The country need not alarm itself at present about Siam.
The Hong Kong correspondent of the Tiabes, it is true, tele- graphed on the 16th inst. that the Governor of Saigon had addressed a threatening letter to Bankok about the Siamese frontier "next to Tonquin ;" and such a letter may have been despatched. The conquest of Siam was part of the project for founding a French India in Indo-China ; and the French officials in Saigon have for some time been preparing quarrels about their rights and Siamese rights to the river Mekong. M. Ferry and his soldiers, however, have their hands too full in Tonquin and Formosa to quarrel with Siam just now. It is when peace has been made with China that Siam will be in danger, and that a French squadron may be expected in the Meinam, to demand certain cessions of territory. It will be time enough then to ask seriously what limits M. Ferry sets to his ambition.
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