We have been living in the midst of such soul-stirring events during the past fortnight that it is difficult to know what to chronicle first. I suppose we are no less glad than you are in Shanghai that the much-talked-of Chinese loan has been at last arranged and that a further field is open to British commerce. I hear that goods of all descriptions are even now being packed ready for shipment. Two artists who are doubtful as to the success of their Academy pictures asked me a few days ago if I thought in the event of their being rejected there would be a likely market for them in China. I told them the idea was worth a trial, so maybe they and other aspirants to Academic fame will act upon the idea and you may be asked to find a gallery for a "rejected" exhibition similar to the one held at the Albert Hall some few years since.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.