We publish to-day a letter to which, without detriment to the liberty of other correspondents to reply, we may be allowed to add some comment. At the present juncture it is essential that the best opinions of all critics should be made known. No paper can represent every section of thought, and it is as much to the interest of revolutionaries as of the outside world that there should be the widest discussion of the outlook for this distracted country. But at the outset it is well to guard against possible misconcepti Free use of the word intervention in th present temper of the Chinese is, with all deference to our correspondent, liable to cause alarm. The general principle that nations can no longer be allowed to m manage their affairs beyond certain point, is good enough principle, but sounds anwmic in the presence of war: and even the emphasis which our correspondent lays upon the avoidance of all apparent desire for territory and aggrandisoment may be overlooked by certain revolutionary readers. In the words of Liang (hi-chiao, confirmed by the whole story of the revolt, "the leaders are carefal to avoid anything that will lead to foreign intervention." With the rank and file of the revolutionary party the mere sound of the word is apt to represent nothing but action from without to bolster up the Manchu incubus and saddle it upon the country more firmly than ever. Of that there must not be the faintest suggestion, or there can be no more security for the lives of foreign residents in China. What it is important to realize is that since the beginning of the quarrel the word intervention has taken on anew meaning, in which it is much courted by some of the re lationaries as it is canvassed abroad.
Reading between the lines of the letter it is quite clear that the writer has no idea of leading support to the Mancha dynasty. It might
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.