The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-02 00:00:00

the enrichment of Macao, but in nothing benefit
the Chinese Government. Macao would simply
become what Hong Kong now 15, and the contra-
band trade with China, piracy, and Coolie kidnap-
ping would. each and all take only new proportions
and greater developments under the most perfect
impunity that a willing Government could extend.
The one only remedy lies obviously in -an
proved custom-house administration in China, and
to this they are at last turning their attention by
the organisation of a complete and uniform system
for all the ports under foreign inspectors, tide-
waiters, &c., in the hope that these will supply the
vigour, honesty, and intelligence they find it so
difficult to secure among their own people. A short
time will show with what success. But in that
direction lies their only hope of remedy for a great
and increasing evil. Under the present order Macao
has repaired her tattered vestments, sole legacy of
a hundred years of poverty, and Hong Kong has
made the wealth of many in less than 20 years.
Under a different and a better regime for China
both colonies will have to content themselves with
more legitimate gains, and it may be smaller re-
venues and lessened importance. But even though
Macao should have to fall back upon lentils and
soup maigra six days in the week, as of yore, it is
well that the Chinese should succeed in their pre-
sent efforts at reorganisation.
In getting its legitimate dues from foreign trade,
which it only now receives in their integrity at
Shanghai under foreign inspection, the Chinese
Government will obtain a direct and increasing
interest in its development and prosperity, be-
sides the means of a better Government, and
a lesson they much need—namely, that to secure
good and honest service States as well as in-
dividuals must give fair remuneration and
adequate salaries, And, though last, not least,
the foreign merchant will find his trade can be
carried on with honesty, on principles of fairness to
all, without any painful effort or sacrifice on his
part:
But the sun is rising higher, the rain clouds are
riven, and now I see a gallant fleet, with the British
ensign at the mizen, stretching across the bay.
Music comes floating on the breeze from the United
States' ship- Powhattan. H.M.S. Fury is getting
up her steam, with 300 marines on board, for the
north. The Assistance is to follow with more.
Seven gunboats have been despatched, and others
are on their way. Soon the rest of a goodly fleet,
with Admiral Hope and our first Minister at Pekin
Mr. Bruce, will take their departure for the Peiho.
H.M.S. Samson leaves to-day with our first Con-
sul-General in Japan on board, and all his consular
staff. Mr. Alcock is the bearer of the ratified treaty
which he is to exchange at Yeddo. The American
Minister, Mr. Ward, just arrived on board the U.S.
ship Powhattan, is also, northward bound. The
French Minister, M. de Bourboulon, is speedily to
follow; and soon the second or rather the third and
last act of the national drama will commence, the
scene of which all men hope will be laid in Pekin,
and the end whereof we trust may be peace, if not
real cordiality and good will. Not there am I bound,
however, but to Japan, of which I shall have much
to tell you both new and interesting. And, as Da-
nish and Prussian missions are already in prepara-
tion—the squadron of Prussia to be commanded, I
hear, by Prince Adalbert ; while English, French,
and American Ministers and squadrons, once free
from the Peiho, all purpose a visit to the Japanese
ports—Yeddo bids fair to be the great rendezvous
and watering place of the season for the " far East"
in strange contrast with its close seclusion for fully
200 years.
ENTRANCE OF THE YANG-TSE-KIANG, MAY 22.
The incidents of a voyage up the coast from
Hongkong to Japan in these days of steam are few.
The escape from the sultry heat of Canton and
Hongkong to the fresh cool breezes of the higher
latitudes and open sea is the most noteworthy and
delightful of incidents. To feel a desire for a blan-
ket and to lose the sleep-disturbing hum of the
mosquito trumpets make as near an approach to
happiness as I can venture to anticipate for many
weeks or months to come. And so, like a philosopher,
I enjoy the:n accordingly, grateful for the good the
gods have sent. We are just entering the wide
mouth of this leviathan of rivers, and to-morrow
may look to see Shanghai much increased and
changed since last I saw it, each year adding to its
trade and wealth. But you shall hear how it looks
and what it promises after my arrival.

SHANGHAI, MAY 24.

activity, enterprise, and capital of British mer-
chants) a great trade, opening up the resources of
both semi-secluded empires, should be developed.
This was no part of the original design of the
Western Powers in framing the recent treaties;
but only thus will any foreign trade in the proper
sense of the term be created and developed. This
much already seems more than probable, that the
greater portion of such Chinese and Japanese trade
will pass into forf ign hands, and ours more parti-
cularly, may be safely inferred from what is now
taking place. But that is certainly not the commerce
we more especially hoped to open up by our treaty.
On the contrary, our aim and hope was to create a
trade by the interchange of Japanese products with
British goods. Thus, as in a thousand instances,
we are reminded that

" There'S a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will."

