Wo reprint, for the sake of record, the despatch which Sir Rutherford Alcock addressed to Lord Clarendon, in transmitting the text of the new Convention.
My Lord,—A Supplementary Convention to the Treaty of Tientsin was signed in quadra-plicate on the 23rd instant by his Imperial Highness the Prince of Kung and the Ministers of the Yamen as the plenipotentiaries of his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of China, and by me on the part of her Majesty.
One of the four copies I have now the honour to inclose for ratification; should it be approved by her Majesty's Government, as trust, I believe it will be found to secure advantages far in advance of the objects contemplated in the XXVIIth Article of Treaty. A revision of the tariff and commercial articles is all that is there provided for; but the present Convention goes much beyond this, open ing now ports, establishing bonded warehouses, giving the right of navigating inland waters in foreign owned vessels, of renting places for storage and temporary residence in the interior; these are all innovations of great prospective importance.
'The Convention will also be found to have effected all that was contemplated as desirable by the Board of Trade in their report of the 19th May last, and otherwise to be in general conformity with the instructions conveyed in your Lordship's despatches Nos. 92 and 107, dated respectively the 2ist May and the 4th of June.
I shall best economise your Lordship's time, I belove, in reference to details and the bearing of the different articles by inclosing a copy, with the marginal notes attached to each article, which Mr. Hart supplied at my request. This, taken with the inclosed copy of my explanatory despatch to M. de Rehfues, as the Doyen of the Corps Diplomatique, leaves me but little to add by way of explanation.
I look upon the arrangements entered into for the collection of transit dues and the total exemption of all foreign textile fabrics in the me provinces in which are Treaty port, the most important advantage gained by the Convention, and if ratified and carried into operation, I have very little doubt that the end proposed, total exemption from such charges or exactions, will be fairly secured.
OF course this and other stipulations involve of necessity the concurrence of the other Treaty Powers, not only because a compulsory payment of the hall-import duty at the time and place of importation has boon substituted for the existing rule, which left it optional, bnt also from the fact that the Convention stipulates, in return for this, the reduction of duties on articles of foreign trade, and other considerable advantages—an in: crease in the duty on opium and on silk; the former to the amour of 24 per cent ad valorem, and the latter a fraction over 1 per cent. One part of the Convention cannot, be taken and the other rejected. Tt must be accepted or rejected by all the Treaty Powers, as a whole and it is easy to see there may be considerable difficulty in obtaining such a consensus of opinion as will be required to that end. France has always refused to be bound by any conditions attaching to concessions made to other Powers, while claiming, under the "most-favoured nation" clause and two special articles, the full enjoyment of any advantages so 'IXth Article of the French Treaty, signed at gained: This is expressly stipulated in the Tientsin; and by the XIth Article it is still farther provided for in the following words
tion consignee expressément dans La présente sei Hest ailleurs entendu que toute obliga Convention ne saura tre impose aux Consuls on aux Agents Consulaires non plus qua leurs nationaux, landis que, comme ilaété stipule, les Francais jouiront de tous les droits, privily egos, immunités, et garanties queleonques qui auraient ete on' qui servient accordes par lo Governmenment Chinois 4 d'autres Puis-
Were China strong enough to assert her international rights in defiance of any foreign Power, her Government could, of course, refuse to allow a right conceded to one country, under certain conditions, to be enjoyed by other irrespectively of these. They would be perfectly entitled fo say, We have engaged to give you the treatment of the most-favoured
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.