Mississippi Democrat. (Carrollton, Miss.) 1844-18??, 1847-08-11

China, the richest and proudest empire
of the East, is destined, at no distant day,
10 come under the control of those whom
for ages II has affected 10 depise. II is
but few years since that the United
Kingdom openly irampled under foot the
restrictions which national rights had, I'M
I'll then, preserved. Whatever might have
been the desire, to bring this old and isoa.
ted empire into the train of the CONNER
cial reciprocitIes of other countries, Chi.
ma was, until but as yesterday, as secure
in her own way of national existence as
if she had been especially preserved by
the celestiaIs, by whom IT is her boast to
have been peopled But the English, ever
foremost in aggressions themselves, and
ever foremost in complaint Of the aggres.
sions of others with whom they have moth
ing to do, at last broke ia upon the repose
of this distant and unoffending empire II
would not do, that in the society of nations
in which Britannia shone so conspicuous.
ly, China should be the aristocratic one,
refusing all intercourse with the "barba.
rans," enjoying the discoveries of science
within her own dominion, and boarding up
her wealth away from the graspings of an
envious external commerce. What, there.
fore, could not be effected by knowledge
of the power and enlightenment Of other
countries, was effected by the terrors of
war, in violation of justice and national
independence. In relation to the great
home system by which China was cut off
for ages from the progressive world around
her, by which international trade was dis
ord &c Il
were bred within her walls, who had no
better resistance to offer to the foreign ~
vader than shield of pasteboard, it was
surely her own business, that or any other.
system. To force national reform, and
insist, at the point OF the bayonet, on a
national acquaintance, is proceeding for
which nothing but physical superiority
will presume 10 present a justification.
But II was determined that the subjects
of Great Britain should live and grow rich
in Canton, enjoying all the privileges of
the Chinese. The treaty was soon mad e
in view of British outrage, to which those
harmless Eastern people were unaccus.
toned, and for which their own old and
false national policy had rendered them
unprepared. Some form of an admission
into the empire thus was granted, and 1t
was enough.
The last accounts we have from that part
of the world, represent Sir John Davis on
his way to the siege of Canton, after hav-
ing spiked above eight hundred pieces of
cannon; and prevented from accomplish.
ing his purpose by the condition that in
two years the city shall be open to British
subjects. His own government complains
of this posIPonement, ard urges that the
original treaty had been violated.
The overthrow of that magnificent: en-
pire, by British aggrandizement, is CUES.
ton of but little time. In the very be-
ginning of the British settlement in Chi.
ma, all the fortified way to the heart of The
country has been dismantled by the cap
ture of nearly nine hundred pieces of ar
tilery. Surely movement like that, in
remembrance of the wanton and wicked
interference Of England, at first, in the
commercial regulations of the country,
augurs any thing but the continuance oil
national individuality for China.