The New York herald., 1868-02-20
Our Chinese Correspondent


The Geographic letters from our special cor
respondent at Shangbae, which we published
yesterday, gave an interesting detailed account
lOf the appon ment o. NJ. Anson Burlingame,
kAmerican Minister at tie Court OF China, as an
Ambassador Pien poten'iary to all those gov
ernment that have commercial or political
kreaties with the Chinese empire, describing
also his suite, his d p,rture from Pekin, ac-
companied by the wao'e body OF foreign min
listers and by the gh offcills Of the Chinese
Court, and the thrilling incidents of his jour-
hey to Tientsin.
These letters Iorm the initial page OF an alto
gether novel chap er in the history of the vast
hnd ancient empire of China. The announce
ment which we recently made Of Mr.. Burlin-
games extraordina y mission from the Flowery
Kingdom 70 the outside world was more start
2ing and far more impor ant th IN the first news
despatch which we received by the Atlantic
telegraph on tn 25h Of August, 1858, pro
claiming that pea e hal BEEN concluded with
Gbina Tor 1t on ornc d peaceful victory
which American influence has won on that dis
TAM field. The future consequences of this
victory are almost incalculatle. Already, as
\! has been truly rem .rked, the United States
and Russia, SO far as regards the peaceful and
probable intercourse with China, have OBJ
tained the create Advantages from the COM
plications OF tho war of 1878. and at
the smallest risks. 1t Is significant
fact that according 10 The first clause of the
treaty signed at I'll sin in 1853 China has con-
sidered the United Sta es as pledged to secure
justice and amiy in cases Of future collision
with olher foreign Powers. And this is as
signed by our CORE pom lent as one reason
which determined the selection of the Ameri-
can Minister as the envoy of the Chinese gov
ernment Obviously, and aside from the per-
sonal esteem in which he was held, Mr.. Bur-
alngame has occupied, in the eyes of the Chi
nese Court the post on OF the foremost diplo-
matic representativ at Pekin-the representa-
tive Of the Power wi which China had con-
tracted the closest alliance. 1t is, therefore,
not surprising that he should have been nomi-
mated for bis unprecedented mission in the
Imperial decree which created it.
There IL nevertheless something startling
and almo,t Incredible in the spectacle which
is thus presented by the sudden miraculous
downfall Of the great Chinese wall of exclu-
eiveness, and by the unexpected request of the
oldest empire in the world to be formally in
troduced by the youngest to the family of
nations. Nor is it The least peculiarly of this
Wonderful event that 1t mas occurred under the
regency of q woman. 1t is an Empress that
has signed this strange imperial decree in the
name Of her son, boy only ten years Of age,
but the lineal successor of mythically long
line Of sovereigns-a line "running back into
times deemed prehistoric by nearly every
other race" No race can boast OF greater an
aiquity, and, whit is more, of earlier
remarkable developments in civilization
than the Chinese. The pyramids of Egypt
are antedat,d by public works still
standing, which were erected to shut in
the Yellow river Of China and reclaim its
meadows from devastation, when, as a recent
writer observes, "the Hebrews were wearily
wandering through the desert In search OF their
promised land" The same writer telicitously
illustrates the antiquity of China by saying:-
s'When not single Germanic tribe had learned
TO read and write China had entered upon her
modern era When petty Roman chiefs, whose
very existence is doubted by the historical
criticism of our day, were brawling in an OBJ
scure Italian village, the representative man
of China was casting in q form which should
endure forever the gradually elaborated wis
dom of numberless generations o. his ancestors.
When the Greeks, happily settled near to the
IF a~f ~.
preparing the way for that glorious career on
which they later entered, the Chinese state had
already become, in the main, what it is now"
Every schoolboy knows that the Chinese origi-
mated the manufacture of silk and porcelain,
invented the compass, gunpowder and the art OF
printing, and, in fact, anticipated almost every
so-called modern invention except the steam
engine and the telegraph. They have perfected
many processes Of agriculture, their cookery
has been pronounced next to the French and
superior TO the English, and they have carried
administrative government to such degree
that our radical Congressman in their bungling
efforts to rule the unrepresented States Of the
South might learn much from the Tsung-tus, or
Governor Generals, Of the Chinese provinces.
In short, crystallized as their civilization
has so long remained, 1t attained its present
development ages before the nations Of
Western Europe had emerged from barbarism.
Yet we behold China to-day stretching forth
her hand in friendly recognition to q nation
which has arisen ON o continent discovered less
than four hundred years ago, the youngest
nation on the globe, but, in her opinion, the
most vigorous and destined to be tho most
powerful
American influence has for tho nrst time
ensctually opened China to the world, and
ere long II must be diffused throughout that
immense and populous empire in innumerable
ways. The marvellous initiative faculty Of the