How strong and universal is the popular indignation at the back-down of the Council is shown by the names appended, hurriedly collected in less than a couple of hours, to the requisition calling the Indignation Meeting that was held yesterday; by the attendance at the meeting, which numbered some 800 or 900; and by the unanimity with which the resolutions were received. Mr. R. M. Cnmpbell made, as was certain, an admirable chairman, and all the speeches that were made were marked by sobriety, directness, and a complete absence of claptrap. 'Lhe second, which is the operative, resolution will be a very difficult one for the Council to carry out, if they accept it; if they do not accept it, it will be necessary to have a special Ratepayers' Meeting; but. the difficulty is one for which the Consular Body and the Council are responsible, and the meeting could do nothing else than propose a reversal as soon as possible of the false step that the Council have taken. It may possibly be urged that the carrying-out of the second resolution is precluded by the agreement which is supposed to have been made with the taotai that the enhanced tax shall come into operation on the Ist of July and not before; but in the first place, it may be argued that this agreement, if it exists, was made under a misapprehension, the Consuls not being aware that the increase in the tax had been agreed to by the Chinese authorities; secondly, the Council acted ultra vires in going behind the resolution passed at the Ratepayers' meeting; and thirdly, there is no guarantee that the faotai_can prevent a riot on the Ist of July. These are points to be considered meanwhile, the Council now know beyond a question the view that Shanghai takes of the position into which it has been brought, and they must set earnestly to work to recover the ground that has been so unfortunately lost.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.