expressed willingness to spend still more time upon it, and to submit it to the hands of a Committee for revision, it seems only fair to ask those who are now urging that an altogether new version should be undertaken, what is the exact nature of their objections to this version. Do they regard it as hopelessly faulty and incapable of improvement? Or what is it that they want? The version has been most warmly commended by some of the most competent judges in China. A very large demand for it, shows that it is considered by many missionaries as the best version extant. This being so, I cannot but think that no one is justified in proposing without very grave reasons to set the book altogether aside. Are all those who have signed the document I have referred to, prepared to say that after carefully examining Mr. John's version, each one for himself, they are convinced that it is not what is wanted, and to name the faults which in their judgment prove it to be incapable of being satisfactorily amended even in the hands of a Committee? If they are prepared to say this, let them say it; and if they are not, let them say they are not, and we shall then know the exact importance to attach to their plea for a yet new translation of the Scriptures in Chinese.

TROUBLES IN CHINKIANG.

BY REV. G. W. WOODALL.

AT T the request of the editor of The Recorder, I briefly report the facts, and especially the final settlement, of the Troubles in Chinkiang, hoping it will be acceptable matter for the columns of our missionary journal.

During 1885 two houses were built by the American M. E. Mission at Chinkiang. The contract, in English and Chinese, was signed and stamped at the United States Consulate. The work, under the superintendence of my colleague, Rev. W. C. Longden, progressed very satisfactorily. Questions often arose about quality of material and workmanship, but the contractor usually yielded when the terms of the contract were insisted upon.

Payments were made promptly, according to contract, as the work progressed, until only eighty dollars were due him, and forty of that by agreement was not due until May, 1886.

Before the buildings were entirely finished he demanded the whole balance. We told him that as soon as he completed the houses according to contract we would pay him all that was due him.

He then claimed that the houses were finished and appealed to the United States Consul for his money. The Consul investigated the accounts and examined the contract and then ordered him to finish the work. This he declared himself unwilling to do and carried the case before the Tao Tai, claiming that the mission owed him several thousand dollars, and that the Consul would give him no redress.

The Tao Tai referred the case back to the Consul and while it was thus pending, the contractor thought he would take the matter into his own hands. He had led his workmen to believe that he had not received his money from the mission and hence could not pay them. They credited his story and were ready to join him in any device to extort the supposed balance from us. We believe that the workmen really had not received their wages.

Away to a tea-shop they went to discuss their plan of attack.

Whether the officials advised it or not, we cannot say, but we feel morally certain, from circumstantial evidence, that they were cognizant of the contractor's intentions and put no barriers in the way, though they may not have suggested it.

They came about forty strong with ropes, ladders and screwdrivers, and began to remove the shutters from both houses.

The contractor told Mr. Longden that they had come to put on the third coat of varnish which was due by contract, and to finish up the work so as to get the balance of his money.

Mr. Longden objected to his taking the shutters off the premises. He then said that he was only going to wash them and would immediately bring them back; but Mr. Longden still insisted and attempted to prevent one man who was carrying away a shutter, when the contractor called out, "Seize him, bind him!" which they proceeded to do. Mr. Longden contested his way for about fifty yards but was finally overcome, thrown down, bound hand and foot, and left to lie with his face in the dust. Hearing the noise, I started out and was met by my cook who told me that they were binding Mr. Longden.

I immediately ran to his rescue, but was soon in the clutch of the mob as securely, and with as little possibility of escape, as Laocoon and his sons from the coils of the serpents. I was thrown down and held to the ground by several men kneeling on my body and head, while others bound my hands and feet over my back. This done, they were about to bring ladders on which to carry us

away, when they demanded whether we would pay them the money. But we coolly assured them that they were not pursuing the right method to get it. At this juncture, Robert Burnet Esq., of the Scotch Bible Society, was seen coming toward us, and as soon as he took in the situation he ran back and informed the United States Consul of the assault. As we would not promise the money, the contractor said he would take us to "their Consul," claiming that our Consul was on our side and would not give him justice. We agreed to go with him to the Tao Tai's Yamen, but urged them to untie our feet and let us walk there, assuring them that we would not make any attempt to escape. And thus we went with the motley crowd, bareheaded, without overcoats, jerked, pulled, pushed and hooted at, with the usual exclamation, "Kill him,-the foreign devil." Our only fear was that we might be taken, not to the Tao Tai's Yamen, but to some secret place where we would be maltreated until we yielded to their demands.

Fortunately, when we got to the Yamen of the Police Commissioner we were hustled in, and as soon as the August Gentleman appeared we demanded that we be unloosed.

