The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-09 00:00:00

FOREIGN LOANS.

We are a funny people. English investors have
ceased to have any confidence in their fellow-
countrymen—a circumstance perhaps not surprising
after recent disclosures. But our simple
checked and dammed in one direction, is flowing
with double force in another. We will not look at
English railway debentures, but we scramble for
foreign railway scrip. Everybody knows that
Russia is carrying out an enormous scheme of
railroads, in ordt r that she may b e able
to transport her troops from point to
point of her immense empire, and so overcome the
obstacle which, far more than French or British arms,
prevented the Russian flag from floating over the
towers and minarets of Constantinople fifteen years
ago. Everyone knows that as soon as these com
mtnucations are complete Russia will test her strei igtn
again, and that unless England is prepared to
assent to a conquest which she has from time
immemorial _
resisted, she will have to try
conclusions once more with the Giant of the orth.
evertheless, we go on pouring our money into the
Russian exchequer. The Czar has only to ask and
he has. One loan after another is floated success-
fully, and English gold is enabling Russia to prepare
for a defiance of English steel. Egypt shares with
Russia the popular favour on the English Stock
Exchange, for within the past fortnight £400,000 of
Egyptian bonds have been sold from Paris on the
London, market. Those persons who are acquainted
with Eastern politics are very well aware that a
perfect understanding exists between Russia and
Egypt, and that in helping I
first. the second we help the

M. Sorel, an "Apostolic Missionary" in the western
part of Cochin-China, publishes an account of the shock-
ing massacre of some of his followers. He says : "A
large placard was posted up in the village of Thudau-mot,
announcing that a terrible epidemic was about to
visit the country. The priest-prophet, or bonze, who
originated it, mentioned as a safe precaution against
the disease not to stir out at night, no matter what noise
might be heard in the neighbourhood, and to carry a copy
of the placard about the person. The French authorities
understood that this placard was merely a preconcerted
signal, a kind of watchword, which theyconceived to be the
forerunner of an insurrection. All the heathen readily re-
sponded to the bonze's invitation, and repaired in crowds
to the temples in order to receive the precious talisman.
I prohibited the Christians wearing the superstitious
emblem. On the morning of the 9th a large body of
Snatives came down from Dong-po to Chan-thank, headed
by Thac, the bonze who had drawn up the placard noticed
The new Brighton Railway
TIIE BRIGHTON RAILWAY.
above, a few leading men of neighbouring villages, ,,ii
and three Malays who had deserted from the French. I
3i.ip-,ellawreabs
otlhdeerssuobfjetebt with which we were
eofolsd'erylinset.ronf
irl.nNL-eacitnilg-e,
They surrounded the guardhouse, butchered the Anna-
at the half-yearlysa !-eeting of the company,
greaten
mite sergeant and three privates (one of them was a '
native), and burnt down the fort. All the natives of the was *reported to have that it was " got up "by village able to bear arms they compelled to follow them speculators who wanted
to get some £'l
)00,000 for
to Thi-tinh. Before they arrived there the work of destruc. ! their work : they did not do it fol. the .
bpublic benefit.
tion had already commenced. The natives had attacked For this statement Mr. Laing has
erser called to
the fort, driven out the garrison, and captured a good
least,. says he never used the words ns—'
at
many Christians. On Thac's arrival he sent a detach-
attributed to
him.
ment into the jungle to capture all the Christians they
C ULTUP
met with. During this time the fort was fired. A traitor THE AGRI
•AL LAtornEß.
The agricultural labourer is •
named Gift, in the service of Duoc, brought to the bonze
attention just now,and the most opposite opinions
several of his brother workmen whom he knew were
are given just
hil
down
who believe in
Christians. The first, named Han, bore on - his visage . rural felicity,' &cg, pnu. t
the characters ' ta-dao ' (infidel), with which lie had been m.---
-y happy, contented, wello-fed kind of as a
And of being,
marked some years ago at Binhdinh. In answer to the 1 fond of his cottage, and l' •
living in happy inno
bonze Thac, he replied that he was a Christian. An order , cence and piety, bringing up his children in the way
was immediately given to bind his arms and legs, and throw ' theyshould go. Others remember him as heavy, • ---*/
/
him into
out, 40 my God, my God !' _Cut the populace shrieked, in I expression may be used) in a hovel, and gradually
1 sinking into pauperism. Sir George Grey, the late
reply,A ' It is useless ; p,ur God will not come to save you '
New Zealand, supports the latter view.
a Governor of
Thnother, Christian tamed Tieng was also given up to
A paragraph in the medical officer's report to the
ac, and suffered a similar fate. Tieng succeeded in I
Privy Council seems to have made a great impression
breaking the cords which bound him and fled to little I
, , a
1 upon him :—" Unhappily, agricultural labour, instead
river close by. But he was soon recaptured and thrown ' -
again into the of implying a safe and permanent independence for
flames. Three other
Christians gave way the hard-working labourer and his family, implies for
before such fearful torture, and declareheathens.d they were the most part only a longer or shortercircnit to eventual
They received the talisman,
and were put in pauperism—a pauperism which is during the whole
the ranks of the band. Two of these apostates related to circuit so near that any illness or temporary failure of
me the preceding facts, which were also confirmed by the occupation necessitates immediate recourse to parochial
traitor cu. This brute was not content with burning relief." Sir George writes a long letter to the Daily
alive the two Christians mentioned above ;he killed with _Yews upon the subject. His picture is perhars a
his own hand two others, one of whom was a woman little too dark, abounding in such expressions as
with a child at her breast. Ile is at present in custody, " unhappy beings." " doonlecl beings," &c. ; but there
On the day after the bonze ordered
th
e trans captured to be beheaded. Theyrlvesetrofe the Chris- can be no doubt that in some parts of the
i
one—men, women, and children -before a wAli ledin one La- ismostcountry the
i.
t whicha erii There
tis g,
they were thrown, after having been decapitated. between de
onn the ‘‘
employment
The list of the victims amounts to twelve men, four women, of women and children spewed that iii some districts
eight children. Several of the children were • n, and home was presided over by the mother, and the
impaled en
lances before their parents' eyes. About : children received a certain amount education; bu
t
tuns amount of
twelve Chr s-
tians managed to escape, but what has become of tkiern is terms, 1 in others, home and school were mere com f-
para he
itlikatv.r7: 7. referring to the sleeping place and the room
in which those too young to work were herded