adless to say, during the past few South African affairs have had to take quite a secondary position, as the hows from Shanghai has occupied all our thoughts. I read an ably-written article dealing with the subject a couple of days ago, in which the writer stated that for a parallel in modern history we must go back to the Indian Mutiny, but that did not seem to me quite to meet the even there fewer interests were involved. An old Army man expressed to me his opinion that the affair would "blow over," because all the European Powers felt that if once war were declared the issues would be so tremendous that they simply dared not face them. I only hope he may prove right, but it is strange to think of all that may have happened before this letter reaches its destination. Yesterday, we heard a report that Admiral Seymour was dead, to-day's news is even more startling, aS we are told of a rumour that the Emperor is dead and the Empress Dowager has committed suicide. Probably all three tales are false, but I give them to show the state of alarm in which we are living.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.