30th July. Psorts in Shanghai have not been very much interested in the rise and fall of General'l'chéngKi-tong, perhaps because they have never considered that he was a son to be taken seriously. We have long regarded the Chinese Missions uproad as a farce, as long as the present method of selecting the Ministers and their suites is retained, and an imposition, as Jong as the Foreign Ministers are not received in Peking with the sane courtesies as are shown to the Chivese Ministers abroad. We see every Oriental, minister, barber, or con-cumine, who is attached in any capacity to a Legation, welcomed in home society as long as the "picturesque Eastern costume " is not discarded, and therefore we are not surprised to see an ex-student from Giquel's Foochow College received in the best houses in Paris by his self-conferred title of General, and treated with by Ministers for Foreign Affeirs as equal. Perhaps if we had seen him received in the same way in London we should have taken a little more interest. As a firework Tehéog Ki-tong has scintillated for a longer time than usual, but there is the usual unpleasant odour uow that he has gone out. We should have taken no more notice of him, but for a remarkable article, headed "'The Romance of a Chinese Loan," which ap in a respectable London finauial paper, The Bullionist, on the 13th ultimo. According to this article the unfortunate General, who is now enjoying the delights of a visit to the modern Sybaris, Tokio, is the victim of the wrath of a financial group, of which the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is the central figure. "As tong, the First Secretary of the Chinese Legation in Paris, and made him its agent to contract for "a silver loan of 30,000,000 taels (seven millions sterling) at 44 per cent., or as an alternative a gold loan at 4 per cent." The contract was taken up by a syndicate in London "as powerful as could possibly be formed. Certainly it is in no way inferior to the financial group which has hitherto held China in leading strings. We are not fond of invidious comparisons, or we might justly have written that the new Syndicate is stronger than the old. 'I'he old agents are in revolt. ihey are like the silversmiths of Biblical history, who made silver shrines for the great Diana of the Ephesians, and as they see their craft in danger, they are loud in denuncia~ tions of the innovators, who, they think, will rob them of their spoils." They get articles inserted in the Times "inspired by disappointed ambition and unfriendly enemies they sneer at '"Tehéng's title of "General." "We may however remark," says the Bullionist with the crashing force of superior knowledge, " that in these paltry sallies of ill-temper, the traducers of the First Secretary are as inaccurate as in other particulars. Thus, they say sneeringly that the Arseval School at Foochow, where 'T'chéng Ki-tong was educated, is only an elementary academy. This ungracious statement particularly lacks the merit of mathematical precision. We have it on the authority of a British Consul, who, has spent half his life in the East, that Foochow is the Chinese equivalent for our own Sandhurst and Woolwich combined, and that it is a high-class school both for the Army and the Navy." We live and learn.
It will no doubt be remembered that the attack in the Times on General "Tehéng was answered by a M. Maimon, and though there was little weight in the answer, because no one seemed to know who M. Maimon is, it was sufficiently controverted by one who evidently did know what he was. writing about, aud who signed himself "Siuensis." M. Maimov replied again, but the Times, instigated no doubt: by the disappointed silver-smiths of 31, Lombard Street, has never published his letter. The Bullionist has seen the letter, however, and it contains one announcement so startling that one can almost excuse the Times. Tehéng was accused, among other things, of forging the Chinese Minister's signature. "'To allege," says M. Maimon, " that he forged the Minister's signature is absurd as well as false, for the Minister does not and cannot write." Such a defence as this cannot be taken seriously.
It would be interesting to know who gave the Bullionist all this tissue of nonsense, every statement in which it says it can verify. In due time, it tells us, the loan is to be brought out and be the largest and most favourable one China has ever made, and the public will take it up eagerly, and would nev' have known, but for the Budlionist, "w' vat, unworthy artifices have been ade speed to extinguish the most gifted phrupean representative of China. Wik se: lection of Tehéng Ki-toug to represent Chinese interests in Europe i. brother proof of the sagacity of Li F tyecechane, who is undoubtedly the Bismarck of China. 'The romance o'; this Chinese loan, in its financial 2 spect, is full of interest. Were it, ly jwever, our pro-Vince, we might dwe' {1 on the political intrigues set. on f oot to thwart the General's enlighter ed policy, which has for its aim to bri ug about and confirm a good understy nding between France and China. W.e might also enlarge on the professior wal intrigues which have sought to rin Tehéng Ki-tong in his diplomatic career. The General, however, is Persona grata in Paris, and cannot be dislodged from the favour and confidence of M. Ribot, who cou-siders China should be represented by Chinwmen. On these other aspects of the vase we do not enlarge, though the little plots are in our
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.