The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-08 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1870.

SOMETHING surely ought to be done for the letter-
carriers. They have for a long while past been over-
worked and underpaid. The card postage and the
halfpenny stamp are the stacks of straw by the descent
of which upon their hands they have w ithin these
last few days, been simply overwhelmed. Something
at last, we repeat, ought really to be done towards
the bettering of their condition. As a class they
are as indispensable as the newsboys. Like
the newsboys, they are at their work, in our service,
at all hours and in all weathers. A, strike on the
part of either would at any time be little less than a
calamity. They are part and parcel of one of the
great institutions that are " to the fore "—in the very
front rank—of modern civilisation. A striking illus-
tration of the importance of their share in the postal
arrangements of the age is at this time being
afforded by the beleaguered city of Paris. There,
the ordinary means of communication being done
away with, recourse is being had to the old world
agency of carrier pigeons, and to the new world
agency of balloons. Intelligence is mutually sought
for by the Parisians and the outer world, and
the deadly. cordon of war having girdled
Paris, now, more completely than even the
Chenzin de Fer de Ceinture, nothing remains for it
but to employ the wings of the dove and the science
of aerostatics. If only the ordinary means of inter-
communication were available, with what eager wel-
come the letter carriers of Paris going their
rounds would be received by the inhabitants
of that noble, ill-fated city! What talary would be
too high, what treatment too good for such mes-
sengers of tidings so breathlessly awaited ! Yet
these are the very men whom we are systematically
grinding down in their pay, and fagging
out in their labours, for years and years
past, in the midst of our own vast capital
and its far spreading environs. Roused at last into
remonstrances by their over-burthening now with
the card post and the half-penny stamp, the letter
carriers, let us hope, will find that the day, long
coming, has arrived at last when they are to be
fairly dbalt with by the authorities.

THE latest news from China shows that the recent
outbreak in that country was of even more serious
import than it originally appeared. The massacre at
Tien-tsin was a deplorable outrage, but at first
reason presented itself for the hope that it might be an
isolated case, that the murders had been provoked
by some special grievance, real or imaginary. The
murdered persons were almost all of the French
nation, and all engaged in religious duties.
The French Sisterhood; which became the prime
object of attack, was a society of a peculiar
kind, not represented by any other nation in China;
and, in fact, it was believed at the beginning that
the massacre was prompted by the Chinese hatred—
often before manifested—of proselytism. But it is

now more than doubtful whether the attack was
not owing to a more wide-spread feeling. There is
some evidence in support of the conclusion that it
represented the intention of the Chinese to make
another stand against the encroachments of the
foreigners, whether religious or of any other kind.
The foreign residents in the Empire and those
persons who trade with it have recently claimed
further privileges, and the Chinese may very
likely have been shrewd enough to perceive that
they cannot stand still, that they must either recover
some of the lost ground or lose more. But this is
a question which a little more information will