The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-30 00:00:00

We should be ungrateful if we did not call atten-

tion to the efforts -which are now being made to
obtain the full fruition of our Chinese Treaties.

We have been constantly urging the prompt
opening of the new ports, and the exercise of
our recently acquired right to go through the
country upon commercial enterprise. We have been
continually counselling expeditions up the Great
River, in order to arrange for the safety of its
transit, and to accustom the dwellers upon its
bank to the sight of European ships of commerce
and European traders. All thislhas now been done.
Admiral Hope's expedition up to Hankow, 570
miles from the mouth of the river, has been as much,

and perhaps rather more, a commercial than a naval
enterprise. The object was not so much to force a
passage through the heart of China as to conduct our
traders up the country in a manner which should
impress the Chinese with the belief that these mer-
chants are the subjects of a great and powerful na-
tion, under whose protection they trade, and whose
good name they are bound to vindicate by fair deal-
ing. With Admiral Hope went many companies of
merchants from the commercial ports. Some are now
working their way across the eountry, intend-
ing to pass through Thibet, and to organise
as they go a complete chain of commer-
cial communication between the interior of
China and our possessions in India. Others
confined their attention to the commercial capabili-
ties of the provinces through which the Great River
rolls. A deputation from the Chamber of Com-
merce at Shanghai viewed with the eyes of practical
commercial men the whole system of ' business" as
it is transacted in the heart of the empire, and the

result of the examination is now before us in a re-

port, signed by Messrs. Hamilton, Michie, and
Ballance, and addressed to the Chairman of the

Shanghai Chamber of Commerce.
In a commercial point of view this is the most
interesting and the most important document that
has appeared in our age. In plain and unattrac-
tive language, and in columns of dry figures, it re-
veals the whole mystery of the workings of indus-
trial China. It is too technically commercial to
yield its information to the general reader, and
too long and statistical for the columns of a news-

