The Sun. — 1859-09-27 (London, England)

THE OUTBREAK AT SHANGHAI. (From the Overland China Mail.) Important intelligence has been received from the north. The Chinese there, and at Shanghai in particular, have always been regarded as models of quietness and meekness as compared with those of the south. Even they, however, have now broken out into rioting of a serious character, and killed or dangerously wounded several Europeans, among whom we have to mention, with deep regret, Mr. Lay, the head of the newly-organised Chinese Customs Service, who has been wounded so severely in the abdomen and elsewhere that he is scarcely expected to live. This riot is said to have arisen from the kidnapping of coolies for the French vessel Gertrude ; but the master of that vessel asserts that the Chinese on board attempted to rob him, and he was compelled to fire in self -defence. Both stories are about equally improbable, and their truth or falsehood is of no consequence to tho conclusion to be drawn from this affair. Sooner or later the truth must come out in regard to China, that the foreigners there have chiefly their own stupidity to blame for the hostility of the Chinese. Kiying, the most faithful and intelligent friend of our interests in China, was compelled tc commit suicide by the Imperial Court because—and we make the charge with pain—he was so slighted and set aside by Lord Elgin's mission that the Im perial Court was led to believe he had been deceiving it as to his knowledge of and interest with foreigners. Kwei-liang and Hwa-shana were so slighted by Mr. Bruce refusing to see them at Shanghai, that Prince Senn-ko-lin-sin, the head 'of the war party, was raised to influence. Now there are indications that the brutal outbreak and assassination at Shanghai will be treated in a manner calculated to increase the evil from which it sprung. Between the coolie and the coolie trader it is a matter of six of the one and half a dozen of the other. There is occasionally fraud on both sides. and there may, very rarely, be cases of kidnapping. It is too provoking to have our safety in China endangered by the quarrels of a few loose Portuguese and French on the one side, with lying, gambling Chinamen on the other. In spit( of the ridiculous noise made about a few individual cases, the benefits of the traffic are largely in Layout of the Chinese ; and therefore, since they chose to make it as occasion for riot, we should be justified in closing it altogether. But to do this at the present juncture—to dismiss, as we hear the French minister threatens to do, most of the coolies in the Gertrude, would be to commit one of those weak and ill-judged acts which always lay the foundation of future trouble. If the Chinamen of Shanghai are to be loosened from their engagements and allowed to pocket the benefits, by the somewhat simple expedient of ripping open the stomachs of a few of the respectable foreigners resident, there, they will be sure to find other engagements in which similar means may be useful. It they are allowed to escape with impunity, or an approach to it, they will probably have recourse to that gentle pressure whenever they have any other point which they desire too carry against foreigners.