The Industrial Review, Social and Political. — 1877-04-14 (London, England)

PRICE TWOPENCE.  China might have rested upon peaceful trust between the two nations, and we might have avoided the unrighteous wars and the crimes, for the perpetration and continuance of which we are all of us deeply responsible. In the opinion of our wisest statesmen, among whom are Bright and Cobden, peaceful intercourse and just dealings had the best chance of commercial success. But notwithstanding the fullest warnings by competent authorities, and the most convincing statements of facts, our Government, accepting the narrowest commercial views, have deliberately and continuously pursued a policy of coercion. Our treaties have been extorted by force, by war or by threat of war. We have waged wars for which there has been no justification or extenuation. These have been brought about by a system of aggressive action unsanctioned but unopposed by our Government, leading to complications which have continually furnished a pretext for interference and for new demands upon China. The recent Chefoo Convention is not an exception to this. The murder of Mr. Margary has been used for the purpose of extorting commercial advantages; and we learn from the Blue Book that Sir Thomas Wade, the ambassador, telegraphed for a fleet with the avowed intention of coercing the Chinese Government, to submit to the terms lie thought fit to impose. Force and coercion has been the basis of this recent treaty. The whole proceedings of our Government, of the Indian Govermuent, and the conduct of Sir Thomas Wade, in reference to the expedition into Yunnan front Burmah, in which Mr. Margary lost his life, demand the most searching inquiry, and that blame should fall where it is rightly deserved. These are the kind of questions which we wish to bring before the public for impartial and just consideration. Not least, among many great questions affecting the material and moral well-being of the two countries, is that of the Opium Trade. Happily there are but few, if any, persons who defend the opium war, by which we prevented and still prevent the Chinese Government from putting down the trade in opium and the consumption of opium. We forced them to legalise its sale, claiming the extraordinary and monstrous power for the English to fix the Chinese taxes, under penalty of war if they did not submit. There are some who hold that a long continuance in crimes of this nature is a sufficient excuse, if not justification, of that inaction which condones the crime. But the truer morality is to condemn the man who condones and continues a crime, equally with those who began it. It would have been impolitic to have forced a new trade route into China without first giving up the opium trade; but the Yunnan Expedition was entered into and the Cliefoo Convention has been concluded, with the avowed object of opening a route by which the tramit of Indian opium may be easily effected into new regions of China. The demand on the part of China, for the rights of a free independent nation, to fix its own taxes and to enter into its own treaties, without being coerced by threat of war is morally irresistible. The policy of coercion may, indeed, induce the Chinese Government to submit for the present to our superior force, but they are only biding their time. Unless we reverse our policy, and offer them instead a peaceful friendship and intercourse, admitting their rights and  disavowing all coercion in the future, they will surely prepare themselves for the time when the struggle may be renewed under more favourable conditions for them. And they will be right to do so, for at present there is no guarantee that our action will not be as aggressive in the future as it has been in the past. But if opportunities like the present are used, if the higher and nobler views of England's duty are pressed with vigour upon the public mind, all this may be prevented; and instead of war being possible at any moment, we may enter a new era of settled peaceful intercourse, most valuable commercially to both nations, and well calculated to promote their social and moral progress. We therefore call upon our fellow-citizens for co-operation and assistance for the following purposes; to diffuse a knowledge of the facts relating to the intercourse between England and China, to prepare the public mind for the discussion of these grave political questions, and to give a hearty support to the efforts which will be made in Parliament to secure justice for China.  HENRY CRomrroN.