The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-11-04
OUR TIEN-slY TREATY WITH CHINA.
tn. AMERICAN MINISTER OyERHAULED-LORD ELGIr
GIVING Mr.. REED THE FOOLS MATE.


Cfrnese authorities, the position of America has
bc Jfne of complete security. Her interests did
rgeiasst, as they did previously to the treaty Oi
i'1S, upon mere confidence, however well
grounded, that England would continue to pursue
generous policy, and would hold open for the
world, the door which she bad forced open by her
own power. The United States had direct stipu-
latlon with the Chinese government that they
shonid participate in any privileges that might
thereafter be granted to any other power Ii was
quite open to them, therefore, to look on from a
distance and to quietly take possession of a com
mon interest IN any concessions that England might
obtain.
Perhaps it had been a wiser course, it certainly
would have been a less expensive course had she
conteuted herself with this attitude. She however
thought otherwise. Mr.. Reed was despatched to
China as the Penipotentiary of this first-rate pow
er. The pacific character of his mission was shown
oY his being sent out in ship which was more
poweress than common opium clipper for any
purpose of coercion. Before leaving the shores Of
his native country Mr.. Reed was feted bv the com
mercial community. He boasted that he was not
professional diplomatst, but man of plain mother
wit; he renounced all crooked proceedings and Sc
cret lntrigues, and promised to act as in fact all
hrst-rate diplomatists do act, with candor and
resolution: In due time Mr.. Reed arrived
IN IN 'he Chlnese waters. We pass over the
hrst circumstances of his ambassadoria ca
reer. Ills secret overtures to Yeh were not
perhaps, very demonstrative of his candor, and
the resignation with which he submitted to the
S""D'it- duHlluisleTeu TO MIN DY 4 eh not
crehta6le to his resolution. Such as it was how
ever, 1t was diplomatic failure 1t was the essay
Oh tyFo IN the lower walks and by-paths of diplo-
macy et '2SI'like the rude attempt of a country
man to initiate the tricks of Juggler. Had he
stuck to his honest common sense he might have
held his own but his clumsy attempts at seight-of
hand only made the old professed iugpers smile at
his limitations and his failures But Canton fell and
the scene 0f action was moved to the Peiho Thither
MIR. Reed followed, and by the aid and under the
protection of the English and French guns. he was
enabled to proceed up the river We do not ask
what might have been expected of him there as the
representative of close ally and kinsman's pow
er; we ask only what he might be expected to do as
the agent of his own countryman. We had a riobt
to speculate that the man whO was sent ont by the
American people to watch this important business
should look closely after American interests.
We know that next to ourselves the Americans
are interested in commerce with China Looking
little ahead, and having regard TO her increas-
ing population, her growth of cotton and her con-
sumption of tea and silk, it is scarcely too much to
say that the American people are even more vitallv
interested IN opening up this great region to the in
dustry and to the wants of the Anglo-SaxoD race
than even we home bred English are The interests
OF the two nations were inseparabe. We both had
the favored nation clause" and therefore the ut
most that either got must be shared by the other
1t might have been imagined that a man of common
sense and "mother witt would have taken a plain
business view of the question, and would have been
content to give the moral weight of his country's
influence to the cause of civilization
10 the astonshment even of the Russian who
had not hoped for fond dupe the American
Minister was found to be Americas most intracta-
bic enemy. Whether he had som private crotcbets
of his own, or whether he thought-a common err
ror with smatterers-that the ways of a diploma
tIst must necessarily be tOrtuous, he was always on
the side OF the Chinaman, and ALWAYS against his
own countrymen. He once we are told in no con-
hdential or diplomatic conversation, was told by an
English Official that his sentiments were Chi
neSe than those of the Mandarins, and that he
would be better placed at the Court of Pckin than
as Minister for civilized State: and his answer
was an avowal that he thought very much as the
Chinese thought upon many of the subjects under
discussion. Meanwhile, when the English and
French were demanding natural rights for all man
kind, Mr.. Reed begged treaty for himself and his
nation. That treaty is now before us. 1t consists
of thirty articles, and is the exact measure of what
America would have obtained if, even with the ad-
vantage of the English and French guns her inter
eStS had been lett to the management of her own
The first article of this document provides that
elf any other nation shall act mniustv or oppres-
sively, the United States will exert their good off
ces, on being informed Of the case to bring about
an amicabe arrangement of the question; not a
very substantial stipulation, and only remarkable
as a commentary upon Mr.. Reeds declared desire
to avoid entangling alliances. The fifth article
coners on the United States the right to send a
Minister to Pekin, but under condition that he is
not to stop there, to have more than twenty per-
sons with him, or to come into the Peiho in ship
ot-war, or to stay when his business is DONE or to
come without having business TO do. The four
teenth article opens to American commerce the new
ports Of Swatow and Tai wan. both of which were
already in undisturbed exercise of foreign COM
merce. But this most unnecessary article, as we
read the treaty. is clogged with the provision that
any subject of the United States enpared in contra
band trade shall be dealt with by the Chinese local
authorities, without protection from the govern
mGnt Of the United States
When it is remembered that Mr.. Reed was most
careful to use terms which would include the impor-
tation OF opium, in order, as it was suggested to
spite the British for their crusade against slavery
and as all the eminent American houses in Hnn~
treaty rights of an American q eitaeHR Would have
been in China under this treaty. T1is is the whole
of the document, so far any new concessions are
There is no provision for free transit
through the country, no new ports, provision for
an amended tariff nothing that would be of the
least value to any class of merchants wishing to ex
port from the harbOrs of America, to import from
the inner waters the northern sea-coast of China
Having concluded this famous piece of diplomacy,
Mr.. Reed was not cOntented with his achievement
He notsatsiied to have made this wretched bar
gain for his country; he most desrous that
Lord Elgin should not make better bargain for
her and for civilization in general.
