The state and condition of affairs prevailing in this district during the past two and a-half months may be fairly gauged from the nature of two official proclamations both of which are of recent date. Isend you a translation as being perhaps the best way of giving your readers a peep at local circumstances. There is unquestionably a spirit of uneasiness abroad. From almost all quarters we hear of threats and unlawful combinations, although it is not easy to say how much sincerity there is in the alleged movement. You must not suppose, how ever, that foreigners are living in a state of alarm. On the contrary, they are very much disposed to believe that the present hostile rumours are almost entirely due to asset of discontented men who are not very numerous, and that, so far from there being any immediate danger of an anti-foreign outbreak in Chungking, this port is not' Jess safe to live in than Ichang or Hankow. At the same time, there is no denying somewhere, a dissatisfaction on the part of fact that there is something wrong various people, due to whatever cause, which is of a nature sufficiently urgent to compel the -attention of the mandarins. Then, of course, the Kiangpeh matter is unsettled, and the Kiangpeh. people are certainly intent on keeping it unsettled, Indeed, the proximity of the latter city to Chungking forms a permanent source of danger, and the danger will always exist until the local rowdies have been cowed. They have not been tamed yet, and truth compels the admission that Mr. Consul Smitherg appears to be unable to teach them the lesson they so sorely need. The writer is of opinion that had France or England been concerned with the late murder-case, you would long ago have heard ofthe satisfactory conclusion of the whole matter. But here are the proclamations
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.