'Tre perfectly fortuitous discovery within the last week of the document +i: appended to Mr. Drummond' letter of the 30th of July, a document of whose existence the Chinese themselves were ignorant until within the last few days, and of which there is no record whatever at the French Consulate-General puts the Ningpo Joss-House affair in an entirely new light; and we may take it as practically certain now that, subject to the enforcement of the sanitary precautions with which the French Municipality cannot dispense, the Trustees of the Ningpo Joss-House will be allowed to retain their properties.
When the Chinese claimed that they \had ao agreement with a former French Consul-General guaranteeing them undisturbed possession of the Ningpo Joss-House properties, they and the French authorities alike believed. that the agreement referred to was that made by M. Godeaux at the time of the 1874 riot, as to which we wrote on the 20th ult. that as" practical men we put' on one side the document signed by M. Godeaux, whose natural imbecility was increased by the state of abject terror and dread of responsibility he was in twenty-four years ago." But it has now come to light that four years afterwards, ie, in 1878, when M. G. Lemaire was Acting French Consul-General here, and Viscount Brenier de Montmorand was French Minister at Peking, the settlement of the riot of 1874 was concluded at Peking, the negotiations having been carried on between the French Minister and the T'sungli Yamen, the terms of the. settlement. being a payment of 'I'ls, 37,000 by the Chinese for property destroyed in the riot, a cross payment by the French of ts. 7,000 for the families of the Chinese killed in the riot—it would seem from the figures that this was a concession to ithe Chinese "face," the money really being provided by the Chinese—and the following farther stipulation "It is hereby further agreed that the cemetery and house property of the Ningpo Joss-House shall be for ever under the management of the members
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.