The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-17 00:00:00

LORD ELGIN'S _MISSION.

Lord Elgin has accustomed us to a sameness of
success. Link by link the chain of policy unwinds
in regular movement. If he would startle our
home public, he must commit some egregious mis-
take or surer some notable check. The newly-
arrived mail brings only the usual intelligence of
progress. After the conclusion' of the Treaty of
Jeddo Lord Elgin returned to Shanghai to meet
the Commissioners who were to come thither to
settle the details of the Treaty. When the usual
delays had occurred, and after the usual attempts
to change the:place of negotiation, the Commissioners
arrived; and we are told their demeanour has been
such as to confirm the belief that the Court of
Pekin is resolved to carry out all the provisions of
the Treaty with entire good faith., Mr. Oliphant,
who went out as Lord Elgin's Private Secretary,
had been appointed Acting Secretary to the Em-
bassy during the absence of Mr. Bruce, who came
home with the Treaty, and is now accredited as
Ambassador -to Pekin. Mr. Wade, than whom
there is no more eminent Chinese scholar or zealous
public servant, had been associated with Mr. Oli-
phant as a commissioner for the revision of the
tariff, and Mr. Lay, whose services daring the nego-
tiations in the Peiho were so conspicuously men-
tioned, and who, holding the office of Inspector
of Customs under the Chinese Government at
Shanghai, had a special knowledge of these matters,
acts as interpreter and amieus curia! between the
two sets of Commissioners. These parties have now
been for some time holding conference within the
wallt of the Chinese city of Shanghai, and wc GPO
informed that the progress already made is such as
to promise an early and most satisfactory termi-
nation of their labours. There is every reason to
anticipate that the vexed question of the opium
trade will be settled upon a basis which shall pre-
vent its becoming the cause of any future difficulties.
In fact, this has, long ceased to be looked upan in
China from the European point of view. It has for
several years been an object of revenue, and the
only debate between the Commissioners has been as
to the amount of duty to be fixed. Other vexatious
and inefficient prohibitions have also been given
up : and it is probable that the exportation 'of
coined copper and the re-exportation of rice will
be legalised upon equitable terms. The settlement
of the transit duties is proceeding with a desire on
both sides to adjust the terms fairly, and to fix
such regulations as may most effectually carry out,
the common object of preventing any future dis-
pute. There has hitherto been no suggestion on
the part of the Chinese Commissioners to reopen
the provisions of the Tien-sin Treaty, or to verify
any of those lugubrious vaticinations which have so
constantly come to us from Hong Kong.
In estimating the relative importance of the
various voices which reach us from China we must
recollect the conflicting character of the interests
that exist there. Canton is a port to which all the
foreign trade of a nation numbering one third of
the human race has been most unnaturally forced,
and Hong Kong has grown into whatever import-
ance it may at present possess from its proximity
to that single privileged port. As a British pos-
session it must always retain a certain respect in
our eyes, and, however little profitable it may some
day become, the English interests there are too
valuable to allow us to think lightly of abandoning
it. But it is an undoubted fact that the 'Tolley of
civilisation is inimical to the importance of that
insalubrious rock. When the trade of China shall
fall into its natural channels, and each particular
article shall find its nearest and its cheapest point
of export, Canton must take very inferior rank as
a commercial city, and Hong Kong will find its
chief recommendation in being a British island in
the China Seas. The great water highways through
China, where no mountain ranges interpose to the
free transit of bulky goods, , are up further north.
Already Shanghai has sprung up like the seed stalk
of a blossoming aloe ; the northern port to be opened
in Mantchouria will be scarcely less rapid in its de-
velopment; we might as well attempt to- dam up the
mouth ofthe Yang-tse-Kiang as to check the course of
a commerce that has been allowed to flow. We might
as rationally rebuild Tadmor, and re-establish the
caravan stations, along which commerce passed in
old days, as attempt to bring the teas and the silks
of the North on men's shoulders over the mountains
to Canton, when a wide river and a rapid stream
are at hand to carry them to open and legal ports.
But these truths, and still more the facts- that are
born of them, cannot be satisfactory to a community
that has more or less involved its interests With
that of Canton. Hongkong, although but a speck
of rock, has half a dozen newspapers. Like the
-cieadce tliat make Southern China so vocal, it has
a voice entirely disproportioned to its size or im-
portance. Hongkong feels itself humiliated and
displaced by the opening up of China, and we must
not be surprised to find that all the success, whether
of arms or of diplomacy, which is so valuable to the
rest of the world, and so important to the great
interests of humanity, is rather carped at than
celebrated in that little locality. We are not
blaming them for this. They are very good peo-
ple, but they have a natural tendency towards
their own interests. The wonder would be were it
otherwise; but it is necessary that the fact should
be known in this country. 'However, Lord Elgin
took the first opportunity after the arrival of
the Coininissioners to pacify Canton. It was
believed that he had not insisted upon this at
Tien-sin because, with the precedent of the evils
that had followed the temporising policy punned
by Elliot and Gough with those Canton braves
before his eyes, he thought it would be better for
permanent tranquillity if these gentry were put
down by force ; but when General Straubenzee dis-
appointed his expectations, and actually allowed a
Chinese army to escalade his walls, without taking
them in the rear and cutting them off, it becinue
necessary to act from Pekin. Lord Llgin therefore.
made it a condition precedent to the transaction of
business with the Chinese Commissioxers, that
Canton should be tranquillised. The Commissioners
looked out upon the fleet of steamers and square-
rigged vessels that crowded the Shanghai river,
and acceded. They instantly despatched a special
messenger to Canton with a proclamation announc-
ing the peace ; they promised to obtain the removal
of llwang and the dissolution of the Committee of
War, and they manifested an alacrity of which a
few months ago it was .thought that Chinamen
were entirely inmpable, to remove all impediments
to a conclusive state of peace.
All this has been done', Canton is as quiescent
as it was six days after the boalbardment. A pro-