The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-09-16
THE CHINA NEWS.

The ,ews from China, which had the honor
of conn., Y to us under the Atlantic ocean, il
seems, anne to England Uia Russia. The Rus
sian G., gernment communicated it to the Eng
lish AM French Governments in the following
langual e:
"a ,urier who left TENTS on the 9th
June, ad travelled overland, has brought to
Prince 4ortschakoff the intelligence that trea
tn has cen concluded between China and Rus
STA, sim lar in it's general bases to those which
have b en- concluded between China and the
other ,wers. The ports are opened, the free
Arnis.A of the Christian rellgion ia conceded
as the ,ception of diplomatic agents in Pekin
if nece, tsry. England and France have more
over OF aimed a considerable pecuniary indem
nifty"
This aews caused great establishment in Eng
land, p 5ncipally from the fact that the Russian
Emper has it in his power to procure news
from Q ,ina Overland thirty days in advance Of
that vi ich comes to England through English
channss. The London Tines discourses in
the foll1wing style upon this achievement:
"Wfl have been beaten by month. It is
not vety easy to say how this has happened.
How c, it be that news can speed more quick.
ly by islays of horses than by steam and cleo.
trio wi ges2 How is it that the passage of in.
tellige ce to St. Petersburgh is so prompt? We
know ae Russians have an establishment at
Pekin : but it is of a religious and educational
ratherf han of diplomatic character.
I" 1t VAS, we believe, never suspected that a
high RI I'D and chain of posts existed between
the tw distant capitals, or that constant com
munic lions are kept up between the Pekin
Colleg and the Cabinet of the Gear. Some
time 20 we were given cause for conjecture
by p' ssage in Pekin gazette, which informed
us ths an embassy, sent to condole with the
Russisb Court on the death of the Emperor
Nicho' %, had just returned but that inforna-
ton cd not necessarily imply smooth roads
and @ sy intercourse. Here We have an in
stance pf six thousand miles traversed in fifty
days. We will assume that the dispatch ar.
rived Pekiu in the form of telegram, and
that MOSCOW was the nearest point to which
it wss carried. 1t is still rapid work. 1t is not
that r. miles an hour for twelve hours a day.
or five miles an hour for twenty.four hours
day, 2 very fast work for Tartar couriers over
a PREF ired country. But our surprise is to fiud
that TIE country is SO prepared. The courier,
if he pok the direct route, must have struck
north,sards from Pekin, and, crossing the Great
Wall China, must have advanced into the vast
sandy 1esert which interposes between the in.
habit 1~psrts of China aud those mountain
range that separate the Russian from the
Chine 3 dominions.
must have trsversed this desert in an
obliqee direction, and, surmountng the hills
that fern its northwestern boundary, he must
have ridden over the steppes of the Khirghis.
stoppsog, perhaps, for a short rest in Turks.
tan. Coursing down the vslleys of the tribu.
taries to the sea of Aral, ard passing to the
north Of the Caspian, he would thus reach the
frontiar Of Russia Proper, and might water his
horses in the Volga and the Don, as he passed
on in bis now easy course along the prepared
routeS to the capital.
az as this his road? Or did he strike up
north, yards from Pekil until he reached some
Russit in settlement on the winding and mystic
rious AMOR, about which we hear so much
and / ,ow SO httle2"