9th Sept.
Wrrnr the past six or seven years foreigners living in parts of China, widely distant from one: another, lave had unrivalled opportunity for stadying the evolution of those. forces which wien fully developed make furthidable mobs, and inflict terrible damage. Within the past few months a fresh illustration has been afforded us, which so far as we know differs in some essential particulars from any of its predecessors, In the month of Jane the railway from tientsin to Peking was completed, and the capital was full-of tales about children buried under the ties and slain to solidify the bridges, Ihe rehabilitation of the old Roman Catholic cathedral at tientsin, by special agreement with the Chinese Government, violently angered the people of that inflammable city. The gravity of the situation there was such that effective precautions were at once taken by the foreign Consuls, and the Chinese officials bestirred themselves in a way to do them great ered. Had the rulers of Tientsin last June been of the same stamp as those in 1870, there would almost certainly have been an outbreak, albeit foreigners were fore-wartied this time as they then were not. By numerous ruthless (and probably just) exertions in the district' yamé the people were held perfectly in control, so that the trouble may be said to have been quite nipped in the bud, and, with the exception of some rudeness to foreigners, there were no cases of a serious character requiring forei interference. Ihe Chinese officio centre of a large part of the four northern provinces, and is connected with three of then by nnmerons waterways along which social influences are easily and rapidly propagate ed, 'That vague rumours of something wrong in that metropolis should get abroad was inevitable, But the celerity of the transmission, as compared with the slow progress of miscalled ' intelligence' in the time of actual war, a few months pravions, was a surprise to every one. Not only so, but compared with kidnapping minors, the war news excited at best but a languid interest, even on the part of those who had some dim idea of what was going on. This was well illustrated by a Nientsin house-servant who had been informed by his mistress of the terrible battle of the Yalu, and the ex-ithe North-China Tract Soci tinction of the Chinese navy. after a moment's consideration so decisively, ' they were not my boats The Chinese have from antiquity bean familiar with the kidnapping of women and children. The former goes on all the-time even in quiet neighbourhood, but the kidnapping of a woman implies her ce-operation for its successful issue, otherwise she gets away, and the price is a loss. It is otherwise with children... At first the untutored foreigner finds it hard to imagine what boys are kidnapped for, when they are to be had everywhere in such plenty. It is probably true as alleged that a good many are annually swept off from Pientsin in. the grain junks which go South after discharging cargo. Of these children some are treated with horrible cruelties to make them objects of commercial value. Some are clamped between parts of a split jar, with the head alone protruding, and are kept in this horrible posture permanently, this makes them little dwarfs with big heads, and such' monstrosities can be exhibited at a large profit. There are children whose feet have been made to drop off by having the andes girdled with fine wire kept tight, hose may, at any time, be seen in the large cities as beggars. There are many ways in which small male children may be made objects of commercial value, but what becomes of kidnapped girls it is unnecessary to mention, Nie Chinese seem to be unemotional and, to the last degree, practical race. Under appropriate: conditions they are most excitable, and conditions like those to which we lave but alluded, amply explain the passionate excitement on the part of Chinese influenced by Tientsin, How this was exhibited. we will explain more fully in another article.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.