The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-01 00:00:00

THE NEW CONVENTION WITH CHINA

MONDAY.

This afternoon a numerous deputation of China merchants

had an interview with Lord C larendon at the Foreign-
office, resrecting the new conventien with China,
Amongst those in attendance were the following mem-
bers of Parliament :—Mr. Mathcson, Mr. Crawford,
Mr. C. Turner, Mr. Graves, Mr. M'Laren, Colonel
Akroyd, Mr. Eaton, Alderman Larwence, lion. A. Kinnaird,
Mi. Jacob Bright, Mr. Rathbone, Colonel Sykes, Mr. Hugh
Burley, Mr. 0. Morgan, A, r. Loch, Mr. Jardine, Mr. Mathe-
son, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Shuttleworti, Mr. Bowing, C. 8., Mr.
Baring, Mr. Maguire, Mr. P. Rylande, Mr. Hermon, Mr. M.
O. ()lure, and Mr. G. Melley.
Mr. Matheson, M.P., Mr. Bower, Mr.• Maguire, M.P., and
Mr. Gillman addresed his lordship at great long•th on the
subject. A n emorial was also tresented to hint, w hich,
tfta• dealing with the new Convention, which it
is proposed to adopt instead of the Treaty of
Tientsiu of 1858, concluded by saying the bone-
dts proposed to be conferred upon British trade by
this Convention are wholly inadeqietto to counterbalance the
disadvantages invelvi.l in the withdrawl of rights and
privi eges secured by former treaties, and the impo-
sitlo of the add tional duties to which we have
taken excel thou. The concessions to China are
either in the form of a mom y payment, or they are the re-
tiequishinent by this country of valuable commerei»l or
pAnical privileges ; while the. equivalents offered, with the
trifling exception of the duty on t,ome minor articles, are
either nominal, or they are plainly of equal advantage to
the subjects of both nations. The Convention forms
the first disfinet'evidenee of a retrograde policy in China,
than which nothing can be more unwise, looking to the pains
aud sacrifice s with whirls our present commercial position has
l!en attaiaed. In this labour of a generation Great Britain
has over token the foremost place, and as she has sought no
special privileges for herself all foreign nations have reaped
the benefits of her enterprise. To abandon any of the ad-
ventao•es thus acquired seems to your memorialists most
suicidal: to hold them at the pleasure or subject to the
intrigues of possibly unfriendly neighbours, not
less so. In these considerations your memorialist
Bud additional and cogent reasons for urging a
reconsideration of much that has a place in the
Convention. If alteration is found impossible, they are con-
vinced it would prove more advantageous to thel interests of
this country to tall back upon the Treaty of Tientsin, while
I requiring a better observance of its provisions.
Lord CuatExDoN replied in a speech of considerable
length. He was not prepared, he-- said,, for the unqualified
terms in which the Convention had been condemned.
It was a mistake to suppose that Sir Rutherford Alcock bad
acted in haste, or without sufficient information. It was
also a mistake to suppose tht,t Mr. Hart, or any of the gen-
tlemen who composed what might be called the committee of
management for the Chinese Government, had had anything
to do with the. treaty in a sense hostile to British
i., (crest. As to the concessions which Lord Elgin obtained
from the Chinese Government, they must recollect there was
not one sieglo thing which was not tin willingly given ; there
was nothing which they did not consider was extorted front
them by force, and at the cannon's month. The Chinese
looked upon the Treaty of Tientsin not as au advantage
but as a degradation. lJndoubt .dly they had derived bene-
fit from it, and they had acted up to it, but it was
to a great extent because it had been enforced.
If they had allowed it to proceed in the usual
way, the same as with other countries, ho believed
net much of it would have fallen into desuetude, They
must remember that Laving a treaty with China they placed
her in the rank of c vilized nations and they must treat her
as au equal dealing with equal. They must endeavour no
longer to carry things by force, but to act as they
would with France or Austria, by mutual concessions.
An opinion had been expressed that Sir Rutherford
Alcock had made ell the concessions, and that the
Chinese had given them nothing as an equivoleut ; but they
must not forget the difficulties with which any concession
could be had. It had Leen said that a concession had
been made reducing the duty on tea ; but it could not be
pretended that this was done for the benefit of the Chinese
any more than it was for the benefit of Italy. His lordship
then dealt with the details of the question, his general
opinion being that the Convent on was framed, as well a.s
it could be, in the interees of England. However, it was
not yet ratified, and ho was glad to have heard, the vicev
of the depu!ation.

