The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-09-04

Governor CuervO for having allowed the
execution of notorious band of robbers in
accordance with the laws of Jalisco.
The Burlinsnme Mission-British Policy In
China and the East.
The treaty made between China and the
United States through the Burlingame mission
has hit the British in o tender spot. To show
this we publish in another part of the paper
extracts from the English press. From these
it will be seen the mission, its objects, Mr..
Burlingame himself, the action of the Ameri-
can government and the treaty are very dis
tasteful to our British contemporaries. We
are not disappointed at this; it is just what
we expected. There were some premonitory
growls from the English in China, India and
the East generally when the mission was ini-
tiated, though the newspapers in England were
rather reticent at first, but now they growl in
chorus all round. The London Times leads
the pack and the heavy weeklies follow.
All this hostility to the Burlingame mission
and treaty arises from well grounded fear
that the whole British policy towards China
and other nations of Asia has met with
a serious check and is about to
be overthrown. It is more bitter, too,
because this important mission has been en-
trusted to foreigner and not to an English
man, and that foreigner an American, promi-
nent citizen of great rival commercial Power.
1t would have been annoying enough to the
British had such a treaty as the one in ques-
ton been negotiated with any other govern
ment; but to be made with the United States
and through the medium of one of our own
citizens is extremely CALLING In fact it
places England in perplexing dilemma, for
she has either to take this treaty or make a
similar one, and consequently to abandon her
old and long cherished policy of dctation and
force toward China, or to see this country, her
great commercial rival, take all the advantages
which friendship and a more extended COM
merce with the Chinese will give. Indeed,
long exercised in China superseded by that
of rival Power which she cannot venture to
defy. The London Times may well say after
stating its objections to the treaty, 'yet the
question may be asked, is it wise for England
to multiply her differences with America on
such grounds as these?" 1t would not be
wise, and, more than that it would be futile
for neither England nor any other Power can
arrest the growing influence and commerce of
the United States with China.
10 ooiI hy
England is more interested in China than any
other Power; that she is the proper Power for
China to employ as medium for revising her
treaties with other nations that the treaty
with the United States has been entrusted to
the manipulation of foreign councillors, who
advise what is impossible restoration of
retrogradc system; that it bears distinct traces
of foreign inspiration that in their belief the
mission did not originate with the Chinese
government, and that China obtains no conces-
sions from the United States, while the latter
gain monopoly of railway and telegraph i'm
There is offence enough in all
this to the British, but the particular sting is
In the advantages the United States gain in the
way Of trade and carrying out improvements
in China. But these philosophers of the
British press differ materially about the effect
Of the treaty, while most of them agree in de-
nouncng it. While one thinks it will give the
Americans advantages in carrying out railway,
and other improvements in China,
another thinks it is diplomatic barrier against
all improvements or progress. One asserts
hat unless the European Powers, and espe-
,ially England, be firm in resisting the line of
policy inaugurated by the Burlingame treaty,
i will lead, at no distant period, to fourth or
fifth Chinese war and another intimates that
i will not do to multiply differences with
America on these grounds. Altogether they
are in pretty middle about Burlingame and
his mission.
However, they cannot give up the old idea
Of force, the threat policy, as Mr.. Burlingame
designates it. Selma is not vet
fit for this change" they say-that is, the
change effected by the Burlingame treaty
''The foreign Offices of Europe will be mum
dated with just complaints of local tyranny; it
will either produce total cessation of trade,
thereby exposing India to bankruptcy and the
British exchequer to the loss of the tea reve-
nue., or demands on Pekn, which must be
supported by force" There is the rub The
tea merchants, the interests of India and the
British exchequer must be maintained, though
the empire of China be extinguished and four
hundred millions Of people be made the slaves
of England. ''The Chinese they say, ''are
bound to grant us permission to trade in the
interior" And again, 'we shelled the town
(Canton), opened it, and from that day to this
have found the population as obliging, as &C
cessible and as eager to do profitable business
as those of any continental city" 1t is always
the same policy Of force, the same that subju-