The New York herald., 1875-09-29
rhe Chinese Qus.tIon.

a Mr.. Margary, which took place on the 2lst
J Of February near the Burmah frontier. Mr.
Margary was engaged in the opening of a
route between Burmah and the Chinese
province of Yunnan This was to be trade
route between India and China 1t is a
traditional policy of the Chinese government
] TO repress all intercourse with foreigners.
England has opened treaty ports on
the coast and for long time has
! been anxious to have route 20
the western Chinese frontier. This
Opening of the Western Gate of China" as
it has been called, has long been resisted by
the Pekin authorities In so doing they
have had the active support of the King of
Burmah, who has gone so far as to proclaim
himself vassal of the Celestial Empire. The
English Minister, when he made demand
for the punishment of the murderers of Mr..
Margary, and for such satisfaction as was due
to the British government for the outrage
upon its flag was treated with indignity and
compelled to ''stand waiting in the mud"
by an insolent Chinese official. For this
there was due apology. Then came
news Of treaty in which China prom
ised to send special ambassador
to England; to punish the murderers of Mr..
Margary; to open a trade route between Yum
nan and Burmah and to regulate the levy of
taxes at Pekin so as to put an end to the op-
preston of foreigners which had been going
on under the name of taxation. We now
learn that the Chinese government avoids
the performance of the terms of the treaty,
and that the British Minister threatens
to leave Pekin on October 49, unless
satisfactory settlement is conceded. This
will be to suspend diplomatic relations be-
tween Great Britain and China, and may
entail consequences Of the gravest possible
character.
The Chinese question must in time become
one of the most important in the world. 1t
is a question in which America as the nearest
civilized neighbor of China, must take a deep
interest. England has ruled her Indian EN-
pire by prestige" The civilized nations
have imposed their will upon the Asiatics in
the most arbitrary manner. They have never
! dealt with China or Japan or Turkey as equal
Powers, but as inferior, subordinate, half
barbarous nations. Yet in most of the essen
splendor, in knowledge of the arts and
sciences and literature, and in population
and general cultivation China may compare
with any country in the world. China was
'blaze of light" as has been we'll said,
when Europe sat for the most part in dark
ness" 1t is, next to Russia, perhaps the
largest state that has ever existed. 1t is a
- tbo,
natural products known to the world ac-
cording to an authority as high as Sir John
Bowring, of between three hundred and fifty
and four hundred millions of human beings,
Lord Mccartney moro than eighty years ago
gave it population of three hundred and
thirty-three millions. The great masses of
the people are employed in productive labor,
about two-thirds being engaged in agricul-
| ture and the fisheries. They are q self-de-
pendent people They import little besides
cotton goods and opium and export great
quantities of tea and silk they practically
supply tea for all the world
China is very necessary to our civiliza-
ton. Probably no country is less
dependent upon outside nations than this
land and the great Powers to control it have
resulted in various wars. In 1889 the
Chinese endeavored TO suppress the opium
trade, and opium to the amount of twenty
thousand chests was seized from merchants
and destroyed by the government. This was
followed by an edict prohibiting all trade
with England. The English government
40
compelled China TO pay twenty-one millions
of dollars indemnity, to open several ports
for trade and accept just tariffs and to cede
Hong Kong. This was followed by a treaty
between America and China conceding to
the United States almost as much outside
of territory. There was another war in
1856, which ended by treaty granting
freedom Of trade, liberation of Christianity
and Chinese Embassy in London. But the
Chinese, once removed from the pressure of
actual hostilities, refused to carry out the
provisions of the treaty. This was followed
by another campaign, which ended in the oc-
cupation of Pekin, the burning of the Sum-
mer Palace and the signing of new treaty
in Pekin in 1860, which has been in force
ever since.
But since this humiliating defeat the Chi
nese have been learning the lesson taught by
their enemies. During the fifteen years of
peace the rulers of China have been steadily
improving their armies. They have been
building a feet and buying the best
cannon and arming their soldiers with
improved arms. They have been taking
counsel from skilled soldiers of other nations
They have the raw material and all the
means necessary for prosecuting a gigantic
war China could raise an army of ten mill
ions Of men with infinitely less strain upon
her resources than America felt when she
-osoaJ tba arr,;oa rr,tb r-b;o1, xua