Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-06-10

posed In 1916 the Lord Amherst EN-
bassy was undertaken; but Lord Am.
herst, refusing to submit to the Kow.
tow, was peremptorily ordered from
Pekln. From the rather submissive be-
havior of Admiral .Drury in evacua.
ting Macao in obedience to imperial
proclamation and the non-resenting Of
the insult offered to Lord Amherst, Kea.
king became somewhat arrogant, and in
1921 restricted British trade to the port
OF Canton and otherwise abridged the
privileges of English factors. In con-
sequence of this the traders of Canton
petitioned Parliament in 1880, from
which time an agitation was kept up un-
til final application of force was the
consequence, by which augmentation
the restrictions were in measure re-
moved. From this date the history of
English diplomacy in the East is too
familiar to need particular discussion.
Russian diplomatic intercourse with
Pekin dates from 1892, at which time
an embassy, headed by Yshvants Ides,
of which De Lange was Secretary, ar
rived in Pekin to negotiate in favor of a
caravan trade across the desert from ST.
IBERIA, of which furs formed the staple
Negotiations terminating favorably, the
trade was permitted to continue without
interruption until 1877, when, owing to
some impositions on the part of Russian
traders, the traffic was suspended and
the privilege withdrawn by order of the
Emperor. The difficulty was settled in
1892, and the trade resumed. This ne
gotiation extended only to trade by car
avan, however, and it was not until 1905
that a Russian vessel entered the port of
Canton, and came near being confscated
by the Emperor for doing So. In 1922
Russia sent her first consul to Canton
In 1905 the first ambassador ever
sent to that Power by the United States
arrived in ,Pekin. The embassy was
rendered gorgeous reception. In 1897
not more than three American vessels
had ever visited the port of Canton,
though as early as 1888 the Alliance,
formerly a revolutionary man of-war and
then owned by commercial house in
Philadelphia, was regularly engaged in
the Canton trade. From this small be-
ginning America has steadily gained in
fluence at the Imperial court, until at
present an American Minister heads the
Imperial Embassy to the treaty Powers
of the West on the grandest mission
which has ever been sent forth from the
capital at Pekin-a mission which is to
open the Imperial domain to trade with
all freedom, and to introduce one third
of the population of the world into init
mate relations with the long-tabooed
European races, brief survey of the
operations of which from the first open
ing of trade by the Portuguese has been
presented. uo
In their treatment of Europeans the
Celestials have not, during the four CEN
turies reviewed, proved remarkable for
good faith, but rather remarkable for
evasion, crafty cunning and subtlety, as
well as frequent positive deception.
This may be in part accounted for, how.
ever, by the fact that the earlier adven.
turers were as rule an unscrupulous
setsof villains, whose impositions were
simply audacious, not to say intolerable
This was especially the case with the
early Portuguese traders, though it is
true to lesser extent of England and
Holland. On the whole, however, il
must be admitted that the treatment Of
the Emperor's subjects by Europeans
has not been such as to inspire any very
profound confidence in the sincerity Of
their intentions, except as to profits, and
it has been reserved for an American di-
plomat to open the vast resources of this
empire, with its 3O0,oOo,OOO of people,
to the commerce of the world. Here is
an old nation-old as Egypt almost OF
quite-with fixed habits, fixed modes OF
thought and government of semi-theo-
cratic organization shaking hands with
the youngest nation on the globe almost,
with its free thought, elastic habits and
thoroughly republican government
A strange spectacle, indeed, when all its
concomitants are considered, and a
strange illustration of the magnetic pow
er of free institutions in dissolving the
hardened grooves of the Old World and
imparting fexibility to its modes of
thought. An era in the history of the
empire-the Burlingame missionary
become an era in the history of COM
merce, European and American.