The Chinese Commissioners had agreed by letter
to all the English and French demands, the treaty
had been drafted, and the hour had been named
for the signature, when suddenly Mr.. Reed and
Count Putiatine sought solemn audience of Baron
Gros, and represented to him that it the height
of oppression to insist upon any resident Embassy at
Pekin; that the free transit through the country
was most useless and offensive demand; and that
the additional ports could never be agreed to. We
are told that these remonstrances were pressed so
strongly upon Baron Gros that he, who had no spe-
cia interest in the commercial stipulations, would
have given up the points had he not been influenced
by a loyal regard for unity of the counses of Eng
land and France. We are further told that the two
powers even forged or believed the ia
BILE that the Emperor of China had sent down an
edict positively forbidding the Mandarins to con-
cede these points
For some hours the whole of the substantial bene-
fits of this treaty were in peri-we are stating
nothing which was not well known throughout the
whole eXpedtiOn-and the Americans were in
sanely rejoicing at the apparent success of an in
trigue that could be beneficial only to the Chinese
and the Russians would be Indifferent to the
French, but would be vitally injurious to the Eng
lsh and to the Americans. By great ability and by
great frmneSs the threatened danger was avoided.
Prompt counsel taken, countermitting
sprung, and again the clumsy player was checked
by FOOLS mate. But, as we understand, some
privileges were given up which would have been
very useful to the merchants of both countries
not because they would not have been conceded,
and Justly conceded, nor because the reasonably
hostile influence of Russia was feared, but because
it would not have been safe to daily longer with
the opposition of Russia while Russia could count
upon the insensate assistance of America.
This is much of the story of the treaty of Tien
sin as may be publicly known and publicly stated.
The facts are freely talked Of and believe there
is no doubt of their correctness. We think they
ought also to be known in America. This is not
question between the two countries. We are quite
sure that the American people are as anxious to
carry their drills upon the Yangtse and to exchange
them there for ow-priced teas and silks as the
merchants of London can be, and that they would
have been quite indignant if the resut of recent
events had been better than Mr.. Reeds silly
treaty as we in England should have been. 1t is
only fair to let them know how badly they have
been served in this matter, and how unreasonaby
the moral influence of their country has been used
against and against themselves. Throughout the
whole of this latter scene diplomatist ever made
weaker figure than thatm made by the American re-
preventative; he has not only caused us both much
peril, but he has done US both some harm he has
been in all things the tool of the Russian whose OPP
position sensible enough and to be expected;
and he has succeeded only in fixing upon the Chi
nese mind an indellible conviction that-"American
man only number two class Englishmen."
NAVAL 0RDERs.-The Navy Department has or
dered Commander Marchand and the other officers
phis, which was condemned, to report for duty on
the chartered steamer Canada, lying at New York,
on the goth inst.
Also, the following to the chartered steamer Met
acomet at Pensacola
1t. Commanding, VIM. II. Macomb; Lienten-
ants, James IL. Moore, Reginald Fairfax and Green
leaf Cilley.
Lieut.. j. n. Mafiit has been ordered to the Coast
Survey duty.
J. Howard RathbOn, of Albany, N. Y, has been
,tnI in,,tap nj in +ba arip