SHOCKING OUTRAGE IN CHINA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIX, Issue 31100, 23 October 1876, Page 2

SHOCKING OUTRAGE IN CHINA.

A Congregation Murdered. The ' Shanghai Courier ' says :- — We published a rumour some few days back of a terrible onslaught upon the Catholis Christians in Ning-kuoh Fu,~ in the province of Ngauhwuy, when a crowd of about a thousand soldiers and ruffians, under the guidance of officials, burst into a chapel during divine service, and brained numbers of the congregation. This has been since confirmed. Our authority now is a gentleman to whom the horrible details were recounted by one of the French piiests. It seems that the men entered the chapel, of course interrupting the service, and demanded of the officiating priest, an Italian gentleman, that he should cease promulgating the doctrines of the T'ien-chu sect. The priest naturally declined to promise anything of the sort, whereupon a scene of indescribable uproar ensued, during which the most frightful outrages occurred. The priest was tortured, and eventually put to death, being hacked to pieces ; a little child, whom he had adopted, was torn limb from litnb, and the corpse of another Father, who, happily for him, died previously, was taken from his coffin and brutally illused. The members of the Inland Mission have all left the neighbourhood, and the Roman Catholics now have a guard round their house. The origin of this truly diabolical outrage is fixed upon a military mandarin named Wu, who has openly expressed his malignant hatred of the religion of Christ. The priest in charge of the mission proceeded by steamer on the 2nd, accompauied by three officials, to Wuhn, to institute inquiries. Three other priests are said to be missing. We understand that Vicomte Brenier de Moutmorand, Minister for France, goes up to Nanking to-morrow morning (the 6th) it is' said to see the Viceroy respecting the massacre at Ningkuoh Fu.