Ir needs but few words on our part to support the resolution of the British residents at Foochow (published in our last issue) to present an address to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, complaining of the recent disgraceful proceedings in the provincial capital. Hitherto Lord Salisbury has not shown a disinclination to redress the just grievances of British subjects, and has openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the action of his predecessor in office. At the same time there is no doubt that the outrage at the Wu-shih-shan is the direct result of the very inadequate measures taken to punish the murder of Margary in Yunnan; so that the Chefoo Convention, so far from having opened a new period of improved intercourse, has really been the precursor of a condition of affairs daily growing more unbearable. Outrages like that at Foochow offer a strange commentary on the doctrine propounded by Sir Thomas Wade to the Chinese Commissioner at Chefoo, that "the pauishment of the past is not of 60 great consequence as the security of the future." In the present instance we are forcibly reminded that there has been exacted neither the due punishment for what is past, nor the security for the futare so sanguinely hoped for by the British Plenipotenflary. So far from the latter being the case, we find the Viceroy completely overawed by the influences brought to bear on him, and the British Consul with his bands completely tied, com. pelled to listen to the insults of a Chinese declaimer, holding no official position whatever, but foisted on him as the "legal adviser" of the Chinese Government. There is no reason to believe that Ho King, the Viceroy of the Min-cheh, took any great satis. faction in the scene that was being enacted before him. It was, however, evident that the result of the Yunnan outrage was before his eyes, There, 2 Governor was distinctly im. plicated in the outrage which hed taken place, yet no frown of displeasure had been displayed towards his doings; was it likely, therefore, that the Viceroy would seriously interfere in the present case, with such an example before him Ho King knew well that even higher authorities than the Fatal of Yiinnan were implicated in the murder of Margary. He had no reason to believe that the feelings of those authorities bad undergone any change. He knew that the British authentic had signally failed to bring to puuishment those responsible for Margary's murder; was it for him to place himself in the gap, and beard those powers which had successfully resisted the demands of the British Minister? No one was present of higher rank than a British Consul; British Consuls he well knew were tied and bound in such a way that independent action was an impossibility; it was unlikely that a British Consul could effect what a British Plenipotentiary had failed to do, and under the circumstances his oafest course was to allow matters to go on in their own way. The result we have republished from the columns of the Foochow Herald. Never did cause and effect more plainly follow one another, We need only add one or two words more. The premises destroyed wore no new acquisition by the Missionary bodies. They have been long resident within the city of Foochow. The outrage, therefore, cannot be considered as provoked by any aggressive ton~ doneies of the Missionaries, but must be looked upon as the outcome of a settled plot, which, unless adequately punished, is likely to end in still further difficulties.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.