HORRID SCENES IN CHINA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 5, 6 January 1879, Page 4

HORRID SCENES IN CHINA.

Assin Shantung has been beard from, and if tbe province urer needed help it would eeera So be now. Oa August 4 we read " that ffitnine iocreaeed daily; no rain had fallen, and the ground ie bb dry as a bone. Tbe distracted mothers, unable I o still tbe hopeless, unanswered cries of their children, expend their last efforts in burying them alive to stop their moaning and end their miseries." Meny villages present the same appearance as if a rebel horde bad devatated them. As a Crioaman re tnurked, " Where, only a short time ago, one heard in passing the barking of dogs and the singing of children at play, now si! is hushed and still " — tbe dogs eaten, and the people too weak to langh and sing, or to do aught but pray for food or Bpeedy death. Here is what one of the distributors writes of the condition;—" Up to the present time the people contented themselves with eating those who bad died, but dow they kill the living in order to have them for food. Husbands eat their wivee, parents eat their eons, nnd daughters and children eat their paienle." Women and 'girls are sold at less than two dollars apiece, and human flesh is offered for a»h in the markets. Writes another: "A mother, after having, with her husband, oaten her little boy, eix years old, whom they had themselves killed, prepared also to cut the throat of their little daughter, eight years old. The li tie girl began to weep at the eight of tbe fatal knife, and the neighbours arrived just in time to save her." [Note by Pere Aynaer, "Sometimes pareDts, so that they may not be themselves horrible executioners of their children, agree with o h»r parents — I will kill his child for him, and he th»U kill mine."] It ia the same glory over all the provinces, and bodies of men combine to alack the smaller hamlets, not to rob them of treasure or seek revenge for >ronga kflicted, but literally and truly they go about as wolves 'Peeking whom they may devour." It would be possible were it requisite, to continue the chapter of horrors existing in theae five provinces almost indefinitely, for oniy a half is told, and that half is we«.k and tame as compared to tbe actual facts, but the particulars of tbe latest reports are so revolting that it is inexpedient to further their publicity. The wildest imagination never pictured atrocities or suffering equal to the scenes so common now throughout the famine region, and what the future has in Btore for them, who can eay ? These ure not reminiscences of the past, but faithful statements of what is, aud what must be, the condition of China for months to come, fora brighter immediate future i B not to be looked for. A full year roust elapse before the natural fruits of the earth or Government and private supplies with the best of management will be able to oope with the requirements, and in the interval China will be decimated. To expect tbe foreign community to continue to any great extent their liberal contributions of the past it, IQ the face of the universal stagnation of trade, unreasonable, and for the future ii must devolve on the benevolently disposed of all nations to alleviate, so far as may be, tbe sorrows and suffering of Cithay. To leave the victims to tbe mercy or enterprise of their rulers, is to leave them to perish, for the central Government is too utterly effete and bankrupt, and its subordinate officials too given to peculation and self-aggrandizement to give us hope that necessity may stimulate them to efficient action. So far tbe aid from this source has been shamefully inadequate and intermittent, consisting very largely in tbe remission or postponement of taxes they would hove found it impossible to collect. Even such material aid aa wbs extended was unavailable through lack of means to transport it, and I know of no sadder satire on the exclusive policy of China than her Government storrs of mouldering grain, starving millions scarce two hundred miles uway, and the rusting rails and moss grown roadbed of the Woosung railroad, as a monument against her. In conclusion 1 may state that tbe toUl foreign aid bo far amounts to 13.016,370 taels, of which America baa contributed a paltry

200 taele. I have done ; and if my story diverts a single dollar from the thousand channels of eporadio charity, — if I convince people that juat now a pound of rice 13 worth a ton of tracts^ or that the prayer of grafitude fiom a wretch saved from death is sweeter than fulsome eulogies from wealthy corporations, than ehall 1 be what now I am not. — Shanghai correspondent of the New York Herald.