THE WELSH FASTING GIRL.
Pn Monday all the medical men connected with tin
elsh fasting-girl case appeared before the justices foi
,he Lianfihangel-ar-arth division, at Llandyssil, tc
answer a charge of "wilfully killing and slaying " Sarah
Jacobs. This prosecution is instituted by the Govern-
ment, who are represented by Mr. Coleridge, of the South
Wales circuit. The names of the doctors summoned are
Mr. J. Lewis, AL D., Mr. J. P. Rowlands, surgeon,
and Mr. J. Hughes, surgeon, all of Carmarthen the
fourth is Mr. Davies, surgeon, of Llandyssil. Of these,
Mr. Hughes sent in a written resignation the day before
the child died, and Mr.• Rowlands is understood to have
tendered a resignation of some kind • nevertheless both
have been summoned. A summons hasi also been issued
against the mother. At the assizes, Mr. Giffard, Q.C.,
leads for the prosecution ; Mr. Bowen and Mr. Michael
are for the defence.
Mr. Coleridge opened the case for the Crown. IL
stated that the matter had been deemed by the law officers
deserving of a most searching inquiry by a, proper tribunal.
The girl's mother, he went on to say, has been summoned
here, because, although by general rule of law the wife
was not liable for her acts if she was under a husband's
control, still he could prove that in this instance the wife
acted independently, taking the initiative in withholding
food from the deceased child. The intention had been to
summon the committee who devised the plan for watching
the sick girl, but the summoning of the doctors met
the exigencies of the case as they undertook responsibi-
lity from the committee. The child was watched in a
manner sufficient to prevent food reaching her, and the
Government accordingly charged the doctors with doing,
and the parents with conniving at, acts which must have
resulted in death. Dr. Phillips, of Guy's, made very sen-
sible suggestions for detecting the imposture without
making the girl's chances of reco'very precarious, but the
doctors who had entered into an illegal contract under.
te-ik to subject the girl to a painful trial, and
failed to protect her during the trial. They
had every facility afforded them. There was even
an agreement stamped, • handing over the body of the
child to the committee, and the committee not only
w itched to see whether the child got food, but took care
that she had none. Doctors who knew the result of long
abstinence failed to do what men, of experience should
have done. Mr. Davies and Dr. Lewis believed in the
fasting. If other doctors did not believe in it, their con-
duct was most culpable, because, knowing the ill result,
they neglected to prevent it. Nothing was offered to the
child till she was in extremis, when too late. When the
nurses arrived, Dr. Lewis told them not to offer the
child food iinlhss asked, but not to prevent the parents
giving her food. So far, this fact was good for the doctors
but bad for the parents. Mr. Fitzwilliams asked how the
doctors were responsible under those directions. Mr.
Coleridge said the object was to get exhaustive investiga-
tion to satisfy the public and protect people in remote
districts. The nurses were to advise the doctors if there
was danger, thus the responsibility shifted from the
nurses to the doctors. On the Tuesday before
death the vicar of the parish, in spite of his
credulity, saw a change for the worse, and he advised
the parents to give food. They refused, and Doctor
Correllis came and said, " There is a chance for it." If
there was only a chance, the watching should have
been stopped., and the child treated medically. The day
before the child's death the clergyman was very much of
this opinion. So was Dr. Davies ; but the latter did not
order food. He went to telegraph for medical consulta-
eon, and everything was sacrificed to what was called the
interests of science. That day Dr, Hughes resigned very
creditably ; but he should have gone a step further, and
called in the law to administer food if necessary. It was
the duty of one fellow Christian to stand by another, see-
ing that justice was done. On the Friday everybody was
much frightened, as the girl appeared to be dying. It was
now too late to give food. The parents never offered anyto
the girl. The child cried for her father, and not satisfied by
the father's presence, gasped out the words,' Bottle, bottle."
The theory was that she cried for the nurse's eau de
cologne bottle, but it probably was not for that but for
another bottle, which the father may have been accus-
tomed to give her something out of. When people were
conspiring together for an unlawful purpose, and death
happened, they were guilty of manslaughter. The
doctors, having accepted the invitation of the committee
constituted for an illegal purpose, were in the conspi-
racy to do the illegal act. No food could pos-
sibly reach the child ; yet what did the doctors do
Nothing ! On the day of her death Dr. Davies said he
was frightened but did nothing. The nurses were simply
carrying out the doctors' behests ; were simply unskilled
people in the hands of men supposed to be skilful, and
who had assumed responsibility. One nurse sug-
gested offering something, but she was not allowed to do
so. Dr. Davies left the child, and went to her uncle, told
him what he dreaded, and wished him to go to the house
and persuade the people there to give food instead of doing it
himself. It might have been done by the stomach-pump,
Or by injection through the nostrils. Nothing was done.
The uncle at last gave the child water, but too late. The
poor girl at last died. He wished to impress on the minds
of his hearers the fact that an illegally-constituted com-
mittee had decided to do an act which might result in
death. The illegal purpose was carried out, and death
ensued. It was a conspiracy of the whole lot for the sake
of curiosity and of science. It was hard to say which was
most guilty, the believers, or those who, disbelieving, al-
lowed matters to go to their inevitable and fatal end. The
believers in the case, however, being ignorant, had the
excuse that eYly did believe.
Mr. Fitzwilliaul! said that the fallacy of Mr. Colerige's
argument consisted in showing the impossibility of a
person who was in a norms! state living without food -
whereas this was the case of a person in an abnorma.

