The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-16 00:00:00

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-on board her Majesty's ship Furious, and proceed to
Shanghai, en route for Japan.
(PROW ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT.)

SHANGHAI, JULY 13.
The thunder of the cannon which aroused the
sweltering community of Shanghai from their noon-
day siesta yesterday announced to them the im-
portant fact that Lord Elgin, after an absence in
the north of exactly three months, had returned
from the scene of his anxieties and his labours with
a treaty in his pocket containing concessions on the
part of the Imperial Government so extensive that
the most sanguine were astonished, and the croakers
remained altogether incredulous. For this, how-
ever, there was some excuse, as an abstract of the
American treaty, signed some days before the Bri-
tish, had been published, and contained none of the
important concessions, and it was not considered
likely that our Transatlantic allies would be so far
wanting in their usual acumen as to allow us to
include in ours provisions the omission of which
would imply that they considered them unattain-
able.

It is satisfactory to learn that the treaty has
been not only signed, but has received the Impe-
rial assent. It is rumoured, however, that this
latter was only extortei from his Celestial Majesty
by the fact that the 59th Regiment were actually
in the Peiho and on their way to Tien-sin, and, if
necessary, to Pekin.
The contents of the treaty which has just been
signed are now pretty well known to the public.
There can be little doubt that they are of .a charac-
ter entirely subversive of the traditional policy of
the Chinese empire, and that the effect of this im-
porhint document, when its pro-itsions come to be
carried out, will be to revolutioniser the present
system of internal economy in this country and
replace it by one formed under the stimulating and
enlightening influences of that Western eivilita-
tion which is now to be introduced throughout the
length and breadth of the land. Under a system
of passports the subjects of the treaty Powers are
to be allowed to travel to any part of the interior
of China, to have free access to all the great inland
markets, and to make their purchases when and
where they please. The ports of Leuchow, in the
Gulf of Pechele, of Niuchwang, Chin-kiang, and
Swatow, of others in Formosa and Haman, are
added to the list of those at present open, and
ports have been fixed upon up the Yang-tse-kiang,
the opening of which, however, is necessarily post-
poned until Nankin and other important cities on
both sides of the river are recaptured by the Im-
perialists, and cleared of those hordes of miscreants
who have for so many years disturbed the peace of
the empire. The disposition openly manifested by
many in this country to sympathise with these
rebels, and the mischief which the presence of
European and American adventurers among them
might cause, have rendered this intimation with
regard to the Yang-tse-kiang necessary ; but it is
to be hoped that when the nations of the West find
their interest practically involved in the extinction
of the rebels they will be influenced by those mate-
rial considerations which generally triumph over
others that are merely of an abstract nature, even
if they are not guided by the higher considerations
of the impropriety of taking advantage of the con-
cossion of a Government by trying to subvert it.
The much vexed questions of transit and Cus-
toms duties have engaged the serious attention of
the plenipotentiaries, and arrangements have been
made by which it is hoped the, inconveniences
arising out of the present system will be removed.
Many other points affecting the present state of
our commercial relations in China are discussed
and provided for ; but 'as the treaty contains up-
wards of 50 articles, time would not admit (even
were I capable of doing so) of my discussing these
details or their merits. But the-clause of the treaty
which in the eyes of Ihe-Aghisrese—Emperor is a
greater concession than all the others which he
has-granted put together, and which in the eyes
of all those who have studied the question on the
spot contains the only safe guarantee for those con-
cessions, is that clause by which it is stipulated that
Great Britain shall henceforward have a resident
Minister at the Court of Pekin who shall communi-
cate directly with the highest officers of the State ;
and that, moreover, the Chinese Government shall
educate student interpreters in the English lan-
guage, so that the system of diplomatic communi-
cations from us in Chinese may be discontinued, and
official intercourse be for the future maintained by
each nation in its own language; the contingency
of a Chinese Minister being sent to the Court of St.
James's is also provided for. Thus, at all events,
the great principle of equality between the two na-
tions, which must lie at the root of satisfactory
mutual intercourse, has been established, and it is
to be hopecrwill inaugurate a new era in the his-
tory of our diplomatic relations with the empire.
The Imperial Government will, no doubt, very soon
discover that foreign subjects are kept in check
much more surely through a Minister at the capital
than through a superintendent of trade at the other
end of the empire, and that those difficulties which
Chinese and foreign authorities could raise at plea-
sure will diminish in number when they receive an
immediate reference to the capital.
Another important advantage arising from the
residence of a British Minister at Pekin is apparent
when we consider the position which Russia occu-
pies relatively to the empire of which that city is
the capital. With a Russian mission there en per-
manence, and the right to send a special envoy to
confer in person with the Imperial Cabinet, it is
evident that this great European power, whose
Asiatic frontier is conterminous for thousands of
miles with that of China, would be in a position to
exercise an undue influence in the councils of his
Celestial Majesty, and obtain advantages to the ex-
clusion of other nations. These considerations ren-
der the establishment of a British Mission at Pekin
an object of the utmost importance, and it behoves
the Government to exercise the greatest discrimi-
nation in the selection of the representatives des-
tined to conduct diplomatic relations under condi-
tions of so novel and trying a character.
Such is a general outline of the treaty which has
just been concluded, and such is the nature of the
concessions which have been obtained from the
most jealous and exclusive Government in the
world, not at the cost of a protracted war involving
a great expenditure of blood and treasure, for the
army which was destined for that purpose has been
engaged in more urgent service elsewhere ; but by
the judicious exercise of pressure at the right time
and place. Our entire loss of men killed in action
during the naval and military operations in China
since the arrival of the Plenipotentiaries in this
country has been very trifling. Let us hope that
the same moral influences which have won the
treaty may be no less successfully employed in
carrying it into operation.

It is to be hoped, also, that when our resident
Minister comes to be established at Pekin, he may
maintain that diplomatic ascendancy which has
enabled us to include in one treaty alone those pro-
visions which it was predicted could never be ex-
torted from the Chinese Government, such, for in-
stance, as the right to a permanent Minister, or per-
mission to trade in the interior of the empire. And
we have reason to suppose that the neutral Powers
used their utmost influence, after their own treaties
had been signed, to oppose the concession of more
extensive privileges to Great Britain. Indeed, so
far as Russia is concerned, it is not difficult to
account for the motives by which her diplomacy
was actuated.

The unsatisfactory accounts which we have just
received of the state of our relations at Canton lead
ur.= to regret more than ever the delays caused by the
naval authorities in the Gulf of Pechele at the com-
mencement of negotiations ; had these been brought
to a close, as they might have been, two mouths
earlier, there can -be -little doubt that instructions
would have been mat down to the Imperial Com-