Tae correspondence which we published last week regarding the proposed extension of Markham Road, recalls a time which is still fresh in the recollect tion of many old residents, but which is known only by tradition to those who have come among us within the last dozen years. The Council refer to days when the immediate neighbour. hood of Shanghai was almost the only ground within the province of Kiangsu which the Imperialists could claim to rale, and that small district was held for them by foreign troops. After the capture of Sqochow, the Taepings had swept down to the very gates of Shanghai. Driven from their camps on the Race Course by the shells of the English men-of-war, they had been afterwards expelled also from Soougkiang and Kading; but were still in such menacing proximity that the Settlement was fortified by an earthwork along the line of the Defence Creek, which was dug for the purpose its paine implies and defended by guns of the English Artillery, The Ningpo Joss House was garrisoned by Sikhs, The long low godowns on the Banks of the Souchow Creek were tenanted by the 31st, and the Confucian temple in the city by the 68th Regiments, while a portion of another Indian regiment garrisoned a Temple on the Soochow Creek known as Glass's Post, and another detachment served og an outpost at Fahwah. It was in those days that the road which we are now humbly begging to have restored to us, was originally laid out. The Markham road, as well as the Sikaway, the Sinza, and the Jessfield roads, were originally constructed to facilitate the movements of troops about the neighborhood in case they were called on to oppose another rebel advance; and it is curious to contrast the present obstructiveness of the Chinese officials with their eager compliance in those days of dread. It was asserted that Gordon might have had the whole of the Yangtze promontory, from Kiangyin to Chapoo, if he had chosen demand it as the price of his aid; and there is nothing incredible in the assertion. His aid was given for nothing. Through his exertions and strategic skill the rebels were driven successively from Taitsan and Quinsan and Sonchow; all the country up to the walls of Nanking was recovered to the Imperialist rale, and the capture of that city, which virtually closed the campaign, made possible for Tseng Kwo-fan and his Generals. Now, fourteen years later, we are seeking in vain for permission to purchase and ride over a strip of land which in 1863 was eagerly given at the} first request of the English General commanding at Shanghai. For not only is the proposed road no new one, but another loop road which has also been hoed back into the fields, ran from Jessfield to Fahwah, and may still be traced by an enquiring excursionist nearly throughout its length, A road practicable for wheeled carriages was made even on the opposite bank of the Soochow Creek, from the Stone Bridge to Naziang. Fancy proposing its restoration to the present Rulers of a province which, bat for foreigners, would probably still be under Tae-ping rale. But then small steamers used to run to Nanzing in those days; and the refusal to have a few yards of roxd made is of a piece with the policy which demanded their withdrawal almost with the first breath of recovered power. The refusal of the Viceroy to grant so modest a request is, under thexé circumstances, Tittle creditable as it is foolish in its sulky obstinacy. If it were not for foreigners, he would not be ina position to make the refusal; and a graceful recognition of this fact would have suggested "a ready compliance with the first request of the resident community, As we have said more than once already, we put the whole blame on Shén's own shoulders.
The people are ready and willing to sell the land; and we believe the local officials would willingly recognise the transfer. But Shen Puo-chen wills otherwise, and his word is law. Let as hope that the Higher Wills at Peking, to whom appeal has now been made, will over-rule his objection.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.