and fireworks, and thronged by the entire Chinese population. I was everywhere received with profound respect; and I have rarely seen a more orderly and good-humoured crowd.
THE FRENCH MILITARY OPERATIONS IN TONQUIN.
(From our Special Correspondent.)
Haiphong, Jan 21.
Since the date of my last letter no event of consequence has transpired here. It was at one time considered probable that Admiral Courbet would venture an attack on Bacninh during the month, but it is now certain that no operations of importance in that direction will be undertaken before the arrival of the first half of the six thousand new reinforcements now on their way out, and which will probably arrive here about the end of the first week of next month. General Millot, who is to arrive with the first batch, will, on his arrival, take supreme command of the land forces, and it is to be hoped he will relax the strong position towards correspondents which has been experienced by journalistic representatives in Tonquin during the régime of Admiral Courbet.
The attack on Bacninh will be the climax of the campaign, and, independent of its military bearing, will be of considerable political importance, as it must of necessity bring to a crisis the present unsettled position of affairs between France and China. Owing to the action taken by Admiral Courbet on the occasion of the taking of Sontai, the position of newspaper correspondents here, who have had to bear the hardships of the campaign, was, as far as their ability to forward particulars of the affair was concerned, decidedly inferior to that of those who could "sit at home at ease" in Hongkong, as, in addition to the effectual bar put upon their going with the troops to Sontai, the first intelligence of the result of the attack was sent through by the Admiral from Sontai to Hongkong without stoppage either at Hanoi, the real headquarters, or Haiphong.
Should the same course be adopted next month on the occasion of the operations against Bacninh, special correspondents will again be "out of it," but it is scarcely to be expected that the military authorities will again set aside a steam-launch and a gunboat simply to get the intelligence of the result to Hongkong before it is possible for any civilian to forward a letter. If the same steps are again taken, for no advantageous result, I, for one, shall certainly wish myself back to my comfortable desk in Hongkong, with a French despatch boat to bring me the news of the capture of the last grand stronghold.
Several unimportant reconnaissances have been made from Sontai and Hanoi recently, and it has been clearly proved that the Black Flags, although beaten, have not altogether retired from the field of the campaign. On the 9th inst., a column which was sent out from Hanoi exchanged shots for an hour or so with a force of Chinese on the Bacninh side, but as the river rolled between, and it was a game at "long bowls," little or no damage was done or received, and the column returned to Hanoi without any casualties.
Enclosure.
Several new steam-launches have arrived here recently, so that river communication is considerably facilitated. Among the last arrivals is the steam-tug Heron, belonging to Mr Nils Müller, of Shanghai. I hear it is probable that she may be bought by the government. Two extra boats are to be put upon the Haiphong and Saigon line by the M.M.S.S. Co., which will provide for a weekly mail between the two places, and it is also probable that within a month the telegraph line between the two ports will be completed.
M. Tricou, ex-minister to China, left for Europe by the S.S. Saigon, on the 13th inst. I have been enabled to obtain an account of his recent mission to Hué from one of his staff, and I give you a free translation of the document, which, although a poetical panegyric sung to the glory of the returning minister, is rather a literary curiosity in its way, and gives an interesting account of the first public audience accorded to a European ambassador by the King of Annam.
"Despatched by the Government of the Republic on a mission extraordinary to Hué to obtain the recognition by the new King of the treaty concluded on the 25th Aug. 1883, M. Tricou was fortunate enough to receive from the new court a declaration of acknowledgment of the treaty, and the disposition of the government was such that he was enabled to obtain a public audience solemnly ratifying the diplomatic instrument required by France.
This is a real success, inasmuch as the Marquis Tseng had circulated false reports tending to insinuate that the cause of the last revolution in the palace was the non-recognition by the Celestial Empire of the treaty acknowledging the protectorate of France, a report which it behoved us to deny most emphatically. This has been proved by the mission of M. Tricou, a mission which has succeeded beyond all expectation, since after having obtained from the Annamite government that which was required of it, M. Tricou has been favoured with a solemn audience, the following details of which have been furnished by an eye-witness.”
The day fixed for the ceremony was the 5th January. During the morning the glacis which separate the walls of the citadel of Hué from the river bank were covered with people, curious to see the foreigners who, for the first time, had obtained entrance within the walls of their capital inviolate, and anxious to know what would be the consequences of this unprecedented departure from Annamite customs. On our side, at the French legation, all was upside down. The troops formed in line in the short passage which separated the principal entrance to the legation from the landing place. The two cannon which had been brought from Thuan-an at the time of the alarm on the death of the old King Hiep-hon, were pointed towards the citadel from either side of the steps which descend to the river.