This affair is most unfortunate for the French, as the
Anamese of the hills will keep up a guerilla war which may last for years. Moreover, the Government will be compelled to place a large garrison in Hue, and will not be able, as they hoped, to send home a third of the army in Tonquin. They, moreover, suspect the Chinese of complicity, even if the Black Flags from Tonquin have not been let loose in Anam,—a strong probability, as the Anamese are by no means warlike. The news created much excitement in the French Chamber, where the Deputies are afraid lest the electors should accuse the Government of misleading them with promises of peace. Had General de Courcy been defeated, the Government would have been overthrown; and as it was, the incident embittered the debate on the Chinese Treaty, M. Clemencean describing Tonquin as "this inauspicious conquest," unwillingly accepted by the national pride. No one was heartily for the new Treaty except Bishop Freppel, who speaks for the 400,000 Catholic converts of Anam. They are periodically massacred wholesale.
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