The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-14 00:00:00

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[PRIOR 4D.' "SiimPip'

to make. The policy of France is altered since the
days. When one of the -missionaries sneeringly 41e-
-scribed it as '.' Protection de nos missomaires
natiortaux, honneur du pavilion, surete des equi-
pages ; main pas tin coup de canon." Baron Gros
1145 to demand 'satisfaction for the life of la French
'inflect who was most barbarously murdered by per-,
sons iu actual official, auttiorify ; satisfaction which
has been for two Yeats Constantly denied to a con=
tinned series of demands tinbacked by force. Ho
will probably think himself' entitled, demand
some security against a recurrence of such outrages.
So that, in the end, our requisitions upon the
Chinese Government will probably not be farfrom
identical.
After what I have written upon the subject, you
will not be surprised to find rue rejoicieg 'that the
united Plenipotentiaries have come 'Over to the com-
mon-sense view of the way in which these demands
-should be made. I never could under Stand how it
could be more consistent with diploniatic etiquette
to send our-missives:to the Emperor by the hands
Of a petty buttonless:Mandarin at the mouth of a
ljttle muddy river, rather than by tlie hands of the
man whose position is that of Secretary for aff4irs
with foreign maritime nations.: Secla is Yet-4'A office.
To use a lawyer's phrase, service upon him is Lzg
good service upon the . Emperor as set vice itt,o.l
Lord Clarendon would be service upon Queen Vic-
toria. The 'first idea. was analogouso to serving a
demand_ upon Queen Victoria upon)the Mayor of.
Gravesend. Of course Lord Elgin will not treat ,
with Yeh—at least,- I should hope snot—nialosa -ho
speaks in the. name. of his Sovereign.. In his -own
name he can do nothitio but su?tender Cant oil.
But we are bound to InferAhat an
.offic.3r of State
will do his duty—a duty pointed out by4toperial
edicts and by treaties—and, whatever tray be our:
particular relations with him, will transmit our
communications tb his Court. If we are to
treat these voluntary outlaws from national society
according to the technical courtesies of the, laws
of nations, surely this is the more regular course.
Tell is the Emperor's agent just as Lord Clarendon
is Queen -Victoria's agent. - The scope of Yeh's
authority is to transact all business with maritime
foreign nations, and to ,receive communications, or
petitions,' asthe edicts call them, addressed by them
to the Emperor. I have laboured this point often
before in these letters, and circurnstauces have
forced the authorities to take the same view at last.
That by force or by capitulation we shall have
possession of Canton before this year is closed.l have
no moral doubt. It will be time then to speculate
upon ulteriOr proceedings. The object, howeier,
to villa those proceedinas should be directed ought
to be kept constantly before the. public eye, :and
must engage the public, attention. The stake is too
valuable to be left unwatched. If it does, happen
that your house is on fire that is no reason Why you
should put yourself in such a fluster.while you, are
putting it out that you let Mr. Koff run away with
your strong box and Mr. Slick elope with your
ledger. I return, therefore, and shall return,
ietibus crebris, to my unwelcome task of hammer
ing for attention to English interests iu China.
When we have'got this city of Canton, about the
neck of which we are now tightening the lasso, we
must use it for the purpese of preventing future
wars and establishing a feeling of mutual regard
between the people of the country and ourselves.
There is only one way in which this can ,ever be
effected. We must break down the door of parti-
.

