London, 4th Dec.
Mr. T. D. Sullivan, M.P., has been sentenced to two months' imprisonment.
Mr. I Harrington, M.P., and others have been arrested for publishing rope of the doings of the National League.—Singapore Papers, The members of the Mission of Enquiry from Peking to various Buropean Capitals, have arrived in Shanghai, and will shortly roceed on their Mission, which is, we understand, mainly to collect information on military and naval matters, and on the latest improvements in modern modes of warfare offensive and defensive in Europe. We also believe that this is the first regular step of the Chinese Government to collect information in this manner from Western nations. What fruit will be borne by the ion, however, remains to be seen. The members have been very carefully selected and are said to be unusually accomplished and astute men, four of them being members of the Hanlin College. Two young Manchu gentlemen, both members of the College of Peking, accompany the mission in the capacity of interpreters, one for English and the other for French, and physically as well as intellectually, these young Manchus are very favourable specimens of the ruling race in China. The mission will first proceed to London, and afterwards to France and other European countries, as well as Algeria. Their expenses will all be borne by the Imperial gore ment on whose instructions they are acti On Thursday they paid a visit to Mr. P. J. Hughes, H.B.M.'s Consul-General, with whom they had a long interview. ' They will not, probably, leave Shanghai for another week.
The Hoppo of Canton arrived at Shanghai on Thursday night, by the Fushi.
A firm here has' sent us another letter from the Egyptian house which has been sending orders for produce to merchants in China, which covered a draft on London for between two and three hundred pounds sterling. In this case the proceeds of the draft were to be applied to the purchase of black pepper in double bags of one hundred-quality and to be, shipped by first steazuer to Alexandria. The house here replied, returning the draft on London, intimating that it required the usual bank credit to accompany all orders for produce, and asking for references to some well known banks or merchants in London, This was in June last, and no reply has yet been received.
Egyptian firm appear to have establishments at Cairo and Port Said as well as at Alexandria, and we hope the publicity which has been given to their " operations" will prevent any one being taken in.
We learn that the rumour of the death {the Seventh Prince, which we mentioned he other day as being current in Tientsin, arse from his having had a fainting tit. H.M. the Empress gave orders, when this occurred, to have the way between the Palace and Prince Chun's residence put she and the Emperor intended the Prince on the 9th instant, The following additional sums have been received by the Rev. Mr. Muirhead for the Yellow River Fund Edward Foochow, per C.
Bel $51.00 Tis, 48,00 $20.00 10.00 6.40.00 Mixed Court, per J. P, McEwen, Esq......8112.00
We are very much obliged to Mr. Morrison for his long letter on the Yellow River, which appears in another column, for every contribution to the question of value' just now, and a contribution from a cap-'Able engineer who has himself made a fly survey of a part of the river, is of special value, He appears however to have misapprehended the intention of our recent article, to which he refers. Tu. quoting Mr. Kingsmill's statement that the lower portion of the River has no valley and does not flow through any alluvial' bed, we did not ventures to question that statement ourselves, Int we contrasted the latter part of the information Richtofen p. and with the that the great plain which is now flooded has the reputation of being one of the most fertile in China. Nor did w venture to deny that the deposit brought down by the river contained sand; we made no assertion, but merely gave what seemed to us, and still seem, yood reason: for thinking that the fertile loess formed the greater portion of the deposit of the lower part. "That our engineers at, home are incapable of coping with the Theiss and the we did not assert or imply all we said was that as long as those rivers were subject, as they are, to periodical and destructive floods, Europeans have no right to mock at the efforts of the Chinese. So long as the fact remains, the reasons for the fact's occurring, the refusal of those interested or what not, do not affect the argument. In a similar way, we frequently read in the Peking Gazette, that the refusal of the farmers who have squatted in the old bed of the Yellow River to turn_out, prevents that bed's being utilised. We are at one with Mr. Morrison in being convinced that the most desirable thing would be to have scientific survey made of the various courses of the river, but we expressed oni fear that the river would not wait the years required for that survey: i ent thing from "complaining of a profes sional man wasting time in acquainting him. self with the river," the crime of which Mr. Morrison accuses us. We were careful not to make the definite statement that the bed is now being excavated, but that the Chinese are now believed to be" taking this course, and this, with the embanking of the sides, is undoubtedly the best temporary measure. Whether, when the first impressions of the present calamity have become dull, the Government will go to the expense of a weight each. The pepper was to be of good proper survey, to determine which is the best future course for the river, is doubt-but that properly qualified persons for that task cam be found in Europe, America or elsewhere, we do not doubt for a moment.
'A regular meeting of the Tuscan Lodge was held on Tuesday evening when Brother Jas. Baird was installed Wor. Master for the ensuing year. The ceremony was performed by Rt. Wor, Bro. J, I. Miller, D.G.M. of Northern China, assisted by the officers of the D.G, Lodge and in the presence of many distinguished brethren. The following are the newly invested office bearers Ww Bi registered 20°.6 which is nearly freezing. There was plenty of fee om the ponds, and in some shady places it did not dissolve during the d The Fair reports a slight fall of snow at Hankow on the 12th, We have received the fourth number, ich completes the first volume, of the int Medical Missiomury Journal, and are stated that th magazine has paid its way, and even has a margin to commence the second volume, The greater part of the number is, very properly, devoted to medical subjects, bult Dr. Boone's sketch of the. International Medical Congress at Washington, which he attended as delegate from China, is of general interest. Dr. Taylor's article on the Use of Trained Medical Students to {the Church, and the danger of sending out half-trained Chinese to sell medicine to their fellow-countrymen, is a thoughtful contribution to the subject. Dr. Kerr writes very sympathetically on the opening of the Hongkong College of Medicine for Chinese, "and the Hospital Reports are both worth reading. Among the items and notes are two amusing stories. One is of a blind fortune-teller who came to the Dispensary ut Tientsin for some trifling ailment, and was usured that his blindness was curable. He refused, however, to be operated on, on the ground that, his business would be ruined if he could see, as people have more faith.in a blind fortune-teller, and admit him into the women's quarters of Yaméns and large "houses, The other is the case of a beggar [who was successful {Dut who came back soon afterwards and operated for cataract),
insisted on the doctor's providing him with situation, as now that he had recovered [his sight, the people paid no attention to his peaging.
The Marquis Tstng is reported to have remarked, when in England, that China had {once practised all the mechanical arts in which Europeans are now so far ahead of the Chinese, and had abandoned them, as not necessary to the happiness of the State, According to Mr. Parker one Sit Chung-chee, during the Sung dynasty, invented a boat which propelled itself by' machinery, wither: the assistance of either wind or of he human hand. Perhaps this was the prototype of the vessel with paddle-wheels that was built by a Chinaman, and tried on the Shanghai river not. very long ago, in which the tide was to be the motive power, which however did not prove a success.
According to the Shikpao, translated by the Chinese Times, Dr. Mackenzie of the London Mission in charge of the Viceroy's Hospital at Tientsin, who has won widespread reputation by his skill, and to whose services and those of his assistant, Dr, Lin,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.