The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-08-11 00:00:00

DEATH OF THE KING OF ANNAM,

Telegrams from Saigon state that To Dec, King of
Annam, died at Hu d on July 20, at the age of fifty-
three.—The Times, in noticing the event, says
The death of King Tu Due, the ruler of Annam, will
undoubtedly further complicate the already serious
difficulty of attaining a satisfactory settlement of the
Toriquin question. During his long reign, which began
as far back as the year 1846, and which will be recol•
lected in the national annals for its misfortunes, he was
several times called upon to witness the disintegration
ot his dominions and the weakening of his authority;
but he retained until the last his pride, which with
an Oriental ruler often proves a good substitute for
power. Tu Duo was the grandson of the great
Emperor Gialoog, who founded the present dynasty
in Annam at the end of the last century, and who
reigned himself until the year 1820. He was suc-
ceeded by his second son, Min Mang, who was in turn
succeeded by his two sons. Tu Due, the younger of
these, began his reign in the year 1846, and his acces-
sion to the throne was celebrated in the usual way by
the arrival of a Chinese Ambassador from Pekin
charged with the mission of investing him with the
signs of this royal position. Notwithstanding this aus-
picious beginning, it soon became clear that Tu Due's
reign was not to be one of tranquility ; and disturb-
ances In Tonquin were not more the cause of dis-
quietude than the intrigues of many of his principal
Ministers and courtiers. Little interest would be felt
in these domestic affairs were it not that the rival
Ministers hvailed themselves of the influential position
acquired by French and Spanish missionaries of the
Roman Catholic religi n o assail these foreign
priests and to denounce the numerouse converts they
had made as enemies to the State. It is doubtful if
Tu Due possessed the inclination to pursue the wise
and temperate policy of his grandfather in matters of
religion, and he certainly lacked the power and re=o-
lotion to oppose the counsel of his stanchest personal
supporters. The persecutions, which had not been
absent from the reigns of his father and brother who
had preceded him on the throne, broke out with
renewed fury after his accession, Many French and
Spanish missionaries lost their lives, and thousands of
native converts were ruthlessly massacred.
When war was declared upon China by the Allied
Powers in 1859, the French Government availed itself
of these circumstances to assert its dormant claims on
the King of Annam under the provisions of a treaty
granted by Gialong three-quarters of a century before.
A Franco-Spanieh expedition was sent to the coast,
and, after some fighting, Tu Duo agreed to sign a treaty
of pace surrendering the greater portion of Lower
Cochin China to France. Scarcely had he concluded
this disastrous war with a foreign Power in the way
least injurious to his interest than he was called upon
to encounter a serious uprising on the part of the people
of Toequin, made discontented by the high-handed
acts of his officials, and anxious to restore a member of
their former ruling family to the throne. That in-
surrection would in all probability have met with euc-
cess but for the vigorous measures of To Due's General,
the Marshal Tei Phuong. When peace had been re-
stoied by his efforts to the Delta of the Songcoi, the
Annarnese ruler found a fresh difficulty staring him in
the face from the French desire to gain not merely a
foothold on the coast of Tonquirn_but even a right of
way through his dominions into China. At that time
Tu Due's policy was really guided by the Marshal rri
Phuong, on whose honesty of purpose- he depended
quite as much as on his valoar and military skill. But
neither the General nor his master wa7s able to pre-
vent the French under Gamier endeavouring to settle
the matter after a vigorous fashion and with a result
satisfactory to themselves; and the death of the Mar-
shal 'Fri Phuong from mortification at the loss of
Hanoi an 3 at the apparent success of the French plans
left Tu Due on his own resources, and without any
prudent or experienced ridvieer to help him in his dis-
tress. It was then that he inclined in a more marked
manner than ever to the Chinese alliance, and sought
counsel as well as active aid from Pekin to assist him
out of his difficulties. The troubles which had beset him
in one torm or other from the very beginning of his reign
showed no sign of abatement or of clearing off to.
wards its end. Indeed, for him personally, whatever
the result of the French operations may finally be, the
outlook during the last months of his life was particu-
larly diecouraging, ana history may have to record of
a in that he was even fortunate in dying on the eye of
greater national misfortunes, His death must have
the certain effect of encouraging the French to proceed
still further with their enterprise, and in that sense it
may be considered a misfortune as being calculated
to furnish them with ,a further excuse for offering
increased causes of provocation to the Government of
Chioa.