The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-22 00:00:00

" Paris, 73, Rue de l'Universite, Feb. 18, 1860.

"My dear friend,—Nothing is spoken of here but
the objections raised against that article of the
treaty which regards the exportation of coals ; and
I take the liberty of writing you a few words on
the subject. It is a subject with which lam per-
fectly familiar—and by this I mean that I am not
only familiar with the subject itself, but that I am
also acquainted with everything that has occurred
in reference to this portion of the treaty between
the two Governments.

" The assertion put forward is to the effect, that
we should he prevented from carrying on a mari-
time war if deprived of English coal ; or, in other
terms, that we obtain the means of carrying on a
maritimo war by being allowed to lay in a stock of
English coal.
" This is a gross mistake respecting fact. France
has fewer coal mines than England, but is not
wholly destitute of them ; tho greater part of her
mines are at a distance from the coast ; but by
means of our canals and our railways, now almost
completed, the distance may be got over without
too great expense. I have made calculations, from
which it results that the French coal sold in our
maritime arsenals (Brest, Cherbourg, Lorient, Roche-
fort) would not cost more than 10s. the ton (1,000
kilogrammes) above the English coal, and that some-
times the difference in price would not be more than
ss. In time of war the increased expense might,
perhaps, amount to 10 million francs in the year.
Even doubling that sum, would such an increase of
expense render a maritime war an impossibility P
In time of peace the Atlantic fleet, with the im-
mense forges of Brest, Sze., only costs five
millions for coal.

"In the Mediterranean the case is still'stronger.
There the English coal is as dear as the coal of
Alai's (Gard), of Bessegeir (Gard), and of Grais-
sessac (Herault). Lastly, England has an interest
in the two contracting parties being allowed freely
to export their coal ; for our coals in the south
(Alais, Bessegeir, Graissessac, and even sometimes
Rive de Gie) might be found extremely convenient
for its Mediterranean fleets. _ _ _

„..
” And, also, we can obtain the Belgian coal ex-
tremely abundant and extremely good.
" Thus the pretext invented :by the English
Protectionists is absurd ; it is directly contradicted
by the facts ; they are, in reality, pursuing, but one
end—that of sowing distrust and irritation between
two great nations

" This course of the Tories is in fact provoking
on the part of England an unfriendly act towards
us. The rejection of the article of the treaty would
be an unfriendly act, and it would be taken for
such in France. The cry would be raised of Per-
fidious Albion !' Our great manufacturers would
exclaim that they have been duped about the re-
duction in the export duties on English coal.
" The moral and political effect expected from
the treaty : the drawing closer together of two
great nations, would not be attained.
" And this would be the case even were the art
tide to be struck out from the treaty, with the con-
sent of the French Government.—Ever yours,
" MICHEL CHEVALIER,"

