New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-04-28
NEW POLICY IN PEKTX


rr;.;s IN Chinese affairs which many intelligent
obsarvers have been expecting for the last
voor ia close at hand. The popular hostility
TO foreign residents in China has been stead-
ily increasing of late, and the death OF hr.
Burlingame seemed to give it fresh Impulse
The conviction of Minister Low that the lien
Tain massacre was merely local not was not
generally shared by European and American
merchants and missionaries. and there nave
been many indications that the fears OF con-
certed movement for the expulsion or mas
saore of foreigners had substantial fomdaaon'
Disturbances more or less serious have broken
ont at several points. Catholic priests and
protestant preachers alike have been men
aced. Runners have obtained belief taat cn,na
and Japan had entered into O. secret treaty
fer the simultaneous expulsion OF intrud-
ers, and return to the policy Cd close
secusion which both empires so long
enforced. This story was probably untrue
but the fact Of its acceptance in China sum
GENTLY indicates the uneasy situation OF that
country. The terrible massacre at Tinn-Isin mas
never been adequately punished, though TWO
mandarins are said to have been transported
because they did not prevent it, and fifteen OF
the common people beheaded, probably be-
cause common people are cheap There has
been no evidence, up TO this time, that the
Imperial Government is disposed to abandon
the policy of gradual progress and nterna-
tionaI comfy which was announced through
the Burlingame Embassy; but it has been
clear that the popular sentiment OF the en-
pire was exerting severe pressure upon the
Ministry, and placing the peaceful relations OF
China with the rest Of the world in great peril.
The most practical and charitable OF the
benevolent enterprises of the missionaries was
the very thing that chiefly infaned the popu-
lar rage. Among the cOmmonest crimes In
China are the kidnapping, Abandonment
and murder of children. To counter
act these horrors, and at the same
time train up o young Christian popula-
ton, founding asylums were established
by the Sisters of Charity, and the belief went
abroad that the black -robed women were en-
gagged in wholesale slaughter of the inno-
cents. enticing the little ones from their
homes, snatching them up in the streets, dig
ging out their eyes for purposes of witchcraft,
and converting their hearts and hvers into
medicines of mysterious power. The Ignorant
and brutal fury which blazed up at Tien-Tsin
was felt from one end of the empire TO the
other, as far az the European establishments
extended; and it was not without reason that
the Protestant missionaries few months ago
united in memorial to the diplomatic body
at Pekin, warning those functiOnaries of the
danger of making any settlement of the pend
ing grievance which should not impress upon
the Chinese authorities the duty of protecting
Europeans from the Outrages of native mobs,
according to the obligations of the treaties.
The victims of the massacre last June were
nearly all French. Count RochechOuart, upon
whom accordingly deyolved the duty of de-
handing satisfaction, peremptorily insisted
upon the decapitatiOn of the two culpable man
darins, and was as promptly refused. The
war with Germany placed it out of the ques-
ton for France to support the extraordinary
demand Of her charge dafiaires, and it has
already been announced that proposal from
Pekin to pay the sum of 10000 taels (S135,OOO)
as compensation for property destroyed, and
10000 taels ($195000) as satisfaction for the
lives Of priest and ten sisters, was accepted
by the legation. 1t now appears that the X. e.
Bishop of Pekin, to whom the money was to
be paid, protested few weeks ago, in letter
to Count RochechOuart, against any pecuniary
settlement without guarantees Of the future
security of the Catholic establishments.
The English Protestant missionaries whose
property was damaged took the same high
ground 1--WE want no bloodmoney,n was the
cry: "we came here to give our lives, not to
"sell them. Let us never encourage the Chi
"nese belief that it is always safe to plumber
"and kill Christian provided one has money
"enough to pay for it." The missionaries
were right. As soon as it became known that
the crimes of TEN Tsin had been condOned by
the payment of few dollars and the execu-
ton Of dozen Migrants, and that the nation
chiefly aggrieved by the outrage had been
OverthrOwn in great war, the anti-fOreign
party gained fresh strength, and the position
of the missionaries became more critical than
ever.
The news of yesterday-if the telegraph can
I've fully trusted, which we are leth to believe
indicates that the protest of the Bishop has
been followed by a refusal to make any salts
faction or indemnity whatever, and that the
Regency has been driven by popular clamOr to
reverse its past policy and set all the foreign
powers at defiance The cause of the recent
disturbances is declared to be the attendance
of women upon religious service; therefore
notice is given to the ambassadors that no
female missionaries shall be admitted to the
empire, and that schools for the education of
females shall be abolished Moreover, the
missionaries, who have hitherto been under
consular jurisdiction, shall benceforth be
considered Chinese subjects, and therefore
amenable to the robberies and prosecutions of
Chinese officials. The teaching of Christianity
to male subjects of the empire is forbidden;