28rd October, The Recrudescence of Boxerism in Szechuan.
We translate the following from a private letter from Chengtu, da ed the 21st ultimo, having reference, alongst other things, to the recent hostile entrance of Boxers into thnt- city on the 15th ulto., which it will be remembered Was telegraphed to this paper at the time by our Szechuan correspondent; at the temple before they had con centrated, there would certainly happen serious in the city the next day. To the deputy's astonishment he was row ily taken' to task by the Assistant Commissioner for breach of etiquette—for reporting to him in person when such a step ought to have been the duly of the first deputy! Even when the tipao of the ward where the the Boxer temple in question was located brought similar tidings to the Bureau he was accused by the drunken deputies there, who happened at the time to be "having a good time,' that it was all Shumbug snd simply brought up t" create more trouble and useless work for the militia and troops." The tipao was accordingly onered out of the premises.
aly the news of the intended rising having got to the ears of Liu, Taotai, the Commissioner of the Criminal Inion Bureau, he summoned to him all his deputies there and asked them wh ther they als. tind hewtd of it, 'They replied 'Yes? and falsely declared that in view of it they had sent spies to investigate.' Of course they had done nothing of the sort, so that when the Boxer advanced guard broke isto the city by the South-zate, tw" or three soldiers on duty there dared not oppose the eang of desperadoes wer in, who rushing pre; atw ions having been made to meet the incursion, The result of the outheak: is already well-known, so there is no need nto det ut it was.a close and the lazy, incapable ial respons the safety of the and its 400.000 inhabitants, The ishment dear out by Viceroy Ku'ei to the officers of the Bureau was simply putting down ove fault against ame vf the first deputy, Sheng, in his ini record for allowing the Boxers to rin rampant in the city on the 15th of —*The Boxer episode of the 1th of ~ep- Sep ember,' while the unlucky subordinate tember was due 1o the gross negligence and Genu'y whose words of warning were discriminal carelessness of the head officials of erded by his saper'er officers and of the sung Ts'a chu, or 'Head Office of} ly. xe mel te have been the deputy in the Criminal Investigation Bureau' of! Guar evs the Souther te at the time, Chengtu, otherwise the Box rs would (ae disniase I from "he Bureon for inal never have succeeded ent ring 44 yyy the ence of a band of the city and running riot in such) Qosy-rad ex wth the couple of soldiers Forunstely the number of (ind ily, what did Viceroy Boxers wh" purticip ted in this audacious Chin sy of the affsie in his report attempt of capturing a city of some 400,009 ¢ the all—wt abled the panic-stricken gonure inh sbitants was very siual—not we my i helen mandarins to suppress them, after a while, Syrede the eof Chengtu, on the otherwise it would have beow " very bad T5th Septembar, liv hal sent a force of éaytu on that For the city w: ith day of band ein comp'etel) which tims, ha the movement been organised and the putticipunts ten to thirty times more than they were, the ety undoubtedly have fallen nto Boxer hand and all the mandarins in it who did not joi them would have have b en massacred o the spo. Apropos of the above outbreak, it has now transpired that on the after.soon of the 14th ultimo, or the day before the outbreak':, a subordinate depury—weiyuan the Investigation Bureau' mentiond above, called upon Sheng, an expectant district magistrate and first deputy of the Bureau, and handed in a secret report that a gang of Boxers, whose centre' is at the Chingyangkung temple outside the Southgate of Chengtu. had decide to coucentrate tireir men that same night in the temple. as it was intended to enter the city and wttae's the officials the next morning (15th) and capture it and make the place the Boxer headquarters for a grand rebel-; lion. The first deputy, Shing, sevffed at the id-a. declared it to be but an empty ramour, and refused to take action. Finding himself rebuffed, th: subordinate deputy the" went to the Assis ant Commissions: the Bureau, an expectant prefect, and zw: the sume warning, further stating that, unless steps were immediately taken to capture such of the Boxers as were then be the gather pon the users fled. some panic
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.