The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-10-13

TO appoint head policeman to do the same
thing by wholesale. That which in the captain
is but a choleric word is in the soldier fat
blasphemy.
The Four Living Powers Before China
The True Policy for tho United States.
The question of the opening of free and I'M
restricted intercourse between the nations Of
the Western and the Eastern continents is one
of the gre attest of the age and its solution is now
occupying the governments Of the four great
civilized nations.
1t is now nearly three hundred years since
the first revulsion of Asiatic sentiment against
European encroachment eliminated in the ex-
clusion of foreigners from the ports of China,
and the extinction of Christianity in Japan. AT
that time and ever since the countries OF
Southern and Eastern Asia have been
looked upon by the prevailing idea
in Europe as regions subject to conquest
and fit for dominion, and the European nations
have continued, with greater or less success to
pursue their policy Of territorial occupation
and rule. The Dutch in Java and Japan the
Portuguese at Macao, the English and French in
India, and the Spaniards in the PHILIPPINE
Islands, have filed the pages Of the history of
EurOpe's intercourse with Asia with q varied
relation of successes and defeats. The early
and decisive non-intercourse policy adopted
by China and Japan probably saved them
from the fate which attended India and the
Malasian islands, In Hindostan the conflicting
interests of England and France brought them
into an early and bloody conflict. Duplex,
the French commander, aimed to subdue the
whole of the Indian peninsula, and his genius
seemed equal to the occasion But England's
fortunes created an opponent in Give who
stopped the progress of the French. Adopting
at once the deep and subtle policy of Duplex,
he founded on it the British empire in India,
which has shaken and overturned so many
Asiatic thrones, and which has itself been SO
recently shaken to its very centre.
The growth of commerce has given now, in
the middle of the nineteenth century, new
impulse to the idea Of opening the countries of
Eastern Asia, either to trade or to conquest.
But to-day it is not alone European policy
that seeks this result. While England has been
extending her conquests in India, and giving
existence to a system of dominion there that
reacts on all the rest of Asia, confirming its dis
trust Of European friendship and its fears of
European hostility, young Power has grown
up in the West holding no views of con-
quest, discarding the idea Of distant and
tributary colonies, and seeking to open
her intercourse with the far East only
for the purpose of an exchange of pro-
ducts for their mutual benefit. At the same
time another European Power, contiguous to
Asia, has grown into vast dominion in its CEN
trail and northern regions. We know little Of
the policy which Russia pursues towards the
Asiatic hordes she has brought under her
sway, or towards the Powers upon which she
is encroaching. One thing only is evident
While Europe comes to Asia seaward, and is
looked upon as hostile existence, the White
Gar comes landward and with the appearance
of an Asiatic Power.
These four nations are now before the from
tiers OF China. England and France in Joint
hostile array, the United States in pacific
character, and Russia as a semi-sympathetic
Asiatic empire In this condition of affairs the
policy OF our government is plain and evident
Our Washington correspondent has told us that
the administration comprehends the position,
and that 1t has reprimanded the Minister and
naval officer who recently put our interests in
China In peril. An obscure journal has denied
that this reprimand has been given, but at the
same time the friends Of Mr.. Ward are under
the necessity of publishing his private letters
in order to make lame defence of the
error he has committed. In giving this
reprimand the President has shown a
Jealous care for the highest interests of the
country. No greater mistake can be made than
to identify ourselves with the encroaching no
Icy OF England and France in Asia Besides
depriving us Of all the benefits that should ac
crue to us from three-quarters of a century of
forbearance and non-interference in the affairs
OF the Eastern world, it would subject us to
all the contingencies that the present course of
England and France may give rise to. And
these are many.
Though now banded together to open China
by force of arms and by conquest, it is an al
lance that carries with it the germs of future
conflicts The empire of China comprises
three hundred or four hundred millions of neo-
plea world within ITSELF 1t is ruled by a worn
out Mongol dynasty that is hated by the sub
Jugated Chinese. In many places insurrection
already exists, and in others the bond of power
is frail. When England and France have
opened China with the sword, and by that very
fact consummated the ruin of its present dy-
nasty, the questions Of possession and dominion
will come up, as they did in India. New Du-
pleix and new Gives will arise, and the scenes
of century and half ago in India be re-
newed. This is not conflict which concerns us,
and it is one in which we should not be involv-
ed. Our only way to avoid being SO involved