its influence a German, who had a grievance with the Siamese government, started the Mercantile Gazette; he made things hot all along the line, made his paper readable, but he was soon arrested for libeling the Siamese by publishing an article clipped from an English paper and other assaults on the King. He was tried before the German consul, fined and imprisoned; the Gazette then shortly followed the others, his speculation proved a failure, but another paper has been started with the same material, possibly to share the same fate.
The Siamese have, strictly speaking, no regular newspaper, only a Government Gazette, printed in Siamese, which contains court proceedings, proclamations, ceremonies, promotions, etc., containing no political or other news of importance, and has but a limited circulation. A native journal was started by Noi Plang, a well educated Siamese, who had passed a very creditable examination at the English bar and who acts as one of the advisors of the government. His paper was rapidly becoming popular, but his remarks were trenching on dangerous grounds, in fact he had commenced to advocate that the Chinese were becoming too numerous in Siam, which was something that His Majesty thought should be let alone, so his paper venture was ripped in the bud just as it was blossoming out into usefulness. Mr. Smith, the editor of the defunct Advertiser, edits and publishes a Siamese paper from his office which is interesting from the native correspondence appearing in its columns. It has no life in it and is but little read. A monthly journal is published under the auspices of one of the leading nobles, which aims at Western ideas in its
