us transferring the _onus_ of opposition to
their customers. These last paid a threatening visit to the chief
authority of Pakhoi, and then wrecked the newly established tax-office.
This indication of popular feeling was enough for the local authorities
at Lien-chou, the district city, and the tax was changed so as to fall
on the foreign opium, the illicit native supply being discreetly
ignored, and all rioters forgiven."

So much for taxation. Let us take an instance of interference with
prescriptive rights, in connection with the great incorruptible viceroy,
Chang Chih-tung, to whom we are all so much indebted for his attitude
during the Siege of the Legations in 1900.

Ten years ago, when starting his iron-works at Wuchang, in the province
of Hupeh, he ordered the substitution of a drawbridge over a creek for
the old bridge which had stood there from time immemorial, the object
being to let steamers pass freely up and down. Unfortunately, the old
bridge was destroyed before the new one was ready. What was the result?

"The people rushed to the Yamen, and insisted by deputation and
mass-brawling on the restoration of the bridge.

"Finally, the viceroy thought it worth his while to issue a rhyming
proclamation, assuring the people that what he was doing was for their
good, and justifying his several schemes."

Yet Chang Chih-tung always has been, and is still, one of the strongest
officials who ever sat upon a viceroy's throne.

In November, 1882, there was a very serious military riot in Hankow, on
the opposite side of the Yang-tsze to Wuchang. It arose out of a report
that four soldiers had been arrested and were to be secretly beheaded
the same night. This rising might have assumed very serious dimensions,
but for the prompt submission of the viceroy to the soldiers' demands.
As it was, the whole city was thrown into a state of the utmost alarm.
Few of the inhabitants slept through the night. The streets were filled
with a terror-stricken population, expecting at any moment to hear that
the prison doors had been forced, and the criminals let loose to join
the soldiers in their determination to kill the officials, plunder the
treasury, and sack the city. Many citizens are said to have fled from
the place; and the sudden rush upon the _cash_ shops, to convert paper
notes into silver, brought some of them to the verge of bankruptcy.

I have recorded, under March, 1891, a case in which several Manchus were
senten