22nd Tune.
We are gild to learn fron the minutes which we publish this morning, that the commit ce of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commeres has taken up earnestly the p ques ion of the unlimited coinage of ten cash pieces by the provincial me governments in Chins. The com:
tee have sent a letter to the Doyen of the Diplomatic Body at Peking in which they draw attention to the large number of provin-del mints which are vying with each other to make hay while the sun shines, and it will have been learnt from the article which we published on the 19th inst., that one of the most.serions - offenders is the honest and patriotic Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, who is doing his best to multiply even the enormous profit which his mint is now making. We have before us a number of ten-cash piroes with the impress of the Hupeh and Hunan mints. The coins from Hupeh, and some of the coins from Hunan, have really a large percentage of copper in them; hut some of th: Hunan cai-s are a bright y-low in colour, and contain the smallest possible percentage of copper. The present profit on these must be enormous; and thet profit comes out, of the pocket of the Inbouring classes in China, the "stupid people," who are supposed to look on the officials us their "father-and-mathe s." These coins are going into circulation now, and driving out the old copper-cash but the limit that the p: ople can absorb will soon Lo reached. Then depreciation will begin; the people, who are not so stupid after all when their pockets ae touched, will find how they have been swindled by their officio's in Being persuaded 10 give eight of their "id copper-cash for one of these tokens; and it is vot at all unlikely that a rebellion will follow. We leave out of the question mints is in direct contradiction to the point that this multiplicity of
the Provocol; that is a matter for the dipl.matists; but every fo: eigner in China is threatened by the deb.sement of the currency that is going on' so gaily, and is ceria'n consequences,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.