Tage need, we think, be no longer any concealment about Ube fact of there being 2 Seoret Treaty between France and. Chinn, the, terms of which have not yet transpired. In our issue of the 22nd ult. we referred to this in cautious terms, mentioning merely the prevalent impression among well-informed circles that a private understanding bad been come to between Captain Fournier and Li Hang-chang, bat not hinting at anything more definite. By this time, however, it is more or less an open secret, and, some light may thus be thrown upon the vagueness: which, as we have often pointed out, characterises the "Prelimiuary' Convention that has been communicated to us. It is at any rate to be presumed that the terms of the Seoret Treaty will be the subject of some sharp questioning when the affair is brought before the Chamber of Depaties in Paris, and that upon these, and not upon the indefinite provisions of the published Convention, the deliberations of that body will be based, The Secret Treaty is said to give to French citizens exclusive rights or privileges entitling them to lower duties on imports and exports that are levied upon the enbjects of other Treaty Powers. As regards England, America, and Germany, ti such'it is, may not even bea as will be seen when events unfold themselves. But our readers should recollect thatin all our Treaties with China, including that of Nanking made by Sir Henry Pottinger, England mo: fally abstained from claiming p of any sort; on the contrary. all other nations were, by our express stipulation, given the same measure of right as we had obtained. Meanwhile wearejustified in pointing to the recent ImperialDecree with respect to mining. operations in Yunnan as the first indication that the document in question is to be no dead letter. The telegram we publishelsowhere relative to the acceptance by Annam of the Frauco. Chinese Treaty can scarcely be considered of very great importance. It probably refers to the Prelimina Convention; but in any case Annam searcely in a position to reject anything, and ler acceptance of whatever may be put before ber is therefore little more than a matter of form only. The great thing is that the independ. ence of Annam quoad China should be clearly recognised and vindicated, and all claims put forward in past yeara by China to the suzerainty of the Peninsula totally abrogated and annulled.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.