feeling is passing over the people, and not only have
several Mission stations in the interior been attacked, but the foreign quarter of Shanghai has been threatened, and is watched by English, French, and German gunboats. The Emperor has issued stringent orders to protect the foreigners ; but it is said the military Mandarins do not obey them. These out- breaks are periodical, and more annoying than dangerous ; but it is said that this one is fomented by the dangerous Secret Societies with which China is honeycombed, and which see in the new reign an opportunity for demonstration against the Tartar dynasty. They desire confusion, and the quickest. way, in their minds, to produce it, is to embroil China by a series of massacres with the principal foreign P.owers. This story may be the outcome of mere panic, but the Ambas- sadors are acting with a concert never visible in China unless they perceive serious grounds for alarm.
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