What we have sought and striven for may indeed
be ultimately obtained, but neither in the way we
looked for nor by the instrumentality anticipated.
The Chinese form a natural and, to all appearance,
a necessary link in the development of any large
trade between Europe and Japan, just as India has
long been the connecting link with China. Just,
as we may yet discover, that Roman Catholicism
will form the connecting link between Paganism in
its many idolatrous forms and a purer Protes-
tantism. Though I feel this a dangerous ground,
and scarce know whether Romanists or Protestants
would most vehemently repudiate the inference as
injurious, that in the ways of Providence, either
could be beholden to the other, or the final propoga-
tion of Christianity among the heathen be depen-
dent upon an order of progression. The Jews, how-
ever, under an inspired leader, did not merge out of
Egyptian idolatry into a pure Theism, without
many intervening stages of progress of semi-idolatry
and assimilations to the ceremonial and material
worship they left behind. Men seems ill designed
or constituted for such sudden leaps from darkness
into light; and all past missionary experience, I
think, goes far to enforce the unwelcome truth at
which I am glancing—that the abstract doctrines
of a Protestant faith find acceptance among a
heathen and idolatrous race with infinitely greater
difficulty than Roraanism. There stands the fact ;
let those who will attach other explanatsons. With
one reflection more let me take my leave of China,
which bids fair to exercise as much influence on the
western world, and their relations with the East, as
we can ever hope to exercise on it. It has been in-
geniously suggested, I see, by Mr. Mill, that the
Chinese have succeeded beyond all hope in what Eng-
lish philanthropists of the present day are so indus-
triously working at—in making people all alike, all
governing their thoughts end conduct by the
same axioms and rules. lle goes on to say,
" that the modern regime of public opinion is, in
an unorganised foem, what the Chinese educational
and political systems are in an organised ; and
unless individuality shall be able successfully to
assert itself against this yoke, Europe, notwith-
standing its noble antecedents and its professed
Christianity, will tend to become another China."
Curious enough that while all things tend to
infuse into the Chinese mind ideas of progress, of
change and development—even at the price of
great internal convulsions, and the destruction of
material interests—one of our most distinguished
writers should see in the tendency of our own
habits and education, worldly and other, a retro-
grade action to the dead level mediocrity and im-
mobility of the Chinese national mind. If so, the
two ends of the circle travelling in opposite direc-
tions may ultimately meet in Japan, which seems
less profoundly stirred up 'in its depths by the
sudden contact of Europe than China, and not so
steadily bent on a collective mediocrity as the mind
of England.

IREL 1 ND.

DUBLIN, THURSDAY MORNING.

ARCHBISHOP CULLEN'S POLICY.

The Freeman's Journal of this morning takes up
the cudgels in defence of Dr. Cullen from the
attacks of the London journals, and endeavours to
vindicate the conduct of the whole body of the
Romish prelates in their recent onslaught upon the
system of mixed education. The organ asserts that,
from the very outset, when the scheme was pro-
posed nearly 30 years ago, all the bishops, with
four exceptions, exclusive of Archbishop Murray,
disapproved the system, and these four merely
waived their objections in deference to the excellent
prelate who then presided over the see of Dublin.
As to Dr. Cullen setting himself up as the head of
a new Parliamentary party, the Freeman scouts
the notion. The Apostolic Delegate, no doubt, has
other means at hand for carrying out his policy
without permitting the laity to have a finger in the
pie. Even the Catholic members of Parliament are
to be left free to follow their own will. Here is the
semi-official statement :—" Dr. Cullen will not, it is
true, be returned for the city and take the lead in
person; but its dogs may be killed in more ways
than one, he may accomplish the end of leadership
by enlisting under his banner the Catholic mem-
bers and directing their movements from his Pm-
torium. We believe we can deny, on authority,
any such intention on the part of the Archbishop.
Catholic and Protestant members are at perfect li-
berty to take whatever side they choose on the
education as on all other public questions. No
coercion has ever been applied by him, or ever will
be. He declares his opinions like any other mem-
ber of the bench, and with the modesty that marks
his character, What he conceives right he utters,
and nothing can deter him. So it has been with the
other members of the Episcopacy. They discussed
one of the most vital problems ever presented to
their consideration, with aft sense of its vast
importance. They reviewed the whole question, or
series of questions which the system involved, and
after an investigation of all the facts, and a com-
parison of the evidence which each prelate furnished
from his own local repository, they came to the una-
nimous conclusion which has fluttered so many
of our English cotemporaries. We may observe that
neither sinco nor then, did the bishops suggest the
Parliament. The memorial to Mr. Cardwell was the
only formation
result ooff at
their
special ida
el party to press their views in
liberations. Not a word was
spoken about appealing to or urging Catholic mem-
lefffteheetyto the protest or resolutions in
wished to'second the efforts of
pbearrsliatnoiegnits:e
the prelates. by determining on a common line of
action, 'well and good; but they were perfectly in-
dependent to co-operate or not, just as they thought
proper. We wish to be explicit on this point, be-
cause the voluntary action of some IriSh members
is connected by the London papers with an express
order from the Archbishop of Dublin. The necessity
of such a contradiction only proves how little they
know of the man whom they force from the strictest
seclusion and privacy, compatible with his duties es
an Archbishop, to assume the position of public
agitator."