paper ; but it is a document -which our men of
Commerce and our men of statecraft ought to
study. 'What we have hitherto seen only in
its results we now see in its causes. We see now
whence came and whither went those exports and
imports which for so many years came out and went
in at Canton. In the very centre of " the Flowery
Land," high up in the great cities, these English
merchants came upon the cotton goods which had
been imported at the far-away southern port of
Canton, and had been divided into smaller pack-
ages in order that they might be carried on men's
shoulders over the mountains which divide Canton
from the central waters. They are able to compare
the prices which these goods commanded in the
interior with their cost at the seaports, and they
calculate upon these data the amount of burdens
Which they have undergone through their inland.
transit. This calculation is probably fallacious ; for,
as these goods are for the most part taken in barter,
we cannot tell whether in these transactions they
have been fairly estimated. We know that Rus-
sian cloths are sold at a profit in China, though at
a price lower than they are made for in Russia ;
but this is because they are bartered at a high pries
against teas which are estimated at an unnaturally
high price, so that the purchaser of the cloths can
afford to sell them at a much lower real price than
he nominally paid for them in tea. So it may have
been with these cottons, and so we suspect it must
have been. Again, these gentlemen found in this
central part of China the emporium where the teas
were collected for manipulating and packing for
Canton. We have here come upon the hive itself
whence we have for so long a time been through
devious and dangerous paths getting our supplies of
honey. All this tea is lying upon the tributary
waters of a river which descends with a moderate
current to our own ships lying at itsmouth, which
as these gentlemen have shown, can be navigated
without danger from flood or shoals for nine months
of the year,and which during every month is ascended
by the cumbrous native vessels. The valley of the
Yang-tse is known to be one great coalfield. The
rebels were long ago found to be copiously supplied
with this mineral at Nankin, and the members of
the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce found the dis-
tillers of Woochow burning great quantities in
the production of the raw spirit which the Chinese
use. What may not this coal be worth to us,
with such opportunities of access, and such facili-
ties for covering the river with our vessels. In the
cautious and temperate language of the counting:
house we do not expect to find great promises 01
future results, nor would it have been wise
trade in these gentlemen to encourage our commercial
community to make hasty and indiscriminate
adventures in these untried provinces. But they
have stated enough to sho.wallthmaitr we
m
for an entire rovnintion iT
They found that at Henkow the dealers were
with
hp
cr prepare
unanimous in saying that if Hankow were opened,
the teas hitherto grown and prepared in the neigh.-
, bourhood of the Tangting Lake would be sent there
instead of to Canton. Kewkiang and the Poyang
Lake, which it commands, the deputation hold in
great commercial value. Into this lake, they sat,
falls numerous navigable streams running through
the rich black tea districts, and it is connected
with canals which traverse the whole of the green
tea districts. "It is, in short, the centre of a
most extensive and important network of river
and canal communication, brought to a very high
state of perfection by the Chinese in more pros-
perous times." It scarcely requires a man
educated to commercial operations to appreciate
the importance of all this commerce being taken,
from its old course, released from the necessity 0;
traversing mountains on the backs of men, and
placed at once on a broad waterway, whence it wisp
descend without hindrance or extortion to the ships
which are to bear it to Europe. It places us in el
position to buy tea as cheap as the Chinese can grog
it, and to Cell them cotton goods as cheap as lig°
can make them.
The ordinary motives of human conduct have beell
found to exercise their customary influence even ie
the interior of China. Our merchants have been
everywhere received with cordiality. Hopes of
mutual gain make quick friendships. They say that
the dealers were free in giving information, and were
looking forward to a rapid extension of their trade
in the coming season. These.men appear to have been
allowed to express their sentiments in this matters
for the Government had acted in good faith. 'lll°
Treaty of Tien-thin had been published, and Ingle:
rial proclamations had declared that it was intended
that its provisions should be observed. Nothing
is now wanted but peace. With peace we might
go right into the heart of China, and win her to
civilisation and intimacy by the strongest passion
she has—her love of gain. At this moment the
doors stands wide open; our merchants are ready to
enter it; the Chinese stand on the other side with
outstretched hands ready to welcome them ; the Tar'
tar Government looks on approvingly—so successful
has been that policy which faction and fanatical
folly united to execrate, But it is possible even not
to shut that door again and to bar it close. It could
be done by words of the Tartar Government, or hi
acts of the rebels. The Tartar Government retain°
its moral force ; the rebels have a ready means
of reaching these cities with their predator'
armies. If we make either of these parties out
enemies, they can frustrate our objects. Yet we
must have peace. We must have this great corn'
mercial highway lighted, and paved, and policed*
The whole world has an interest in keeping it
open. How is this to be done ? Certainly not hi
permanently lining the river with our gunboat
Certainly not by undertaking to guarabtee the
Imperial power throughout the length and breadth
of China. It seems a hard thing that, although
all civilized nations may lawfully unite to pull
down a corsair Power, or to hunt out a sea robber,
it is not thought consistent with precedent that mere
land robbers should be in a similar manner ditg'
persed. We never had a greater risk at stake that
that which is now put upon us by these Chineae
rebels, who have seated themselves upon the great
river up which we desire to go, and who are period''
cally plundering the cities with which we desire to
trade. As far as the interests of humanity are con'
cerned, no greater service could be rendered to the
race of man than to rout out these Taiping rob'
bers. This, however, for a hundred reasons, we, a!
a nation, must not do. It is not our work. B 1"
we are not therefore to suffer and do nothing. Thle
is matter for diplomatic action. If Mr. Bruce
should find that anything like a civilized Power ja
to be made out of these Taipings—well ; if not, the
Tartar Government has already had experience of the
benefits to be derived from European supervision in
the collection of their Customs, and it is not, per;
haps, quite impossible that they might be inclined:
to listen to European advice as to the means 0'
restoring peace to China. The Tartars are keepini
faith with us, and it is our interest that they should
be strong.— Times.

THE NATIONAL BANK.—The resolution adoptea
at the special meeting of the National Bank, on Tuesdays
was unanimously confirmed by the proprietors yesterday
afternoon.

On Friday Sir George Lewis will introduce a
bill to place the employment of women, young persons,
youths, and children in lace factories under the regulatioo
of the Factories Acts.

Dr. of New Broad-street, has heel
elected Abraham,ag overnor of Dulwich College for the parish of St;
Botoiph, Bishops; ate, 'without opposition, in the place 91
Bout ramal, EN,