The Times of Thursday prints a letter, three columns long,
in large type, from its correspondent in Hanoi, which it is per- fectly heart-breaking to read. The French in Tonquin are governing as if they were in a town taken by storm, and worse. The soldiers do as they please in Hanoi, even officers slashing the people with canes ; while after the taking of Sontay many of the defenders were massacred in cold blood, and after the storm, "twenty-five Chinese were burnt." Even this is nothing, for the correspondent states that all Frenchmen, even officers, declared it to be the intention of the General, when he took Bacninh, to slaughter out the garrison, 4‘ even if there are 25,000 of them," and so strike terror into the Chinese Army. The account seems incredible, and of course the only effect will be that in future the Chinese soldiery will fight to the death ; but we have never read a more precise, moderately-worded, or intentional statement, which is repeated over and over again. Remembering some acts in Algeria, it is impossible to deny that the allegations may be true ; and if they are, all sympathy with the Republic will cease in Europe. The madness of such a course is as obvious as its wickedness, and we are not surprised to hear that the French own only the ground they stand on, that the Tonquinese hate them, and that their sentries are constantly beheaded. The English Army has faults, but were we in occupation of Tonquin, everybody would be cheating the British soldier, the province outside its camps would be as quiet as Suffolk, and the body of the people would have come to the conclusion that there was nothing to fight for.
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