Ir is difficult to read without sickening the fearfully graphic letter we publish elsewhere from our Correspondent 'Philo-Coreanus,' describing the outrage on the Rev. Pare Conraux. The trouble seems to have arisen from the purchase of some land for mission purposes at a village near the Amur river called Ha-lan, the sellers having been arrested by the authorities, who did all they could, by threats and persuasions, to annul the bargain. So great was the pressure put upon these unfortunate men, whose action had been perfectly legal and above-bourd, that P&re Conranx decided to go and appeal to the Fu Tu-tung, or Military Deputy-Lieutenant Governor, on their behalf suggesting that the case should be referred to the higher authorities, and that meanwhile no buildings should But in the meantime the mandarin agents,' as our Correspondent calls them, bad actually forced the original owners of the ground to commence a lawsuit against the vendors—on wht pretext it would be difficult to guess,—and the case was officially announced for hearing. Then came a period of long delay, daring which the Governor himself was made acqaninted with the transaction by the missionaries; but he did not move in the matter, and, as our Correspondent justly obser upon him must rest the responsi ty of the tragedy which ensued.
It is not necessary to recapitulate these events in detail, or to point out the hypocrisy and double dealing of the authorities in the matter. The great foch is plain, There has been another wilful and deliberate disregard of treaty-rights on part of the Manchurian officials, accompanied by an outrage of the grossest and most unpardonable nature. There is no hint given in the story of any grievance, real or imaginary, having been laid at the missionaries' door. We hear nothing of the passions of an ungovernable mob, fanned by the foolish suspicions which ere now have been put forward as an excuse for outrages on missionaries in the interior. Indeed, the contrary is the case. The missionaries were known and respected throughout the district as kindly and beneficent men, devoting themselves to preaching and education, and credited with the purest motives. No slanders, as far as 9] pears, had ever been directed towards them; no complaints bad been made of their mode of working or the extent or nature of their influence, It was not, then, on account of any popular feeling against the missionaries that the man-darius assumed so hoalile an attitude, This is sufficiently proved by the fact that men bad been found willing to sell them land, and it was owing to the persecution of these men, in consequence of having done so, that the purchase was nob consummated, Look al it which way one may, the outrage sas indefensible, and calls for the sternest measures. We havea flagrant breach of the French treaty and all other treaties, to begin with. This is capped by an atrocious assault upon the person of a French citizen, not by 1 mob, but by Government soldiery, the most flagrant indignities being committed in the yameo of the Military Deputy tenant Governor himself, and in the presence of a blue-button man. darin, It is with no little misgiving that we publish, without modification, the loathsome details of what was douse to the unfortunate Abbé Conraux. We believe, however, that it would be false delicacy, in such a ease, to suppress any part of the account. Lot our readera 800 for themselves to what agonies the devoted men are linble who thus willingly and cheerfully brave shame and even death for the sake of their religion. But though the victim himself would be the last to call for vengeance, it is necessary that retribution, swift and ter. rible, should be visited upon the eriminals. We believe it to be imperative, in the interests of all Treaty Powers, that the criminals in this case should receive capital punishment. Let there be no "degradation," or temporary lasa of buttons, or any such ingenious ape logy for retribution, And when we say criminals, we do not mean the migorable and brutal soldiery only, who were the actors in the disgraceful scene. We mean the Governor, and the Lieutenant-Governor, and the blue. button mandarin whose name is given as Wo-erb-ki It is these men on whom the heaviest stroke should fall, They should be publicly and shamefully executed in the open street, with their visited on Abbé Conranxshould be visited on them, and with compound interest, No example has ever been made of a culprit of this class yet. We have been put off with embassies of apology, and hoodwinked by the execution of innocent substitutes who received Im. perial presents and honours in return for their self-sacrifice, Let there be no such farce this time, Fall restitu. tion, public and bumble apology and then, decapitation of the offenders. Tanoceut men in Ohina have been subjected to cruel tortures, and other have lost their heads for far smaller offences than those committed by these official scoundrels in the north. We have much satisfaction in feeling that the matter is in the hands of so able and firm a Minister as the present representative of the Republic in Peking. French interests are safe in M.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.