CHINA. 



CHRISTIAN CONNECTION. 101 



poor corners. His view is confirmed in the 

 report of Mr. Nicholson, who shows that in 

 Shansi and Shensi, where the famine has been 

 most intense, the poppy can be cultivated with 

 success only on the irrigable lands, all of which 

 would have been available for the raising of 

 wheat and vegetables, except for the profit de- 

 rived from the opium-culture. The Governor 

 of Shansi, with the approval of the throne, has 

 resolved to issue a proclamation laying on the 

 ancestral clans and village clubs the responsi- 

 bility of preventing the growth of the poppy 

 in their neighborhoods. A vigorous voluntary 

 organization for checking the spread of opium- 

 smoking has been formed in Canton, which 

 publishes and circulates tracts, and has given 

 prizes for essays discussing the evils of the 

 trade and of the use of the drug. Several of 

 the essays have been published. They are very 

 plain-spoken against those who have introduced 

 opium into the country. The religion of the 

 West, says the essay that won the first prize, 

 teaches that we must love our neighbors as our- 

 selves, practice kindness toward all, and not 

 benefit ourselves at others' expense ; yet what 

 one thing in the world can be compared with 

 opium for the injury it inflicts on mankind, 

 and the mischief it causes men to bring on 

 their neighbors for the sake of their own gain ? 

 " No wonder that mobs have burned some of 

 the Christian churches and put to death West- 

 ern men and women." The essayist also shows 

 how the importation of Western manufactures 

 into the country would be benefited by the 

 suppression of the trade. Missionaries from 

 China reported at the anniversary of the Wes- 

 leyan Missionary Society in May, 1878, that 

 the prejudice caused by British support of the 

 opium trade was the most formidable obstacle 

 they had to encounter. An opium refuge has 

 been opened by missionaries in Peking, which 

 during the first six months of its existence re- 

 ceived fifty-three in-patients, and was attended 

 by nearly three hundred out-patients. 



The Rev. Mr. Mackay, a Canadian Presby- 

 terian missionary, was attacked at the begin- 

 ning of the year by a crowd of Formosans at 

 Tamusi, and was threatened with death unless 

 he left the island ; but he remained in spite of 

 the threat. Violent attacks were made during 

 the summer upon the Protestant missions at 

 Kien-ning-f u and Yeng-ping-fu. At the former 

 place, a chapel belonging to the Church Mis- 

 sionary Society was completely destroyed by 

 a mob headed by the literati and gentry. At 

 first the rioters threatened to kill the catechist 

 in charge of the chapel, but subsequently they 

 ordered him to leave the city, and not to return 

 under penalty of instant death should he be 

 again discovered. Some time ago Monseigneur 

 Ridel, a French missionary bishop, was cap- 

 tured with other missionaries by the inhabi- 

 tants of Corea, and condemned to torture and 

 death. The Chinese ministers intervened in 

 his favor, and he was set at liberty during the 

 summer. He was escorted from a prison in 



the center of Corea to the Chinese town of 

 Moakden, amid insults and threats of murder 

 all along the line of the route, and was saved 

 only by the declarations of his escort that he 

 was under the protection of the Emperor. For 

 several months his daily fare in prison was a 

 handful of rice and a bowl of cold water, and 

 he had to sleep on the ground and associate 

 with criminals of the worst stamp. This was 

 the third time Monseigneur Ridel had been sen- 

 tenced to death in Corea ; on the two previous 

 occasions he owed his escape to his own energy. 



An insurrection broke out in the province 

 of Kwangsi in the latter part of the year, and 

 immediately assumed such formidable propor- 

 tions as to cause considerable anxiety to the 

 imperial authorities. The leader of the insur- 

 gents was a general named Li-Yung-Choi, who 

 was also notorious in the great Taiping rebel- 

 lion, but had prudently deserted to the impe- 

 rial side when he saw that the collapse of the 

 rebellion was imminent. Since then he had 

 gained great distinction in the service of the 

 Emperor, and had been honored with the yel- 

 low tunic. It seemed that he was disappointed 

 at not receiving some coveted preferment, and 

 put himself at the head of a revolutionary move- 

 ment. His army was reported to number fifty 

 thousand men. 



The preliminary examination of the country 

 at Kaeping, where mining operations are con- 

 templated, has proved very satisfactory. A 

 flat piece of country about twenty miles long 

 was found to be covered with coal and iron- 

 stone. The coal is bituminous, with 70 to 75 

 per cent, of gas, and 7 to 15 per cent, of ash, 

 having every appearance of being excellent 

 coal. The ironstone, which runs in a parallel 

 line with the coal, is hematite. Boring opera- 

 tions have been begun close to the river. The 

 coal fields of Kilung are worked by machinery 

 and foremen from England, and now produce 

 about fifty thousand tons daily of coals which 

 are said to be equal to the best English coals. 



Mr. G. J. Morrison, the late engineer of the 

 Shanghai-Woosung railway line, early in the 

 year made an examination of the country 

 between Hangkow and Canton with a view of 

 ascertaining its nature with reference to the 

 construction of railways. The distance be- 

 tween the two points by a straight line is five 

 hundred miles, but by the route he took it 

 was eight hundred miles. He passed through 

 the cities of Wuchang, Yo-chow, Siang-yin, 

 Chang-sha, Siang-tan, over the Chihling Pass, 

 and thence by I-chang, Ping-shih, Lo-chang, 

 and Shao-chow, to Canton. He was interested 

 in the examination of the coal fields of Hunan 

 and Kwang-tung, and in some places found 

 that the coal trade had largely increased since 

 the visit of the Baron F. von Richthofen. 



CHRISTIAN CONNECTION.* The quad- 

 rennial American Christian General Conven- 

 tion was held at Franklin, Warren County, 



* See "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1874, article CHRISTIAN 

 CONNECTION, for a full account of statistics. 



