Tas Treaty recently caudaded between France and China at Tientsin leaves the former country in peaceful and undisturbed possession of Annam as far as the Chinese Government is con-
*oerned. But this does not imply th the French will find Aunam at all suggestive of a bed of roses, or that any solid benefit will acerae to them inthe near fature from the conquest that they have achieved, Already we ave heard o! unforeseen and as far aa we oan judge wholly unprovoked attack having been made upon them at Hué, and although the attacking force was repulsed the French General deemed it advisable to procure reiuforcemonts in case of the trouble being repented, It las been hinted in come quarters that for this attack the Ohinese Government must have or at least may have been, responsible. Of this, however, there is wot the slightest possible proof, and no ground ists as far as out information goss picion of the sort, We negotiating with M. Pa. tevdtre at Tientsin the Imperial Com. imissiouers acted with the most perfect good faith, and pavo no reason whatever for suspecting that China las been intriguing since, At the same time there are two considerations whioh it is a8 well not to overlook. China, having formally renounced all pretensions to interfere in the affaire of Annam, cannot of course prevent the Annamese from Agsumi attitude towards the Fronoh if they are ill-advised enough to doo. China may even view such demonstrations with secret satisfaction but-as long as no instigation takes place from Peking no onus of complaint on the part of the French thorities can exist, and it is noth France or avy other Power what China may or may not think. But, on the other hand, it is by no means impossible that trouble may arise from the rest and turbulence of the Chinese selves upon the frontier, The provincial officers in the South, though nominally obedient humble servants of the Throne, enjoy practically an of independence which the would be only too glad to see our-tailed, In a country of such vast extent, where the distances are not mitigated by rapid locomotion, it is in many cases simply impossible for the Central Government to exercise due control over those of its representatives who are stationed in the remoter provinces, and events may consequently happen through either the negligence or the perversity of persons so situated that the Government itself would be the first to reprobate and condemn, Now well know the undisguised anger and disgust with which news of the conclusion of peace with France was received by the Viceroy of the Yun-kuei provines, by P'ug Yii-lin, and by other officers of rank, both military and civil, We know how strongly and bitterly some of these men memori against that mea sat themselves willing to fight to the death against the French: and how the Empress was obliged to telegraph Decrees couched in the sharpest and angriest terms to ber contumacious officers in order to stop their mouths. Their acquiescence in the arrangement, therefore, was and remains forced and sullen, and there can be little question that were any opportunity to occur for encouraging the operations of the Aunames against the French they would lose no time and spare no pains to take advantage of it, A Correspondent of the Daily Press, who hus just arrived from the interior of Kuangtung, bears out this view in a very remarkable way. He is of opinion that the pro-acts of peace in the near future anything but bright, and supports his contention by quoting a letter sent by Pao Ch'ao, in Tonquin, to a friend across the frontier. In this we have an evidently true reflection of the spirit Pao says he has protested officially against the surrender of any te that the French are only formidable afloat, and that if be is only allowed to try he is confident of being able to drive the French into ti without great difficulty, And t of gasconade is by no means confined to one The cruel injustice done to Chiang, Go rankles deep in the minds of his former colleagues, The Viceroy of Yun-kuei recently addressed a strong protest to the Empress Board for the determination of a severe penalty, Nothivg could be more calculated to exasperate the officials on the frontier, who contrast the barbarous treatment of poor T'ang, one of the bravest defenders of the Empire, with the honours heaped upon Chang P'i-lun, who made bim-self the laughingstock of all Chi his poltroonery at Foochow. The malcontents make a decided point here. The criticism is auansweral is not necessary to pa} their somewhat wild occu treachery againat the Imperial Com. missioners who concluded the Treaty th France: snob utterances are foo-Bat they, too, chow the bitterness of feeling which exists in the minds of the mandarins in the South: and we do soberly believe that only a very emall and insignificant something is necessary to cause a very big explosion under their auspices. It is highly probable that if T'ang Chinog be executed after the antamn assizes the anger of the Southern mandoring will take a very serious form. The floods which are now. desolating go large @ portion of Kuanvgtang province msy, by turning adrift some thousands of ruined men, give rise to euch widespread distress and discontent as to strengthen the hands of those who are atill bent on war by providing them with a large body of desperadoes ready to fight and wake disturbances anymbere and in any cause'so long as by doing 80 they can Gill their stomachs, Ibis, of course, possible enough that everything may gradually settle down, and that men like Pao and Ts'én will deem it better policy after all to accept the inevitable but it ie well not to shut one's eyes to the possibilities on the other to be prepared for troubles even if they may Lappily be averted.
MR. O'CONOR AS DIPLOMATIST, Tgere is no question that if any action to be taken in the matter of the British Assessorship at. the Mixed Court it have to be taken at once, Shanghai, we fear, has been somewhat apathetic about the affair, relying, no doubt, upon the natural but as it proves niterly useless conviction that the difficulty might safely be left in the hands of the Legation at Peki Now the first point we want to emphasise is this—that the interest of foreign merchants in the proper and efficient conduct of the Mixed Court can scarcely be overestimated, secing that it is the only recognised tribunal Ukrough which the Chinese can be sued atid money reco. vered from Chinese debtors. Secondly, it must not be forgotten that the prey sent Assessor has been fighting a long, arduous, and most difficult battle against official youslity in the interest of the foreign community; and now through the lamentable incom: thing that he Las done is in imminent noo of the Charge d'Afinires, every-
danger of being undone, and he him. self removed from the Bench for his pains, it would be the height of i gratitude were the British community to remain passive any longer, There is no longer any doubt that Mr, O'Conor delivered himself up to the Teung-Yamen, and agreed that the Britich Assessor shall be replaced at the end of a month, The "victory" was a sham, and formed a fitting climax to the series of blunders of which Mr. O'Conor's conduct of the affair from the very beginning seems to have consisted. One day we heard that the dispute was settled. Che next day it appeared be had been unable to do anything at all. Another day the CousulsGeueral was instructed to settle the matter with the but this being impossible the d'Affaires wont a, that he bad appointed another member of the Consular service to replace the British Assessor. Then the gravity of this atop appears to have been brought home to him, and more negotiations with the Yamen seem to have followed, enlivened by the sonding of more telegrams and despatches, some apparently to the effect that be had cottied the whole business, others again that lo lad
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.