The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-19 00:00:00

UR RELATIOIV3 WITH CHINA,

An important correspondence concerning the relations
between Great Britain and China has been published. The
most important of these diplomatic communications is a
letter addressed by Lord Clarendon to Mr. .Anson Bur-
lingame, the chief of the Chinese Embassynow in Europe.
In this letter our Foreign Minister lays down the substance
of a conversation with Mr. Burlingame respecting the
views of the Chinese Government as to its foreign rela-
tions. Alluding to the object of the Chinese mission to
Europe, Lord Clarendon says that at his interview
with Mr. Burlingame he understood that the Chinese
Government were fully alive to the advantage, if not the
necessity, of extending the relations of the Celestial
Empire with foreign countries, but that with all this they
felt that any attempt abruptly to introduce new systems
or new ideas among a people whose knowledge of foreign
nations was of recent date, and who had been brought up
under a traditional system, would not only produce con-
fusion and even revolution in the country, but would tend
to retard instead of promoting progress. Our Foreign
Minister fully recognises on the part of England the
wisdom of not pressing the Chinese to rapid and preju-
dicial changes, but adds that her Majesty's Govern-
ment expected from China a faithful observance
of the stipulations of existing treaties. He con-
tinues : " But her Majesty's Government are, more-
over, entitled to expect from China, as an indispensable
condition of their goodwill, the fullest amount of protection
to British subjects resorting to her dominions. They are
aware that the Provincial Governors are too often in the
habit of disregarding the rights of foreigners, trusting to
impunity as regards the Central Government of Peking, and
to the unwillingness of foreign Powers to assert the rights of
their subjects by local pressure. Her Majesty's Govern-
ment feel that they are acting in the interest of the
Chinese Empire, when they announce their preference for
an appeal rather to the Central Government than to local
authorities for the redress of wrongs done to British
subjects. It is with the Central Government, and
not with the provincial authorities, that foreign Powers
have entered into treaties, and it is for the interest of the
Central Government that foreign Powers should recognise
its supreme authority over its provincial governors, and
that the Central Government should assume, and, on all
occasions when appealed to for the redress of local wrongs,
be prepared to exercise that authority. It rests with the
Central Government so to order its intercourse with Great
Britain and the Queen's subjects as to avoid cause of
difference. I have only to add, that all her Majesty's
agents in China have been instructed to act in the spirit
and with the objects which I have just explained to you;
and generally to caution British subjects to pay due
respect not only to the laws of the empire, but, as far as
may be, to the feelings and usages of the Chinese people."
In reply, Mr. Burlingame agrees as to the general accu-
racy of these deductions from the conversation between
himself and Lord Clarendon. He adds that Lord
Clarendon's explicit declaration will give great satisfac-
tion to the Chinese Government. Copies of these letters
were sent to four of our representatives abroad. In ad-
dressing Sir Rutherford Alcock, our Ambassador at Peking
on this important matt,r, Lord Clarendon says : " You will
observe in Mr. Burlingame's letter that he clearly under-
stands that force may be at once employed " to protect life
and property immediately exposed." When, these being
secured, the question at issue has been referred to Peking
to he diplomatically discussed between her Majesty's
representative and the Central Government, the manner
in which the matter should thereafter be dealt with, if
it could not be amicably settled on the spot, would
necessarily be left to the decision of her Majesty's ,
Government.

THE ATTACK UPON ENGLISH MISSIONARIES

AT YA:STa--C HO NV .
These principles are applied to the consideration of the
practical case of the outrage on missionaries at Yang-
chow. Respecting, this affair, Lord Stanley addressed
our Ambassador in general terms, hoping that missionaries
would act with the greatest circumspection, and do their
utmost to avoid occasion of collision. Lord Clarendon,
writing January 14th, says that Sir R. Alcock
properly referred the assault on these missionaries
to the Central Government for redress. But the Foreign
Secretary cannot approve of the interference of the naval
force to threaten and intimidate the local authorities,
irrespective of the demand upon the Central Government
for redress. The active interference of the naval forces
should only be in cases of sudden emergency. In another
despatch Lord Clarendon gives further instructions to the
employment of force :—" I have to instruct you (Sir
R. Alcock) to explain to her Majesty's consuls
that the special purposes for which her Majesty's
ashni of
dps
employedwar are'on stationed
theo in h
coasts are
atree
tpoorptsretoefotChtihnea
floating commerce of British subjects against piratical
attacks in Chinese waters, to support her Majesty's
consuls in maintaining order and discipline among the
crews of British vessels in the respective ports, and, in
cases of great emergency, to protect the lives and proper-
ties of British subjects, if placed in peril by wanton
attacks directed against them either on the part of local
authorities or by an uncontrolled popular movement.
As regards this last point, her Majesty's consul must
constantly bear in mind that the interference of naval
force, either on their representation or on the part of
naval officers acting on their own estimation of facts before
them, will alone receive the subsequent approval of her
Majesty's Government when it is clearly shewn that with-
out such interference the lives and properties of British
probability have been sacrificed; and
evensubjeicntsenwo'ho
ualdcian all
llier Majesty's Government will expect
to learn that the alternative of receiving them onboardship,
and so extricating them from threatened danger, was
not available. Her Majesty's Government cannot leave
with her Majesty's consuls or naval officers to determine
for themselves what redress or reparation for wrong done
to British subjects is due, or by what mean it should be
enforced. They cannot allow them to determine whether
coercion is to be applied by blockade, by reprisals, by
landing armed parties, or by acts of even a more hostile
character."

TESTIMONIAL TO Ma. KENDALL, EX-M.P. FOR
EAST CORNWALL. —A large meeting of leading Liberal
and Conservative politicians assembled at Lostwithiel on
Thursday, and presented Mr. Nicholas Kendall, late Con-
servative member for East Cornwall, who was obliged to
retire from the contest at the last election, with a hundred
guinea salver, on his leaving the country for Gibraltar.
Twelve hundred rounds have already been subscribed, and
the list will remain open for another fortnight, lupp_tio
montzigatiparidsxra kt.air,ituidall. s'