11118 DAY'S MARKETS.

CHINA.—EXPLANATION.
;The Earl of SELKIRK moved That a humble address
be presented to her Majesty for copies or extracts of letters
from the Earl of Elgin to the Earl of Maltnesbury, No. 103,
dated the 9th of May, 1858, respecting affairs in Chins,
with enclosures ; No. 107, dated the 11th of May, 1858,
with enclosures ; No. 110, dated the 15th of May, 1858,
with enclosures ; No. 112, dated the 20th of May, 1858,
with enclosures ; and from the Earl of Elgin to the Earl of
Clarendon, No. 99, dated the 28th of April, with enclosures ;
and No. 100, with enclosures."
Tho Earl of ELGIN—I do not rise to object to the mo-
tion, but as the papers, foi which the noble lord has moved,
relate to a matter affecting myself, not in the position I now
hold as a moinlier of the Government, but in the position I
occupied in China, I trust I may be permitted to address to
your lordships a very few words by way of personal explana-
tion. lam not in the habit of trespassing on your lord-
ships' attention, and therefore I hope that when I proffer
this request, as I do most reluctantly, and only from the
conviction that an explanation is essential to vindicate my
character and conduct, I shall meet with your lordships'
indulgence. lam aware of the great inconvenience, and,
as a general rule, of the great impropriety of referring in
this house to what passes in another place. At the same
time I cannot help thinking that my position as ex- Minister
to China, snore especially in the present critical state of
I our relations with that country, is one of a somewhat
peculiar and anomalous character, and this may perhaps
justify me in the expectation of receiving something more
than an ordinary measure of indulgence from your lord-
ships. It does so happen that both Administrations—the
one from which I received my first official instructions,
and the other under which my important duties were per-
formed—have passed from their political state of existence.
At the present moment, therefore, there is no person in
office who is personally cognisant of many of the transac-
tions which occurred during the greater part of my mission
in China, or who is able from his own knowledge to answer
any inquiry that may be made, or to remove any erroneous
impression that those transactions may have produced.
Perhaps I may be allowed to mention, in illustration of what
I mean, that a few days ago, when it was asked in the
House of Commons with something like a taunt and a jeer,
why the noble lord who negotiated the treaty of Tien-tsin
did not himself proceed to Pekin to exchange the ratifica-
tions, if there had been in the ether house any official per..
son qualified as I have described,the answer might have been
given that, in point of fact, I was never charged with the
ratification of the treaty, that the treaty was never placed
in my possession, that I never had the option of going to
Pekin. (Hear, hear.) Ido not mean in making that state-
ment to cast the slightest reflection upon my noble friends
opposite for the course they adopted in regard to the treaty
of Tien-tsin. On the contrary, I think they acted properly
and naturally in charging the Minister who was to remain
permanently in China with the duty of exchanging the ra-
tifications of the treaty; but. I venture to say that, if the
question to which I have alluded implied any insinuation,
if it implied—as I suspect from the manner in which it
was
put it did imply—any doubt as to my willingness and readi-
ness to discharge a difficult and disagreeable portion of my
mission, its sting would have been removed by such an
answer as I have now stated. Upon another occasion, when
some very severe reflections were cast upon me by an hon.
gentleman whom I do not consider to be quite responsible
for those reflections, because I real them, as well as the
greater part of the rest of his speech, in an American review
some days before he addressed the House of Commons—
when I was charged, almost in the words of an article
of which 1 think I am capable of saying who the
author was, with having shown undue harshness to
the Chinese, and with having pressed demands upon them
which some of the representatives of other nations did not
eenture to put forward, my accuser might have been re-
minded that I did not go to China without instructions that
it was not altogether a matter of choice to me whether I
should snake this or that demand upon the Chinese Govern-
ment, and, above all, that 1 should have assumed a serious
responsibility if I had abstained from pressing the demand
for a resident Minister in Pekin in the face of the positive
and peremptory instructions that if I were forced to have re-
course to coercive measures, I was not to make a permanent
arrangement with the Government of China, by which was
meant, I presume, because we always use euphemisms in
speaking of China, that I was not to make peace with China
except after having obtained that concession. Here, again,
I do not mean to rest the justification of my demand for a
resident Minister in Pekin upon the fact that such was my
instruction. I am ready to justify that demand upon its
merits, for I am confident that if we intend to maintain per-
manent pacific relations with some 400,000,00 G of the human
race, scattered over a country some 1,500 miles long 13,3 c as
many broad, if we intend that our merchants shall 9ona
their trade and commerce with that vast populationr
anin pe.aecre,
in some shape or other, under some modification. 0.
theottn.
at we must establish direct diplomatic relations Itn
11
te_ propriety of the demand that I should hamvons,
but because
penal Government of Pekin. It is not becaou,srlrislheddouabnt the
planation to be given in the House of Corn
f having been unduly
tinted would at least
11 I think the answer which I have gges
5 have relieved me from the imputation
so
.the Chinese and from
is
22 the still graver imputation
harsh and severe in rnycondutch-tatot
14thaerdspint indicated by the
other nations. These incon-
veniences 3 by the representativ.esl
o felt by me last year, because at
toned my despatches was tfotally different from that evinced
venieuces were very Met
whiche surrounded all the results of
no doubt, many of the proceedings
'were fairly open to inquiry—mdse-
posed
(I,2ute tnhiyatritiiimsseioan_cearittaninonhgehl
toYobjections or to indulge in eritieism
calamity has occurred, and it is per-
fectly
persons I w! stzoar
time are very diffe-
so rent.
feetly natural Ave -and right that the acts of the diplomatic
Lea But the circumstanceserPsaar: of the present
25 agents who have been employed in China for some time
19 past
state of affairs, be open to investigation and censure. Ido
:1 not complain of that. All I ask is that when lam attacked
where I have not the means of defending myself, I may be
t3outha.• ..., overdue excused if I take the liberty of snaking my defence in this
overdue your lordships for permission place, and if I appeal to • to do
Souer
....
so. (Hear.) With respect to the particular subject re-
Livpeoltherly. ,
fared to in the despatches which have been moved for by
Liverpool.. Feb. my noble friend opposite, I shall only say that it has given
Soathamp. me more pain and distress than all the other circumstances
which occurred in connection with my mission put together.
I gather from the usual sources of information that a gal-
lant admiral with whom I was associated in the discharge
of very important duties in China naturally took advantage
of an opportunity afforded to him by a discussion upon
Chinese affairs some short time ago in the House of Com-
mons to enter into a review of all the transactions in which
he had been engaged in China, from the commencement of
the unfortunate affair of the lorcha Arrow down to she
termination of his connection with that country ; and in
the course of that review he gave his own version of
the
the
circumstances which prevented him from supplyirs
ba the north of China in April, 18:58, with that
part l
the
description of force—namely, gunboats drawing
water—for which I had applied, which I certainly_ under-
stood him to have promised, and which I conpidere_d. to
be essential to enable me to carry out the policy which
I was suckayourihg to pow ill that quarters I car..