The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-15
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, MARCH Is, 1858.

1EH-the terrible IEH-has been captured at
last The high and mighty Mandarin, with his
pig tail and peacock tail, his red button and his
FAM is actually prisoner in the hands of the out-
side barbarians, " whose patience he has abused,
whose power he has de6ed and whose victorious
troops now occupy his vice-legal Palace in the city
of Canton. We publish in another column the
accounts given in the English papers of the final
capture and safe Judgment ship board of this
Chinese functionary-of his abject terror when
taken prisoner, and of his insolent demeanor when
treasured of his personal safety, he was brought
for examination before his barbarian captors.
Among his baggage with other documents, were
found the original notifications of the treaties with
England, France and the United States; papers of
entirely too little consequence his Excellency said,
10 be sent to Pekin This fact sufficiently attests,
if further evidence necessary the utter futiliy
OF making any treaty stipulations with China,
whose people are restrained by no considerations of
personal honor public faith from habtual viola
ton of their most solemn engagements and with
whose rulers it is impossible to conduct any diplo
matte intercourse except through the medium of
some such overgrown arrogant satrap as YEH, who,
for his own purposes, will not scruple to pervert,
dlstort or entirely suppress the facts which he as
sumes to communicate to his Imperial Master.
We require some better security for the protection
OF our commerce, and the safety of our citizens in
China than is to be found in these paper obliga-
tons. In the possession of Canton, and of its Gov
ernor, YEH, the English and French Admirals hold
pledges for the future good behavior of the Can
tonese, which we trust that they will not prove so
intirm of purpose as to relinquish. The only re-
gret which we should experience at seeing per-
manent Anglo-French protectorate established over
that city, would be in rejecting upon the seconda-
~ and subordinate part which our own Govern
ment has condescended to play in the matter. In
quarrel, in the causes and issue of which we are
as deeply interested as either of the beligerents
we have been content to remain passive spectators
when We should have been prominent actors. In
Importance and magnitude, our commercial i'll
terests in China equal those of the English and far
exceed those of the French. We had the same
grounds of complaint they; the same insults had
been offered to our flag; and the same outraees
had been committed upon the lives and property
of our citizens. We have stood by, while France
and England have avenged our quarrel and vindi-
tons throughout.the world
Lord ELGIN and Baron GRos, with hotilla of
gun-boats at their hacks, have brought the war TO
a successful termination by the capture of Canton
and of the mischief-maker YEH, while Mr.. Com
missioner REED has been sitting afar from the
scene of action, in inglorious inactivity, on the
lofty decks Of the Minnesota awaiting the result
Meanwhile, hostilities have been so managed ON
the part of the belligerents, not to interrupt
their commerce, so that we have gained nothing
by our neutrality, while in prestige which is every
thing in China, we have lost Incidentally
The present question is-What shall be done
with YEH? Now that they have caught the Tar
tar, and got him safely Gagged on board Her Ma
jestys ship Inferible, the Times suggests that his
obese Excellency should be brought home to Eng
land, where ocular demonstration of the power
and greatness of the 'barbarians' may convince
Mr.. YEH of the folly of any longer kicking against
the pricks. Experience, however, rarely brings
wisdom, and the lessons of the present war will
doubtless be as completely thrown away on JOHN
CHINAMAN as were those of the last. In the Ian
guage of the court circles at Pekin events are
always read backwards, and defeat means victory
and we have shrewd misgivings whether the Empe-
ror will ever hear of the loss of Canton at all,
unless Lord ELGIN should find it necessary to carry
the news to the capital in person; otherwise the
''Son of Heaven and Brother of the Moon" will
undoubtedly be led to believe by the mandarns,
that the men GRos and ELGN, who came to disturb
his Imperial repose have been repulsed with great
slaughter, and that in order more efiectually to
Al
fEH has temporarily taken up his abode on board
of one of the great war-unks captured from the
discomftted ''barbarians"