state.
Mr. Coleridge said eight days' abstinence was thelongest
known.

Dr. Lewis : Oh, dear no.
Mr. Coleridge : In a normal state, I mean.
Mr. Fitzwilhams said he had found a number of fasting
eases in the Encyclopaedia. His brother-in-law had told
him when in India, of a Fakir who was buried for a month
under his tent in a box, and at the end of that period,
although nothin,g had been given him, for the brother-in-
law slept all night and not all day over him, the Fakir
was alive.

Dr. Lewis : I am glad to hear you cite those cases.
Mr. Fitzwilliam also referred to the case related forty

years ago by Dr. Gordon Smith.
Mr. Coleridge : If the Fakir had been tried at Pencade
he would have had to give in. Mr. Fitzwilliams cited
similar cases of thirty-two days' abstinence, certified to
by several general officers.
Mr. Coleridge : This is a case of two years.
Mr. Fitzwilliams said Mr. Coleridge's argument was
good with regard to a person normally healthy, but not to
a person in an abnormal condition.

Coleridge said so much doubt existed that the
ca3e ought to go before a judge, scientific men, and a jury.
Mr. Fitzwilliams : I would never willingly send to a
foolish -Welsh jury such a question.
Dr. Lewi.3 contradicted Mr. Coleridge's statement that
ho had believed in the fasting; he had never believed it.
Mr. Coleridge said it was certainly a great hardship
for doctors to be committed for trial. The case was so no-

torious, however, that exhaustive investigation was neces-

nary ; it could be had at the assizes
Mr. Fitzwilliams said the bench could not commit
exlept on good evidence. - So far a case was made only
against, one or two doctors, and no case at all against

ot?ier,

_
Mr. Hughes, surgeon, said he came unprepared with
legal advice, believing that he could trust to the Crown
officers of the Court. He applied for a •few days more as
an adjournment to enable him to get counsel.
Mr. Coleridge said the Crown would be the last to refuse
reasonable applications. The object was to get a bill be-
fore the grand jury at the assizes ' • application for adjourn-
ment then would not be opposed.
The case was finally adjourned till Thursday.