New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-11-09

kinsrnan power Ne ask only what he might be ex-
pected to do as the agent OF bis ogn countrymen.
We he'd right to speculate that the man who was
sent out by the American people 20 WateD bhS iii-
poFtant business should look closely after American
interests We knew that next to ourselves the AmeT-
cans are interested in commerce with China Look
ing little ahead and having regard 10 her increas
ing population, her growth Of cotton and her con-
sumption Of tea and silk it is scarcely too much to
say that bhe American people are even more vitality
interested in opening up this great region 70 the in
dustry and to the wants Of the ADglOSaxOn race
than even we homebred English are. The interests
Of the two nations are nsepaTable. We both had the
z favored nation clause and therefore the utmost
that either got must be shared by the other It might
have been imagined that man OF common sense and
e mother wit" would have taken a plain business
view Of the question, and would have been content
to give the moral weight Of his counrys influence to
the cause of civilization. To the establishment even
Of the Russia, who had not hoped for so fond dupes
the American Minister was found 10 be Americas ,
most intIactable enemy.
Whether he had some private cr0tchets Of bis own
or whether he thought-a common error with sn1at-
terers-that the ways Of a diplomatist must neces-
sarily be tortuous he always the side OF the
Chinaman, and always against his own countrymen.
He once, We are told 10 no confidential or diplomatic
conversation was told by an English official that his
sentiments were more Chinese than those Of the Man
darins, and that he would be better placed at the
Court Of Pekin than as Minister for civilized State.
and his answer aYowal that he thought very
much as the Chinese thought upon many of the sub
Jects under discussion Meanwhile, when the English
and French were demanding natural rights for Gil
mankind Ar, Reed begged treaty for himself and
MS nation The treaty is before us. Il consists
OF thirty articles, and is the exact measure of what
America would have obtained it, even with the ad-
vantage Of the Engish and French guns her interests
had been left to the management Of her own repre-
sentative.
The first article Of this document provides tbat If
any other nation shall act untustIy or oppressyeIv
the United States will exert their good Offices Ga
being informed of the case to bring about an ami
cable arrangement Of the question I; not very sub.
stantal stipulation, and only remarkable as COM
mentary upon Mr.. Reeds declared desire to avoid
entangIing alliances. The 9TH article confers on the
United States the right to send Minister to Pekn,
bat under condition that he is not to stop there
to have more than twenty persons with him, or to
come into the Pei-Ho in ship.ofwar, or to stay
after his business is DONE to without having
business to do The l4th article opens to American
commerce the new ports of Swallow and Tai-wah,
both of which were already in undstuTbed exercise
Of foreign commerce. But this most unnecessary
article, read the treaty, IS clogged with the
provision that any subject of the United States en-
gagged in contraband trade shall be dealt with BY the
Chinese local authorities without protection from the
Government of the United States.
When it is remembered that Mr.. Reed was most
careful to use terms which should include the i'm
portation OF opiumn order, as it was suggested TO
spite the British for their crusade against slavery
and all the eminent American houses in Hong
Kong deal in that drug, it may be imagined what the
treaty rights OF American citizen would have been
in China under this treaty. This is TIE whole of the
document, so far as any new concessions are con-
cerned There Is no provision for free transit through
the country, no new ports, no provision for an
amended tariff, nothing that could be OF the least
value to any class Of merchants wishing to export
from the harbors Of America, to import from the
inner waters of the northern seaeoast ot China HAY
ing concluded this famous piece of diplomacy, Mr..
Reed was not Centented with his achievement, He
vas not satisfied to have made this wretchad bargain
| for his country he was most DESTROYS TINT Lord
Egin should not make better bargain for her and
/ for civilization in general.
i 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
Putatin sought solemn audience of Baron Gros, and
represented to him that it the heighG Of oppres-
sion 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 never could be agreed to. We are told that
these circumstances were pressed so strongly upon
Baron GtOs that he, who had special interest in
the commercial stipnatons, would have given up the
points had he not been influenced by loyal regard
for the unity OF the counses of England and France
We are further told that the two Tenlansran Powers
even forged or believed the fable that tine Emperor
Of China had sent down edct positively forbidding
/ the Mandarins to cOncede these points. For some
hours the whole of the substantial benefits of this
treaty were in peril-we are stating nothing which
| was not well known throughout the eXpedihOn-and
the Americans were rejoicing at the apparent sue
cess of an intrigue that could be beneficial only to
the Chinese and the Russians would be Indifferent to
the French, but would be vitality injurious To- the
English and to the Americans. BY great ability
aud by great frmness the threatened danger was
| avoided. Prompt counsel was taken, counter mine
was 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 reasonable hostile
influence of Russia was feared, but because it would
not have been sale to daily longer with the opposition
OF Russia while Russia could count upon the insen-
safe assistance of America.
This is ms much of the story of the treaty of Ten
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 anxious to carry
their drills up the Yangse and to exchange them for
/ lowprced teas and silks as the merchants of London
can be, and that they would have been quite as in
dignant if the result of recent events had been no
better than Mr. Reeds silly treaty, in England
should have been. 1t is only fair to let them know
how unreasonaby the moral influence of their conn
try has been used against and against themselves.
Throughout the whole of this latter scene no dipo-
matist ever made weaker figure than that made by
the American representative he has not only caused
! us both much peril, but he has done both some
harm he has been in all things the tool of the Rus
sian whose opposition was sensible enough and to be
expected and he has succeeded only in fixing up0n
the Chinese mind an indelible conviction that
american man only number two class Englishman.H