7th Feb, No outbreak so serious as that at Chinkiang, the news of which we publish in another column, has occurred at a treaty port in China since the riot at Canton in 1883. What it was caused by we have still to learn, even if we accept the Hu-pao's story that it began in a row between a Sikh policeman and a native, but it is very unlikely that it was done by famine refugees, as has been surmised. It is far more probable that Chinese soldiers were at the bottom of it, and indeed we hear that there was a slight disturbance very recently between the municipal police at Chinkiang and some braves. We do not recall a case in which the rioters have gone so far as to burn down one consulate and loot another, and it is evident from the news to hand that nearly the whole of the foreign houses have been wrecked. That. they have been abandoned by their occupants we know, and it is added that the foreigners had fled to the hills, but there is much probability that this should be to "the hulks," in which they would surely find a safe refuge, until the a ce that has been sent arrives. H.MS. Mutine left on Weduesday morning, but as the first news arrived on Tuesday night, it is rather surprising that a detachment of municipal police, armed, was not sent up by theSkanghaion Wednesday morning, astepthat was taken at the time of the Tientsin massacre in 1870. We hear that H.MS. Lirebrand has been ordered from Hankow to Chinkiang, and that the USS. Omaha has been summoned by wire from Chemulpo it is unfortunate that the riot should have occurred just after the U.S. squadron left this port. As to the wisdom of calling the Firebrand away from Hankow we feel doubtful. The people at Hankow are not of the most peaceable disposition, and there seems to be little doubt that there is a strong reactionary, anti-foreign, spirit in Peking at the resent time. Sir John Walsham will have an opportunity now of showing of what metal he is made, and will be able to point out to the government the contrast between the wrongs at Chin-Kiang that they will be expected to make compensation for, and the efforts that foreigners are making to relieve the distressed Chinese in the very neighbourhood of the riotous port. Iicidents of this kind occur every now and then to remind us that it is never well in China to imagine that our lives and property are perfectly safe. However good the will of the authorities may be, the easily-roused Chinese mob is difficult to deal with at once; and it is always wise to have a gunboat, when possible, at each port, and for the residents tu have some organisation for self-defence, Major Morrison made an allusion to this riot in his speech on Wednesday evening at the Volunteer meeting; and we do not doubt that the occurrence will ive a non-unneeded impulse to the Volunteer movement here.
8th Feb. isa ruin, It has had many s, from the time when the first foreign residents lived in crazy old junks on the north shore of the Yaugtze, and were obliged to row down to Silver Island, and back against. the strong current, if they had any business to transact with the Consulate or the Customs, By and by the concession was laid out, houses were built, the north shore was abandoned, much of the land that euterprisi had bought there being the river, and gradual with a concealed belief that a great future was before it, that it was to be the terminus of the Peking railway, and would some day supplant Shanghai. This at any rate was Sir Robert Hart's prophecy once. It has never, however, succeeded so far in drawing away trade from Shanghai, and its merchants have been to a great extent the agents of Chinese, but it has done a large business altogether, and takes always a conspicuous position in the Customs Returns. It has had a large Chinese population round it, never considered particularly turbulent, as might have been gathered from the Municipal Council's annual report, publish elsewhere, in which the police force is stated at 1 Inspector, 6 Sikhs and 8 nati The only danger in the position of Chinkiang has lain in the presence in the native city and suburbs of a large number of disbanded soldiers, cast upon the world as soon as done with by the authorities, and not particular as to low they earned their living. A camp of soldiers, differing little from those last mentioned except that they were not yet disbanded, has always been maintained close to tie settlement, but foreigners have never experienced any difficulty in going about the hills the vicinity, an¢ their bungalows have been perfectly safe, Probably if any foreigner in Chinkiang had been asked a week ago if there was anything to fear from the people, he would have laughed gaily at the question; and now Chinkiang is a ruin with many foreign houses burnt and ransacked, and the residents have barely escaped with their lives.
The trouble began, we learn, with a street row in which a Chinaman is said to have been knocked down by one of the police. It is said, but it is doubtful if this is true, that he lay and died where he fell, and that this excited the wob. Their first act was to destroy the police station, and they then made for the British Consulate, where the inspec-for, who has not since been seen, is believed to have taken refuge. On their way they set fire to three foreign houses. We learn that, curiously enough, both the Taotai and Prefect were absent, from Chinkiang, taking advantage, we may presume, of the Chinese New Year holidays, but the General in command sent a force of three hundred men to protect the Consulate. As soon as the mob appeared the gallant soldiery instantly capitulated, some of them' fled, and the remainder made common case with the rioters. he Consul's wife had to fly barefoot with her children to the hills from the back door of the Consulate, while the mob, aided by the soldiers, burned and sacked the building and offices, so that nothin was saved. Some of the missionary houses and " chapel near by shared the same fate, while the British Consul himself wice in imminent danger of death. he American Consulate was looted, and niore houses burned; the residents took refuge on the hulk, as we surmised; the mob tried to follow them, but the bridges connecting them with the bund were raised. Meanwhile the Viceroy telegraphed to the British Consul that he was sending down two thousand soldiers to restore order, and that he hoped no gunboats would be telegraphed for, as their arrival would only infuriate the mob. The mob evidently did not require any stirring up of this kind, for the riot broke out again on Wednesday afternoon, though we learned yesterday that everything was quiet.
The Senior Naval Officer, who is himself under orders for Hongkong, the Constance being expected here on Suu-day to replace the Heroine, sent wp the Mutine, which left this at about 10 oan, on Werduesday, as we have already announced. Why she was not despatched at daybreak, we do not know; for though, as it has turned out, it is possible that the delay has not had any bad results, every hour might have been of importance. It is a most unfortunate thing that this should have
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.