So much has been said about the rank of the Chinese members of the embassy which left us on Tuesday Inst for" the West that few comments on its porsonnel may not be out of place. The it Me. Burlingame, late U. S.
ister to China,: as its head is safi-lently well known, 'To him, as " High 'Minister Extraordinary and Plonipotontinry," sucoood Mr.' J. MoLeary Brown, late Acting Chinese Secretary to H.'B. M. Legation at Peking, as Firat Seoretary; and Mr. Deschamps of Sooret 10 ove representing. Eng-the Chinese Customs! Service us Second
ish, the other French interests, Oh tain and Sun ta-jén—the former a Manchu Tartar, the latter n Chineso—we presume, as attaches; though independent reak ie mach higher than gentlonion in that position are supposed to hold, in Europe. They are in the second grade officials, that is to say equal ivi is ice: Presidont of a Board in Poking, or with " Gorornor ofa provinces. They bear th Imperial commission as High Minister" in this Mission, and their duties are to leora and qualify themselves in the modes and ways of Foreign diplomnoy, and to assist Me. Burlingame in_his'corres-
Yamin, where they have served since its establishment, They ave therefore well up in foreign questions." El ly, Knows a great deal tions, their geography, history,.and polities, is intoliigont, and ins hitherto been the special protdgd and trusted secretary of Won-sung, who is well Known to be the blest member of ihe Poking Government. Both have been given high titles, an aslocted for high rank, in order to give the mission importance ud reality in the eyes of the Chinese themselves. Tt inno doubt. from these men that the Intter will form their estimates of the importance of the mission, rather than from its foreign members. Six stadeut intorprotors tunk last among the offcial members. 'They avo all beow studying for the last five or six yours, in the foreign school a', Poking, ind have acquired a fairknowledgo—two of Russian, two of French, and two of English. These gentlemen uro to continue their studios and qualify themnolvos as future Interpreters and Sooretaries, Two clerks, a motive doctor, tind fifteen oF sixteen sorrants close the list, Te fortanato for the foreign mom-hors of the embassy that the two Ba-gush-spanking interpreters accompaid Pin on his trip. to Earope, two yours ago; 80 will be able to' take charge of their loss experienced bro-throu. Dat for them, the whole of the ative suite would be as helpless as a flock of' sheep, and require non rly as much looking after. combassy,, we the orig fully that
good predictions regarding it wil beyond an expression of hope that he verified, and the evil auguries rotated, Extromo views have been oxprossod in both sonsos. Enthusiastic partisans have characterised its a final breaking down of the proverbial harriers of Chinese exclusiveness, as a final abandon mont of the policy of isolation which has hitherto guided Celestial counsels, und as proving a desire to enter into fro and equal intercourse with the rest ofthe world. 'The opponents soe in it—mo for increasing inflaence at Peking; others, to maintain the re-progressive. policy' whith is.beiug so Government to be the repetition, in the car of Foreign Ralers, of the arguments against unrestricted intercourse which find so little sympathy with their subjects, here. We'hinve already disclaimed for Mr. such sinister motive. strongly biassed in favour of the Chi nese, ho is too fully alive to the advantages of that progressive. polic Which' has done. so" mech for his own to become the advocate of graphs will not follow, ena immediate opposite ows. Railways and tole-
and nataral consequence, on his appointment; bat we do think it is an earnest that these and other mensares of improvement are one stage nearer. anueh for the Chinese to abandon their ald standing ground of haughty isola. tion; and 15 SSenowlclgo her quality among the nations of the world. A practical acceptance of the applinncos which have raised other nations abovs their level, and of which they already profess admiration, must soon follow.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.