We mentioned on Saturday that the Viceroy of Hukuang had expressed is intention of not niaking any preparations for the reception of the Czarevitch unless he was ordered to do so by an Imperial edict. We learn now that the Russian authorities are prepared to let the matter drop, as it is known that the Chinese government has issued written instructions to the three. Viceroys, at Tientsiv, Naoki and Wuchang, ordering them to gi HLH. a befitting reception; and possibly because Russia is not anxious for a quarrel with China until the trans-Siberian railway is finished. So anxious is China to show her consideration for Russia, that Li Hung-chang is to meet the Czarevitch at Chefoo, and the acting Viceroy of the lwo Kiang at Shanghai. It is by no means improbable that the determination to send Li Hung-chang to Chefoo is connected with the proposal that the Czarevitch shall visit Corea. It will be eminently convenient in more ways than one that the Russian Prince should have the escort of the Chinese Viceroy when he visits this independent and yet vassal State. Meanwhile if our municipal councils do not move soon, the Czarevitch will be invited to it Shanghai by the Taotai, and the inference will be that the taotai has authority to speak for the foreign settlement: well as for the Chinese city, a predicament which our councillors do not seem to have foreseen.
THE VISIT OF THE OZAREVITOS, Sind Jan, As far as the published minutes of the meetings of the Council show, there has been no discussion among its members of the expected visit of the Czarevitch to Shanghai, We can understand there being technical difficulties in the way of the Council's moving at present: it has not received official intimation that H.LH. will come, or when be will come and it may consider that the first step should be an invitation from the Russian colony here. But there is practically no Russian colony here; it is known with sufficient certainty that H.LH. is coming, and as practical men the Council, it seems to us, should take the matter in hand promptly, without being restrained by technicalities. "The Czarevitch is the guest of the Queen in India and the Crown Colonies in the East, and the British community may well show their loyalty to the Queen by attentions to her guest, who is also the nephew of the future Queen of Great Britain, We have all along proposed that what is to be done should be done by the Councils of the two Settlements, and we understand that the French Consul-Geuneral and the French Municipality are already moving in the matter; and unless the municipality north of the Yangkingpang begins to move, the entertainment of the Czarevitch at Shanghai will be left to the French colony and the Chinese authorities, who will no doubt be amused if they can succeed in throwing the Anglo-American community into the shade.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.