Revolution appears to be making the tour of the globe.
Even the supposed unchangeable China is visited by the spirit of mu- tability. Acoordiug to the latest intelligence from the " Central Flowery Land," it is highly probable that the malcontents, who have been variously represented as brigands and rebels, are masters of all the provinces South of the Yellow River, and have seized upon the great entrepot of Canton. This would be a revolution ; for Pekin, which derives its supplies of provisions by the great canal from those Southern provinces, would be starved into sub- mission ; and the principal seat of foreign commerce would fall into the hands of a party more bigotedly hostile to intercourse with foreigners than even the Celestial Government. Nor is such a revolution either impossible or improbable. Our knowledge of Chinese history is dim and obscure ; yet enough appears to show that the Mantchoo authority has never been so firmly established to the South as to the North of the Yellow River—that the purely Chinese element of society has always preponderated in the South- ern provinces. In Siam, too, changes of policy appear to be impending. The King who refused to treat with Sir James Brooke is dead; and a contested succession has been temporarily avoided by the simul- taneous nomination of a King and a Vice-King. The new King has always been remarkable for his disposition to cultivate the acquaintance and friendship of foreigners, and he is said to under- stand and even to write English.
The institutions of the Chinese and Hindu-Chinese nations are thus shaken and sapped at the very time when the traders of Eu- rope and America are making more vigorous and continuous efforts than at any former period to obtain a footing in them.
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