were determined to protect strangers in London. 'The prisoner would be committed for two months with hard Inbour, Dr. Macartney, who is attached to the Legation, said,' on the part of the Chinese Embassy, he wished to express his thanks to several' gentlemen who had witnessed the assault, and who were prepared, if necessary, to' attend to give evidence: Mr. Knox desired: Dr. Macartney to convey to the Chinese attendants that they would receive full protection, and to the Chinese Ambassador that every magistrate would take care that punishment should follow any act of molestation." Everyone will agree with the magistrate that the conduct of the prisoner was very bad, and deserved sharp punishment—the more so that it indirectly affects the character of his countrymen—all of whom will suffer in the estimation of their visitors, from the bad behaviour of Mr, Donovan, But to give a man two months for what was evidently done more as a drunken frolic than from any malice, swwours of truckling. If an Englishman had had his hat similarly knocked off, the assailant would have probably been fined 5s.; and why Pat should be imprisoned for two months with hard labour because the Chinese Am-Dassador had the previous day Ianded in Eogland—a fact of which he probably was wholly unaware, passes comprehension,—The offence was certainly worse as towards the Chinaman, than if an Englishman had been in case, because the moral effect would be bad; but there was not the difference between a 5s. fine and 2 months' hard labour, We believe in the doctrine of "hospitality to the stranger from afar," but not to this extent. If a crowd of Chinamen attacked a foreigner here with bamboos, they would hardly get so nich; yet in this case there was no harm done of all. There seems to be no acensation of a serious Ulow; it is only an impertinence—scareely worse than the epithet of la-lee-loong which salutes every foreigner who walks in the country round Shanghai, and which no attempt is ever made to suppress,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.