A curious instance of the readiness of the Chinese to take up aery given them, ig afforded in the case of the Perusia at Canton, The Perusia is a vessel sent by the Peruvian Government to ply with emigrants between South China snd Peru. The circumstances of Pern are sufficiently well known. For want of adequate labour, the country does not produce as much as it could be made to do, and as it did in the old days under Inca Government. This want of labour hes for many years resulted in a demand for Chinese coolies, and as the Government did not desire to ask too many questions as to how they were obtained, the result was the once infamous Macao coolie traffic. Now, it is very noticeable for how many years the Chinese Government permitted that traffic to go on unmolested; more, it is notorious that its officials in K.wang-tung, if they did not derive actual gain from the practice of kidnapping, at least looked upon it with complacent eyes as a ready means of getting rid of troublesome characters. It was not, in fact, till the Press in China, and notably the China Mail (the last paper ab the cost of a frivolous but expensive prosecution), exposed the abuses of the system and called loadly for some action to be taken, that the Chinese Government displayed the slightest interest in the welfare of its subjects. The release of the Chinese coolies from the Peravian ship Maria Luz, six years ago, showed how unwilling the Chinese Government was to interest itself in the matter, and it was not till the British and other Legations pressed on that Government the advisability of its exhibiting some desire to get rid of the traffic, which bad become little better than a trade in slaves, that it could be induced to second the efforts which were being made to remove a scandalous abuse, The immediate result of the steps taken was the closure of the Macao barracoons; and the Government of Pera, finding its supply of labour cut off, followed by negotiating a treaty with China for the starting of free emigration. It is under this treaty that the Perusia some months ago arrived at Canton, to start a regular line of emigrant steamers. Here at the provincial capital it was not pretended that any means wore being used to entrap emigrants; but, as the Peravian Government foresaw that no one who could afford to pay his own passage was likely to emigrate to Pera, it had provided means for advancing the passage money to would-be emigrants, When it is remembered that the British Colonies have for many years pursued the same system of inducing labour to their shores, and that no abuses have been known to occur, it is evident that the step itself did not necessarily imply bad faith on the part of the Peruvian Government, We are ignorant of the precise terms offered, but the result was that the Viceroy of the Liang Kwang objected to any assisted emigration, and when the terms of the Peruvian treaty were shown to him he refased to permit the vessel to clear, pending reference to the limbo of Peking. Now we are not in the present stage of the affair going to bind ourselves to any definite opinion. Doubtless the Viceroy had from pre. vious acts some reason to suspect the bone fides of the Peruvian Government. It is, however, strange to find the sudden sensitiveness of the Chinese Government with regard to this selfsame matter of coolie emigration. It is not alone inthe Viceroy's mind that the feeling has been exhibiting itself our contemporary the Sin-pao has been writing articles on the iniquity of kidnapping, as if, after all, the Chinese Government had been in any degree iristramental in putting a stop to it. More than this, it has been accusing the foreign Consuls at Canton of aiding and abetting the practice, and has been complaining of the British Consul especially as bringing pressure to bear on the Viceroy to renew the system.
As we have said above, the full ciroumstances of the case have not been made public, and it may be quixotic in the British Government to tilt in the general interest against every wind. mill of obstruction. It is nevertheless well that the Chinese people and Government should recognise that to the action of Great Britain is mainly due the abolition of the Macao traffic; and that if they had waited till Chinese officials had exposed its abuses, the barracoons of Macao would to.day be in full working order.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.