How small a matter will suffice to kindle a flame in the Cantonese mind: against foreigners events during the past week strikingly demonstrate. "ft wes decided by the city authorities recently to clear out the Shameen Canal, owing to its having become too crowded, and the boats in the habit of frequenting it and using the old landing stage were prohibited from going there. The boat people appear to have credited the foreigners with originating this move, and some placards were posted in the city oe Bekniday night last urging that an attack should be made on Shameen and as many foreign devils beheaded as possible' a reward of $100 for each head being offered. The Viceroy could not, of course, allow this incentive to outrage to ripen into riot, so on the Sist ult. proclamations were posted all over the city and along the river front ordering the people to remain quiet and not to molest the foreigners, adding the Viceroy was reconsidering the movement of the boats and nothing would be done to interfere with them earning their livelihood. These proclamations have had a soothing effect, and the incendiary language indulged in against foreigners has calmed down. The episode serves, however, to accentuate the necessity existing for the constant presence of a gunboat on the river off the Shameen bund, Hongkong, 4th april.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.