10th May. Me two letters from our Chungking correspondent, which we publish in another column.and which arrived here by the, same mail yesterday, point to the existence in Szechuan of a somewhat serious condition of things. Although the Viceroy of that great province, Liu Ping-chang, is known to be no friend to foreigners, Szechuan was free from anti-foreign outbreaks last year, and though there were many threats that the destruction at Ichang would be repeated at Chungking, the opposition to foreigners there did not go beyond threats, and has not deterred various missionary bodies from sending a large number of fresh labourers into the field. This has apparently. stirred to action the officials and Jiterati, who are the great enemies of foreigners, for, as usual, we read that "in none of the cases has there been any opposition reported on the part of the Mad nothing to do with the matter from copie"... "he common people have
beginning to end." Travellers in Szechuan have almost uniformly spoken with much satisfaction of the attitude of the people, but active measures have now been and are being taken to stir them up by the sale of sufi-foreign ting agents of an anti-foreign crusade. wwblications and the preaching by travel-'The anti-foreign agi tation at Wuchang was quelled in one day by the representations of Mr. Consul Gardner and Captain Ferris of the Archer to the Viceroy there, H.E. Chang Chih-tung, that Captain Ferris might find it necessary to throw a fow shells into Wuchang. We can almost imagine H.E. Chang writing to his colleague in Szechuan that these threats, which he was persuaded ' meant business,' rendered it impossible for the agitation to be kept up in Hupeh and unau; but that as foreigners could not at present coerce Szechuan, it would not be a bad idea to transfer the agitation, to that province. The Viceroy of Szechuan has had some successful experience in that line already. Notwithstanding the solemn promises of the Tsungli Yamen, no reparation has yet been actually made for the recent} massacre of Catholic Christians, and some missionaries were driven out of Tungchtan—the magistrate claiming that he was acting under instructions from the Vieeroy—two or three years ago. the present case is a more serious one.. Writing on the 23rd of April our correspondent says that he had received news that some English missionaries who had rented a house at Shunching were ordered to leave. An attempt to boycott chem having failed, the tiles were taken off the roof of their house, and they were reduced. to camping out. inthe open. From our correspondent's letter of 28th April we learn-that placards and lying—stories-having failed to excite the people against the missionaries, and the unroofing of their house being met by passive resistance, some military students entered the place, carried the missionaries by force outside the city, and put them in a boat considerately provided for them. "the letters to Chungking were written from the boat," for the missionaries apparently, though expelled from the city, would not allow themselves to be driven entirely away.
"'Phe Viceroy," says our correspondent, "is almost certainly inspiring the whole movement, the local officials and gentry willingly seconding him... Apparently such vulgar, bungling projects as burning houses, destroying property, and murdering missionaries are to be discarded in the future, and a stand will be made on the question being permitted by treaty... If missionaries are no longer eto be permitted to reside out of the tr aty ports, then the missionary societies will need to restrict their operations considerably." We can fancy that the Veeroy at Wuchang has told his colleague in Szechuan that his secretaries have discovered in the recent blue book on the riots that some of the foreign officials themselves do not regard with avy favour the extension of missions beyond the area of the treaty ports, and that he would have some foreign sympathy if he directed his opposition to foreigners into this channel.
This brings up again, as it is perhaps intended to do, the question of the right of foreign missionaries to reside and carry on their work outside the treaty ports. It will be remembered that it was provided in the Treaty of Tientsin that " British subjects whether at the ports or at other places, desiring to build and open houses, warehouses, churches, hospitals or burial grounds, shall make their agreement for the land or buildings they require at the rates prevailing among the people." This was at first held as conferring on missionaries the right of establishing the selves in the interior, but the British authorities unfortunately held that the application of this article was limited to the open ports, and that the phrase "or at other places" had no meaning whatever. But the French treaty has not the same ambiguity, and it is under that, with the support of the most favoured nation clause, that our missionaries have gone everywhere into the interior. We are not concerned at the present moment to discuss whether it is a good thing that missionaries have established themselves all over China personally our respect for the enlightenment they convey with them is such that we think it is an excellent. thing. But the discussion would be futile, because it is very certain that the French government would never order their missionaries to withdraw from the interior; and it would be impolitic-~to put it on the lowest ground—to leave the field entirely in the possession sionaries have come into the interior. of China and have "come to stay." Fault may be found. with some of their' methods, and they may, not always possess enough of the wisdom of the serpent in conjunction with the harmlessness of the dove; it might be well—at least the question is arguable—to put them under some sort of control by the.secular authority, as they have necessarily to appeal _to the secular arm when they get into trouble, But we cannot allow the Chinese officials, literati, and gentry to try and drive them out by force, by taking the roofs off and burning their houses, or removing them bodily into boats and packing them off down river. Our Consul at Chungking, Mr. Fulford, may be relied on to make the proper represen tations as to this to the Viceroy on the one hand and -the British Minister on the other. Our correspondent alludes to the rumours of the appointment to the Provincial Lreasurership of H.E. Kung, our former Taotai, He is a man of good common sense, who is quite free from any antipathy to foreigners, and we hope to hear better news from Szechuan as soon as he has arrived at the capital and taken charge of affairs,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.