tion. If the brigand bureaucracy of China will re-
main in the way, we must walk over it. But we
must have free and unrestricted intercourse. Ido
not propose this as an easy point to gain. It will
require great tact and decision in our Plenipoten-
tiary to obtain the privilege, and great study and
foresight to hedge it about will the proper secu cities.
You will get nothing till you show you are irre-
sistible, and you will then got everything you show
yourielf resolved to have. If Lord Elgin has the
perspicacity to see and the courage to follow this
bold safe course you people at hutue, and espe-
cially you men of commerce at home, mist support
him, or he will fail. If he has not you must push
him, focce him, or supersede him, for ke will de-
serve to fail, and must fail. This is the key of the
whole position. Gain it, and, in the woids of a
Chiriese merchant with whom I 'often discussed
this question, " All men will be glad." He meant,
and 1 mean, all men except the corrupt official..
The Mandarins have only lately discovered that
they have it in their power to tax the barbariai s
by levying transit imposts upon articles of barbarian
necessity. Year by year this power is being cau-
tiously brought into use, and its strain will con-
tinue to increase until the imposition becomes too
grievous to be borne. I have hitherto said nothing
upon these transit duties on Chinese exports, but I
t 1 ink I ought to record a f w facts on this matter,
although I dare not labour the question as I did the
far more vital matter of British manufactrea.
Let us take the great staple, tea. In former
times—that is to say, until within the last few years
the only tax upon tea was an impost in the shape of
a land-tax ; a rent of so much per mow, or rood,
paid by the cultivator. In passing by Hangchau
there was a transit levy of 3 cents. per picul (133
lb.), a mere nominal registering duty. Sometimes,
if the mandarin at the Ta Kwan Nyas popular or
powerful, he was able to get an extra sum of two
made a picul, something more than ls. a cwt., for
himself ; but this was always thoroughly under-
stood to be a "Mandarin squeeze-pigeon," and
might have been resisted if it had, been worth while.
N ow, however, every picul of tea passing that
same Custom-house pays a duty of five taels three
mace, or nearly 3d. a pound on every chest of tea—a
tremendous duty when the prime value of this, article
is taken into consideration. The teas I now speak
of are those which come down from the Bohea-hills,
but those which traverse greater distances . are
subject to still further exactions. Formerly the
only Custom-house for their duties was at Hang-
chau, but now every district has its little Kwan.
The finer teas which come from Ningchau, or
Hoopak, or Hoonan, pay from fii to 9 taels per
picul before they are embarked—nearly 6d. per
pound. The rich green tea districts, the produce
of which• is attracted to the great emporium of
Woochan„a, pay a transit duty of 6 tnei. 5 mace,
instead of the old exaction of two mace. -Part of
the recent increase of the tea trade at Foochow is
occasioned by the circumstance that the teas from
that port pay two taels less than those which are
obliged to pass by Hangchau; but this can be altered
at any moment by the caprice of the local Mandarin,
or by a motion of the vermillion pencil. This
power of taxing the barbarians has only recently
been discovered. It is currently reported that it
was first brought into action to refund the sycee
silver paid out at-toe end of the last war. It will
be of no use that English Chancellors of the Ex-
chequer reduce the tea duties at one terminus of
the voyage if Chinese Chancellors of the Exchequer
can raise the duties at the other terminus. Of course
there will be no lack of Solon geese in England to
make the recondite discovery that the Chinese have
a right to levy what export duties they please on
their own produce. ' In,striat Christian ethics this
is as undoubtedly the fact as that we ought to gives
a man our cloak if he steals our coat. But in this
bad practical world those high Christian ethics are
eminences which we look up to but never climb to.
Tea is an English necessity and a Chinese monopoly.
If John Chinaman insisted upon heavily taxing
John Bull's tea, sooner or later, upon one pretence
or another pretence, there will be ill blood and
spilt blood. The only way to prevent this is to lix
the legal export duty by treaty, and to bgo
up -to the places where the tea is grown and uny.
it of the grower. If the Yangtse were open, d
ifli awnge
yeaonu,ldwebusbyoinnl
dthgea
markets
asoaftWaodonchtyanngf anda
"squeeze." Moreover, we should pay orthis .ea
mace a picul, or one thirty-fifth part of the preseciat
with our woollens and our ahirtings. Before the
Yangtse was closed by the rebels one Chinaman at
Hangyan used to take monthly 30,000 pieces of
English shirtings ; he now does not take one piece
iu a twelvemonth.
This is not all. The exactions of the.Mandarianss
extend to the means of tranlsit.
hundred The
and
cargo
a other boats
o bribe is
are pressed for " military services,"
necessary to set them free,
ex-
tortion traps beset this produce on its way to the
coast. Nothing but the presence of the European
purchaser upon the spot can be of the least avail to
prevent a limitless taxation
of our tea. It is for
yon, ye teatotallers' that
bayonets and fitting the we are burnishing our
shells. 1g fumes into our 10-inch
So again of silk. Formerly there was no export
duty upon silk. Now there is an export duty of
$lO a bale, they which talk of raising to sl2i, and
there is also an
additional transit duty of $72 maces
or 2/. lOs ~ upon each bale.
Now that our silk imports are thought likely to
range between 100,000 and 150,000 bales per an-
num, this is also a subject not without interest to
us at home. I must, however, in fairness remark
that the competition of the silk of other countries
renders it less probable that these silk exactions all
fall upon the exporter.
Be it remembered, then, that since the outbreak
of the rebellion in Chith,
a. thr Chinese Mandarins
have leviedWIWI 000,0001. a-year upon the
people of England—that this tax consists almost