Tus visits of Viceroys and other high officers to the foreign Settlements are Liappily like those of angels, in that they ave fow and far between. It is now many mouths since the occasion on which the Viceroy's rabble first drew attention to their existence by their insvlout demeanour towards foreigners, and it is a noteworthy fact that the correspondence that grew out of this recurrence is still in progress when a second visit is paid to us by the great man, and a second sories of insults is offered by his followers, more into-Jerablo even than the first, The fact is by no means to be deplored, as it will give fresh impetus to the diseatisfaction which prevails, and may lead to a distinct understanding being arrived at on a subject of such importance to our position here as foreign residents, There was a good deal of uneasiness uring the early months of last summer at the prolonged sojourn awoug us of the body-guard of Li Hang-chang. The men were certainly no great acquisition, They lounged rather disagreeably about our streets; they startled ponies and passers-by with their ridiculous bomba and crackers; and they woke us up al unearthly hours with lugubrious wail. ings on certain instruments of torture which, painful enough to foreign ears, sounded no doubt very grand and anew inspiring to the natives. But on the whole the men behaved well enough and the frank cordiality shown by Li himself towards foreigners generally, and hig readiness to puta stop to anything calculated to cause annoyance to the public went a long way towards recrossing any feelings of irritation that might otherwise have been express sed. Tso, however, stands on a different footing altogether, He is not well disposed towards foreigners, and certainly not popular among them, While Li's soldiers are more or less accustomed to the neighbourhood of a foreign Settlement, and not unfre. quently accompany the Viceroy in his its to Txz Chu Lin—visits which are pose of showing hospitality to foreigners—the soldiers of Tso Ts Wang live in the most conservative city in China, where foreigners are hated and despised, and where they certainly have no such example to profit by ne Uno soldiers of Li Hung-chang. They are therefore not fit to be brought into civilised township, and it is to be hoped that definite steps will be taken to prevent such incursions in fature, It would, we think, be inconsiderate to object on primd facie grounds to Chinese processions, as auch, ocensionally. There is probably no city in the world where traffic is not temporarily interfered with, every now and then, by some public fanction. But than processions in the West—barring those of the Salvation Army—are conducted with decency and decorum. There the danger is lest the rabble should interfere with the processioniste; bore the danger is that the processioniats are a rabble themselves, that they interfere with and insult Indies and gentlemen who do their very utmost to get out of their way, and thnt they assault policemen who are striving to clear the route for them. They are apparently a stupid, british, and insolent pack of ragamuf. fins, and their presence in the streets of the Settlement ought not to be to-lorated. It is, of course, quite probable that the Viceroy himself has no knowledge of their bad behaviour. We do not for one moment suppose that Tso Tsung-tung would excuse or condone any such display of ruffianism among his rabble-guard as that of which we now complain. But that is no excuse. One has a right to expect that the soldiers of a great statesman should at least be amenable to discipline, and preserve the semblance of order in passing through the streets of a civilised town; and we trust that such represen. tations will be made to the Viceroy us will not only guard us from future annoyance, but administer a check to the ignorant and intolerable conceit which prompts a crowd of unclean savages to inanlt the community of Shanghai out of sheer wantonness,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.