estimate be made of the relative numbers of the Chinese and foreigners who live commingled in the foreign Settlement, it will be found that the former are by far the more numerous, and outnumber the latter by five to one, Now wherever Chinese tuck together, they clamour and ous els vociferate and there is no peace; the result Servaits wish to rid the place of such clamour and vociferation, but the wish is vain and fulfilment impossible.
Now the Daily News, being displeased that Chinese should be permitted to shout and vociferate within the settlement at their own avert will, recently made this the theme of an article which appeared at the end of the 8th moon (on October 7th). The gist of that newspaper's remarks is that the settlement was originally assigned to foreigners as a plies to live in, but that the Chinese have tumultuously invaded it and set their feet therein, incre: numbers day by day 120,000 souls, who by day and night howl and yell with ceaseless pandemoniacal hubbub, s0 that foreigners who have toiled all day and at night look forward to sleep and-rest, cwnot get a little quarter of an hour of pence and quietness.
It is w sense of injury in the for-ind and he asks himself, Would it not be wise to prevent Chinese from living in the settlement? Or should not we foreigners do well to migrate to jon beyond the Race Course? The Daily News remarks further that the police are powerless to put a stop to the clamour and vociferation of the Chinese, Such are the lamentations of the Daily News; but of the above remarks there are some to which we really must take excep-
If then, commerce was the object in take away the Chinese and how will the of cor 3@ be obtained? Again Femove the Chinese feom the settlement, jand whence will the Municipsl Council draw taxes sullicient for its needs! Mow will the place by kept in order, the arrests and roads maintained in repair, the public ds pre served in us han luxurious and beautiful 'a condition even as they are at present For whatever foreigners may be in China, they ace dependent on the presence of The groat mere! business keeps a who dues not But if there were no foreizne result for the Chinese would be diminished vgs; he would atill continue to supply If with clothes and food. uropenns if they had to do without Chinese, ind themselves greatly inconve enced.
journal complains of the coassloss elomotie and vociferation; there certainly are many theatres established where the clanging of yo there are houses of piens goon till daylight, ao that the clamour of drinking bouto and desultory conversation fill the air; and there is besides the rumble of jinricsha, There are certain places which are open at night only and all night long; it is uch places that are fur the must part meant when uproar and hubbub are spoken of. But it must be pointed out that this same uproar and hubbub are ascribable to the Chinese in the employ of the foreigners themselves. Fur the class of Chinese who keep shops in the settle-mont rise early, open their doors, sweep hop and attend to their bu standing at their counter from mori sundown, until night coming on, pas only is the shop closed. duous the extreme and they relish not 1 more than to sleep sound and avon, They are the last people in the world to spend. their leisure in gadding about theatres. Those who do go out by night are almost without exception servants in fureigu hongs and no in foreign hongs do a day's work is " natural one and inevitable. You may which fur Ixboriousness cannot compare with the daily round of the Chinese shop-Keeper. In the afternoon, his work done, the foreigner's servant is at liberty and can go out, either to seek amusement in houses of gay ladies or hurry to the music halls, where stretched on " couch in the smoke-clouded den of debauchery, he gives vent ty his feelings in eong, and one joi ug the other when the is half spor ies, Lau, likely to be otherwiew than well content to habituate himself to such a mode of life special laws bearing on the case, it is difficult to cee how the thing. is to be prohibited.
As regards those abodes of noise, the Useatres which never conse day or night, the Chinese themselves have never found ai i them; if they topped it is; as for instance in the ease of the Soochow theatre Which to this day has never been able to start performances, It is only at Shanghai that prohibition is impossible. Among the theatres, there are in every quarter, some which hang out the pi curds ut foreign merchants, and of those which are nut opened by foreign merchants, some are in houses which are the ty of foreign merchante; cons ly if it is attempted to forbid the performances, the foreign merchant is sure to come forward and object. Then how are the houses of pleasure, which are aleo the homes of noise, to be shut up? Chi-would be glad to prohibit such places, and abolish them altogether as being d trimeutal to morals and an offence againat propriety. Governor Ian decreed the eradication thorough and complete of all Soochow theatres and places of dissipation in Shanghai, and within the city of Shanghai there is actually not aninglehouse which would dare to harbour clandestine debauchary. It is only in the settlement that houses of this class exist, some 300 in number. These attract merchaute nud traders so it is impossible to forbid their existence. Besides, the houses in which the ladies of pleasure live are for the most part the property of Kuropeans, and in this respect ace on the same footing as the theatres, it being equally impossible to shut them up.
At also appears that the rumble of jinrice shas the whole night through is the most objectionable of all. Well, one night—it was nearly daybreak—the writer saw seven as being driven along at headlong speed; they flushed by like a lightning streak and with a crust, like thunder. Now the occupants of these jinricehas were one and all Kuopenns, uilore who had formed themselves into party and rode alony in the jinricsha, The jinricsha coolie when he has " Chinese fare moves at no excessive sprod; but the Kuropean who mounts his vehicle expects to be carried along in a triumphal pro gress; the coolly must beware of being parsed by those behind, and must do his unmast to outstrip those in front, The natural conser ice is that the noise of jiuricshas grows into an uproar.
for the opium dens, there also the Chinese authorities are anxious to close. The Magistrate of the French Mixed Court determined wame time ago to dispel their ious i ea and order of thin But his attempt fell through owing to the opposition of Kurupes aus, who objected that they were afraid the bouws would have to be closed with consequent loss of rent, Sotar, a consideration of the Daily News article shows that its complaint is baseless jand unsupported by actualities, What ca truthfully be assorted 3 all the clamour and uproar occurring in the settles ment is caus d dire tly or indi the Europeans themselves, and fault of Chinese exclusively. Ifthe ment were to be cleared of Chinees and handed over to Kuropeane as a place wherein to live apart in quiet, they would no doubt have quiet to their hearts' desire, but it becomes uiflicult to understand whut precise meaning is in that case to be at+ tached to the term "commerce." Do Europeans come to China across thousands of miles from their distant lands with the sole object of securing an abiding place to If there are to be no Chinese, who is to help the Europeans to keep their place in order? 'I'he scheme is eminently Unpractical and opposed to reason, would be discovered were the experiment
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.