After some hesitation he ordered the men to untie the ropes. We then gave him to understand that we were foreign citizens and could not be thus insulted with impunity and requested him to show us to the guest hall. He did so and had tea brought for us. We then asked to be sent home in official chairs, which he claimed he could not do, and wanted to know how the contractor would get his money if he let us go, forsooth! This made it apparent which way his sympathies were current, and indeed, when we entered the Yamen, he did not seem at all disconcerted but apparently was expecting us and awaiting our arrival.

I wrote a note to the United States Consul on an old envelope and requested a messenger. He again demurred, but finally sent one. At times we feared the crowd outside would break in the Yamen doors; the din and yelling was not all reassuring.

The messenger met the Consul who was hurrying to the Tao Tai's Yamen to demand our persons. On receiving the note, he came immediately to our rescue, and demanded chairs and military escort for us, and we were thus sent home, in somewhat better style, by the same route we came.

The Consul then went to call upon the Tao Tai to inform him of the mob, demand the arrest of the offenders and to secure our persons and property from further violence.

Several days passed away, but nothing was done on the part of the Chinese authorities to arrest even the instigators of the trouble.

Many of the American citizens waited upon the Consul, urging him to use every effort to compel the Chinese authorities to give us justice. Several dispatches were sent into the Yamen, bringing fair promises in reply, and when a week passed and still the culprits were at large, the situation became exasperating.

Mr. Smithers, United States Consul General at Shanghai, to whom the case had been reported, telegraphed to our Consul that a man-of-war was en route to Chinkiang. The next day, the contractor and his chief accomplice were arrested and during the stay of H. M. S. "Wanderer," and U. S. S. "Marion," the officials busied themselves in punishing the ringleaders, and then appointed a deputy to look into the accounts, examine the contract, the work done, etc. He was surprised to find how little money was really owing to the contractor, and he himself, after examining the claim for extras, cut down the amount from six hundred dollars to forty!

We drew up a check for the amount really due him, took his receipt in full, endorsed by the Consul and the Deputy, and without making counter claims for unfinished contract, agreed that this should be a final settlement. But this was not the end of it for the Contractor. The Officials, finding that they had been duped and deceived by him, again sentenced him to the cangue, and, when he made an attempt to escape, confiscated his property. And it is rumoured here that he has lost about $500.00 in all.

We think that the moral effect of the telegram, announcing the man-of-war, acted like a charm. And the fact that a man-ofwar remained in the harbor until the ringleaders were properly punished, will probably prevent similar outrages in the near future. American Citizens resident in China ought to appreciate the persistent efforts of our government representatives to obtain redress for us. It is such prompt action on the part of our governments, that throws a safeguard about our persons in these Heathen Countries.

Chinkiang, March 17th, 1886.

THE CHINESE QUESTION IN AMERICA.

TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

WHERE

IN THE U. S. OF AMERICA:—

WHEREAS the Chinese Question has been forced upon the country by the demands of certain classes for the restriction and exclusion of Chinese laborers, and by the injustice and cruelties to which they have been subjected in the United States,-and

Whereas there is involved in this question the honor of the nation, the good name of Christianity, the welfare of strangers in our land, our relations to the most populous empire of the world, and the relations of missionaries to the government and people of China, it seems proper for us, your missionaries in South China (laboring in the region which supplies all the emigrants to the United States) to present a statement of facts for your consideration as follows:

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1. Americans in China, and Chinese in America, enjoy by treaty certain rights and privileges, and each country is bound to protect the citizens and subjects of the other, in the exercise and enjoyment of these rights and privileges.

2. These treaty stipulations were not sought by the Chinese, but by the government of the United States, which availed itself of the pressure of war to secure them.

3. The Chinese go to our country as laborers and traders, and for no other purpose. They do not in any way interfere with our political religious or educational institutions.

4. The majority of Americans in China are sent there, by organized societies, for the express purpose of propagating a religion foreign to the country and intensely distasteful to the vast majority of the people, the successful dissemination of which must result in undermining and destroying the existing religions of the country.

5. The General Assembly has sent not less than eighty agents to China, established them in various parts of the country, supplies them with large sums of money, and requires them to carry on a ceaseless agitation, the avowed purpose of which is to accomplish the object above specified.

6. The overturning of the religious institutions of China involves a revolution in the political and educational institutions and to a considerable extent in the industrial pursuits of the people.

7. The General Assembly demands that its agents in China shall be protected by the Chinese Government in accordance with treaty stipulations.

8. It is to no purpose that the General Assembly claims that its object is to benefit the people of China morally and spiritually. Their religious belief and practices have been handed down to them by their fathers, through many generations, and are sacred in their eyes. The social and political standing of tens of thousands of the better classes depends on the continuance of existing institutions, through which are the avenues to wealth honor and power. It is, therefore natural that they should expel missionaries, if not prevented by treaties with powerful nations.