THE optimi it Claude Mae-donald received something of a shock in the murder of Mr. Brooks, but all that was done as far as we know the sending of Mr, Campbell to at the trial of the murderers, iv being decided at this trial that only three or four men were implieated in the murder to such an ent as to deserve punishment, and that, in what we understand to be the British Legation's own words, none of the wounds Mr." Brooks received were fatal and his death was due to decapitation. Most readers of the account of the trial that appeared in our columns last week will, we feel sure, conclude that the account of the murder accepted by the Court was a very much extenuated one and that only a portion of the trath was told. know that on the strength of the news that has come from the North during the last few months, as told by our corres pondents on the spot and as received irom other sources, the China As:
ation and the American Association of China have telegraphed home to their respective Governments warnings as to the menacing condition of re come at last to the noric Government, a telegram which appeared in our columns, dated London the 20th instant, telling us that " the st. John Brodrick, Parliament-Foreign Aifairs, replying to a question in the House of Commons regarding runi ours from America as to apprehension of an anarchical outbreak in China, said that the Government would continue to take the necessary steps to protect British interests." We must suppose that this common form satisfied the questioner in the House of Commons, but it would be interesting to know what it really meant. om the wording of it we gather that the Government has been taking the steps necessary to protect British interests. We pr sume that the liv ud property of British subjects in Chihli and antung are British interests. Then steps been taken to protect. them?—What steps were taken to protect Mr. Brooks? Wha steps have been taken to protect tle other missi in the North who are thr y mobs of antiforeign seer men who believe that they ting with the approval of the Empress Dowager? OurChingchoufa correspondent wrote the th in: "Unless the eign Powe pa firm hand on this business we may yet see an appalling outburst of violence which we who are on the spot will have to face, with results we do not like to contemplate." The same tale is told in_ m quart for the feeling of inseenrit feeling perfectly justified by existing conditions, is widespread: and we ask what steps our Government is taking to protect our fellow-subjects from the dangers by which they are surrounded.
We must allow that every now and then something is done, "Li Ping-was Governor of Shantung when the two German sionaries were murdered: on the demand of the German Minister he was degrade ed, never again to hold office; he is now a bigger man than he ever As Mr. Chalfant writes from Wei hsien: "The old War Governor is still on the warpath against foreigners, and has been supplied with w paint and feathers, if not with pons, by the Empress Dowager.' We may note, by the by yy, that it seems to} be thought that Li Ping-hong was also removed from the Vicer chuan on account of hi to foreigners and Chri this is a mistake: that Viceroy was! Lia Ping-chang, a very different person. Then Yi Hsien, who was recently Governor of Shantung, was removed, it is said on Sir Claude Macdonald's demand, on account of his active antipathy to foreigners and Christians: and he has been made Governor of Shansi, where he can do!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.