The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-28 00:00:00

discussed on the walls of Peking by the British and

American Ambassadors.

'that China must be

brought into the family of nations was their settled

conviction, but how best to do it was the question.
Before them was the Palace of the EMPEROR and
the offices whence the edicts went forth obeyed by

,he three hundred millions who occupied this large

and favoured portion of earth's soil, and to influence

these rulers was to influence the nation. This was no
easy task, for there was a well-grounded suspicion
in the minds of those men. The Saxon with them

was associated with opium-smuggling and with
war—a nefarious trade and a gauntleted hand. In
success the Envoys knew that the Chinese would
mainly benefit, but in a lesser degree only would
be the benefit to the sections they represented of
the Anglo-Saxon people. They knew that hitherto
European nations had been but only scraping on
the coasts of China, that a trade with three hun-
dred industrious millions meant something even be-
yond the conception of the trading mind of Eng-
land, and as the Chinese produce luxuries which
they would readily barter for Manchester and
Sheffield goods that the gain at least in the first
instance would mainly accrue to the British, now
prepared to supply the demand. it is no wonder
that where everything fitted so nicely, where the
interests of all three nations, indeed of the world,
ran in the same groove, and they had only to
push, that the Ministers were quickly able to
dissipate preju lice and educate the Mandarins
up to the point. Sir FREDERICK was promoted to
Washington, and left the ENIPEROR'S Government
unfeignedly sorrowing at his departure. But to
the day of his death he never lost his deep interest
in the strange people he knew so well, and his in-
fluence was never wanting to aid Mr. BURLINGAME
in forwarding the policy they had matured. In
process of time, and after a seven years' residence,
Mr. BURLINGAME also announced to the Chinese
Government that he was about to withdraw. Con-
fidence had long before this been established be-
tween him and the Chinese Ministers ; they were
shrewd, intelligent men, and the measures intro-
duced at the recommendation of Sir FREDERICK
and himself had been judged by their fruits, which
were in the highest degree favourable. They
marked the rigid abstinence from interference in
the domestic affairs of China, the honest and fair
decisions on disputed points, and the suppression
of English and American dictation elsewhere.
They saw their country visibly rising under the new
system ; their exchequer was comparatively full,
money could be readily procured when required, and
the Government of the nation began to awaken from
its lethargy of centuries, if weak and exhausted, at
least free from Debt, with boundless undeveloped
resources, and a population of 300,000,000 hard-
working and frugal subjects. The natural conse-
quence followed the teachings, on the announced
departure of the last of the two men they most
trusted. The Chinese desired ANSON BURLINGAME
to employ his time in the countries to which he was
returning in their interest, and in consummating
the foreign policy he in conjunction with Sir FRE-
DERICK had originated and recommended. For many
reasons he was the best man they could have se-
lected, though there was one drawback of which
they were not aware. Their connection of the future
will be with America—their connection of the pre-
sent is with England. It would have been manifestly
wrong to have chosen an Englishman to act for them
in questions in which the English are at the mo-
ment so deeply interested, and with the knowledge
that but a few years had elapsed since English
hands hal fired the Palace of their EMPE-
non. With the United States they had had no
quarrel. The great ehaigration of China is to
the shores of California, and their rising trade
points to the East and not towards the Wee, ;
in one word, these two great nationalities daily
grow in the intimacy of neighbourhood. They
were wise then to seize the opportunity of Mr.
BURLINGAME'S departure, though the occasion was
a mere accident. With him they associated an
English official as one Secretary of Legation, and
a French official as the other, thus represent-
ing the three principal Powers. To represent their
own nationality they sent as joint Envoys a Mant-
chou Tartar and a pure Chinese, both of high rank.
Mr. BURLINGAME, filled with the enthusiasm of the
great good to the human race he was about to ac-
complish, sailed on his mission. Aware that the
only object was to open China to the world, and
to benefit alike every nation that sought the inter-
course, he anticipated little opposition except from
the opium smuggling interest, and from the close
and jealous monopolies which the false system of
trade with China had created. He knew he would
be well recAved in his own country, nor did the
result belie the anticipation, for he was met
in America with a confidence little less generous
than that reposed in him by the Chinese.
But the question was how his mission would be
received in this land, which at the moment
is, beyond comparison, the one most interested
in it. England is professedly a liberal country
—the advocate of free trade, of the rights of
the human race, of freedom of opinion and inter-
course. Englishmen are a keen trading commu-
nity, and might be expected quickly to see the ad-
vantage to them, above other people, of more
open communication with the most numerous family
of mankind. But a malignant influence remained
strong enough, in the first instance at least, to
overshadow with distrust these advantages. " A
full-blooded Yankee, a dexterous American
politi-
cian," as the Standard calls Mr. BURLINGAME, was
at the head of the mission—and in this lies the
secret of the anti-China strength given to the oppos-
ing opium and monopoly interest. A dim idea rests
in the English mind that supremacy in the Chinese
Seas is passing from British into American hands --
that the march of events will be hurried beyond
calculation by the World's Highway almost con-
structed between New York and San Fran-
cisco, and that the centre of Eastern commerce
will shortly wing its flight from England,
and settle down on one of these two towns.
This prospect resembles that of a tradesman,
who finds that a grand new thoroughfare is about
to take away and transfer his custom to his rival,
and if Mr. BURLINGAME'S mission meets with the
cold shoulder here, he and America should make