The Queen's birthday ushered in by a wet and
stormy morning. In vain the numerous ships of
war are dressed in their gayest colours; everything
looks drooping, wet, and miserable. I wandered
through the foreign settlement yesterday evening
before the rain set in, and after Calcutta there is
nothing more wonderful east of the Cape than the
rapid growth of the whole place, and the vast trade
to which it owes its rise. Fifteen ears ago corn and
rice and cotton fields covered the ground now en-
tirely occupied for a mile square with foreign man-
sions anil packhouses, by a Chinese settlement in the
rear, their occupants having sought peace and secu-
rity where the flags of western Powers, the chief of
these the British, give no vain promise of both.
Some 15,000, many of the better and wealthier
classes of Chinese merchants, have thus located
themselves of their own free choice, built wide streets
end extensive bazaars, pay load and police rates,
and conform to all the municipal regulations of
foreign growth with scrupulous fidelity. The Chinese
are certainly among the most easily governed uf any
in the world, given two conditions only—honesty
of purpose and strength in the governing power..
Under such conditions the latter is hardly ever called
into active exercise. It is enough that it should be
known to exist. The city itself has but partially re-
covered its devastation by the horde of sot disant
insurgents, but unquestionable spoliators and ban-
ditti, which gained possession in 1853, and held it
against an imperial army, until the beginning of
1855. A word from the Treaty Powers might have
averted such a great calamity, and saved from ruin
a population of 100,000 industrious and peace-
loving people. But a want of unanimity among the
three representatives of England, America, and
France allowed the opportunity to be lost. Let us
hope that, warned by past experience, no more
Consular ports will be allowed to become a prey to
the miserable vampires sucking the life's blood out
of flourishing towns in which we have large com-
mercial and treaty guaranteed interests Itrequires
but a distinct announcement that these seaport
cities shall not be pillaged to deter the predatory
rabble from ever venturing to make the at-
tempt. A-greater service it has never been in the
power of 'Western States to render to an Eastern
people at so small a cost, or one which more com-
mends itself in the interests of humanity and a
sound policy. It need involve no espousal of either
Imperialist or insurgent cause—no abandonment of
a policy of neutrality in an internecine war ; but
simply a prohibition issued to those who recognise
no law or treaties that at the Consular ports, were
we have large vested interests and treaty rights, no
one by wanton spoliation without influence on the
issue of a civil war shall be allowed to destroy them,
and with them the lives and property of thousands
of peaceable inhabitants, Ni ith whom we have daily
relations of amity and commerce. The populations
of these ports will learn to look upon us as their
best friends, and a sure defence against wrong they
are otherwise unable to resist. The insurgent rab-
ble themselves will regard us with all the more re-
spect for our determined bearing, and the Imperial
Government will at least be gratefnl for exertions
by which the Custom-house revenues, becoming
every dayof greater importance, are preserved from
the grasp of the spoiler, giving the Emperor and
his counsellors a direct interest in the preservation
of foreign commerce and the relations of goodwill
connected with its maintenance.

But I must not dwell too long on these cor,:ide„..
tions of general policy, even were the ire
the subject more fully appreciated r. .-eortance of
:c home. Here
they very naturally suggest ther--,„1,„ with the still
evident traces of the ruthleFl.-,, and wanton destructiiin
wrought by a handf', of horse•boys an rabble
coolies. -Wide sr '..ces lie between the foreign settle-
ment and city walls, which previously were
cove-eed
ah Chinese streets, giving shelter to alarge
population. Within the walls permanent
Iriss and devastation are everywhere apparent.
Thousands of houses were levelled, and tens of
thousands of their inhabitants tortured to death,
beheaded, or cast out houseless and penniless to
perish, but it would be hard to find a single human
being who reaped any tangible or pernianent bene-
fit. Even the ruffian leader, Chin-a-lin, who alone
of ali his followers made his escape at the capture
of the city, by the help of a foreign merchant, was
prowling about Hongkong the other day, trying in
vain, through more foreign agency), to get posses-
sion of a plot of ground. in Shanghai where lay
buried in- gold and silver of his plunder, wrung
from the tears and agony of tortured victims, or lac
of dollars. And all this ruin ar,d misery, I repeat,
may be averted in-future bya word spoken in time,
with the authority of the Treaty Powers. Let the
decrepid Government ;and its insurgent subjects
fight their battles elsewhere ; the empire is wide
enough. And wo do these Eastern races mischief
enough, more or. less voluntarily or consciously, by
the dissemination of Western viees, if by no other
means, to give cause. of congratulation .when oppor-
tunities like this offer for conferring the blessing of
peace and, security on a number of large popula-
tions to a. great degree identified with us.
To-morrow or next day we shall leave Shanghai,
bouncl, foe IsTagamlei. It will not be among the least
curious ea- important of the incidental results at-
tachil to the enlarged traffic and intercourse ra-
pidly developing between this port and Japan that
chief ly by and through the, Chinese ports (the
ram, a nearly assimilated wants and .tastes of the
two races mainly aiding, in.
_combination with the

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 2, 180,