CHARLES SEYMOUR, United States Consul to Monday , December 10, 1883 . As this dispatch has been detained over Sunday for interpreter’s translations, I will gladly add that to-day crowds are gathered at the walls reading excellent proclamations from Commissioner Pang and from the magistrates, enjoining order, tranquillity, industry, and good treatment to foreigners. C. S, December 8, 1883

Mr. Seymour to Mr. Young.

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that Canton has, during this week, been thoroughly stirred up by the arrival of Imperial Commissioner Pang and about four thousand Chinese soldiers from the north, and the large sale and circulation of printed matter, purporting to be a proclamation from that official, enjoining upon foreigners to remove their merchandise and property out of the port of Canton, to avert the calamities of war, which seems to be imminent by the aggressive action of France against Annam, over which China claims sovereignty. It has been a week of unusual anxiety among native and foreign merchants and missionaries of all nations or nationalities and denominations, and of general excitement among the Chinese masses, who were led to believe that foreigners must go, and that their merchandise and property were to be legitimate objects of pillage and destruction, and that the imperial commissioner would immediately reverse the policy and action of the viceroy, whom they denounced for his protection of foreigners.

The imperial commissioner arrived in Canton Monday morning, 3d instant, at which time the steamer Whai Yuen landed on Shameen, en route to the city, a thousand soldiers. Instantly the word new from one to another throughout Canton that the imperial commissioner, Pang, had arrived and marched his soldiers through Shameen to let the foreigners understand they must go and that this reservation for foreigners is at an end.

Interviews with the commissioner, Pang, by anti-foreign Chinese of distinction and influence were publicly alleged to have elicited from him decided disapproval of the course of the viceroy.

On the evening of Monday, or early on the morning of Tuesday, 4th instant, the streets of Canton were echoing the shouts of venders of hand-bills purporting to be a proclamation from the commissioner, in Mandarin and English (as per copy inclosed), the said venders causing the populace to believe the commissioner had decreed, in the name of the Emperor, that foreigners must go, and that their merchandise and property would be subject to pillage and destruction, at the expense of France instead of China.

The uninterrupted sale and circulation of those mischievous documents on the public streets from Tuesday morning until Thursday noon deepened the impression that their publication and circulation were authorized,

The Chinese merchants doing business with foreigners were the first to show solicitude for the safety of merchandise or property purchased and ordered for exportation.

The foreign merchants quickly caught alarm for the safety of their merchandise and property and their established business between China and other countries.

The Chinese Christians soon had intimations that after foreigners left Canton vengeance would fall heavily upon the converts.

They rushed to the missionaries for counsel and protection, and thus the entire population became intensely interested in the results. The consulates were quickly sought by many who were deeply concerned about the situation of affairs, and it became necessary to take prompt action to avert serious outrages against native Christians and their chapels, and also the chapels and schools of the various missions, all of which were in jeopardy to such an extent that their doors were kept closed, buildings guarded, and vigilance maintained to prevent pillage and destruction.

On Tuesday a mob gathered at the new “Chinese Doctrine Propagating Hall,” which was built, at an expense of 900 taels, by native converts to Christianity who are in connection with the American Baptist mission.

The hall is located near the river, about midway between Dr. Kerr’s hospital and the Berlin mission house, or between the American Presbyterian and American Baptist mission chapels, in that part of Canton where turbulent elements are abundant.

The mob, under the pretext of provocation on account of the opposition of the preachers at the hall to “ancestral tablets” worship, smashed the windows and doors and other portions of the hall, and on Wednesday, the 5th instant, again returned to the hall and demolished the pulpit, pews, and plastering. Soldiers were sent by the authorities to the rescue, and further injury to the hall was prevented.

On Thursday two chapels and a school-house, in three different parts of the city, and under the auspices of the American Presbyterian mission, in charge of the venerable Rev. Dr. Happer, were threatened with destruction; and if the doors had been opened, those three buildings would doubtless have been immediately destroyed.

The owner of one of the buildings, in terror of the mob, hurried to Dr. Happer and demanded surrender of the lease to save his building from destruction, after a continuous lease of twenty years.

My dispatch of Thursday, 6th instant, to the viceroy, in regard to the American Presbyterian chapels and schools, and dispatch of Friday, 7th instant, asking proclamations for security of the natives’ hall, received satisfactory attention.

On Thursday afternoon, 6th, the influence of the authorities was felt throughout the city in efforts to counteract the effects of the alleged proclamation and to restore order and tranquillity, and by Friday evening, 7th instant, matters became comfortably quiet, and to-day, Saturday, 8th, the anti-foreign rage has completely subsided. Strong proclamations have been issued, and are respected, in favor of tranquillity.

This sudden and welcome subsidence of one of the most formidable outbursts of anti-foreign rage witnessed in Canton during the past seventeen years, based, as was alleged and believed, on the encouragement and leadership of an inferior official invested with high prerogatives and sustained by imperial decree, is one of the marvels of government in a city of over two millions of people without a press. It was generally believed, and is now and yet thought by many well-informed residents who have access to many sources of information, that a proclamation of the nature of the document referred to was actually in preparation or had been prepared, and was either delayed through the reluctance of the viceroy to have it issued or slowness in carving plates for its publication in large letters.

The missionaries, their families and friends, met, to the number of fifty or more, in conference at the house of Rev. Dr. Thompson, one-quarter of a mile east of the hospital, on the evening of Wednesday, 5th instant, and manifested profound solicitude for the safety of their respective missions, and especially for those of the native converts.

An influential committee was appointed to confer with consuls.

Realizing the necessity of prompt action, I prepared and had translated into Chinese a dispatch to the viceroy (as per copy herewith) upon the situation of affairs, on Wednesday evening, for delivery before 9 o’clock Thursday morning at the yamên, thus anticipating the action of that conference.

The consular corps, including consular officers of Great Britain, Germany, France, United States, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, and Denmark, assembled, by request of citizens concerned, at the consular headquarters, in the United States consulate, for consultation, at 5 o’clock p.m., Thursday, 6th instant, when it was agreed that an identical letter should be sent from all of the consulates to the viceroy, after approval of a form to be submitted at an adjourned meeting on Friday noon, 7th instant, at which last meeting the viceroy’s replies and measures, elicited by the United States consul’s dispatch (promising military protection to the threatened chapels and repudiating the unauthorized proclamations, so called), gave all reasonable assurance that order and tranquillity would be restored, and were deemed so satisfactory as to render it unnecessary to make any further communication, although the French consul, probably at the suggestion of the Roman Catholic bishop, who was deeply concerned, had called the viceroy’s attention to the dangers surrounding French residents by the publicity of such tirades against France in Canton.

All residents, and especially the missionaries, feel that the timely arrest of the excitement, in response to the United States consul’s dispatch of the 5th instant, delivered to the viceroy early on the morning of the 6th instant, averted serious outrages, against native and foreign Christians, and perhaps prevented other deplorable acts, of a mob. It was one of those cases where or in which remonstrance took effect in time to prevent great harm.

I take pleasure in making record of the facts, as it affords renewed proof of the purpose of the viceroy to maintain in good faith and full force the stipulations of treaty or treaties for the security of foreigners and their interests, and also to prevent the-persecution of natives, as well as foreigners, of the Christian faith.

Hoping that Canton may long be spared from another and similar visitation of rage and excitement against foreigners and Christians,

I am, &c.,