Ir British Statesmen under certain circumstances, as after successful wars, have succeeded in making many successfal treaties, it is also noteworthy that no nation has, without apparent cause, been so ready as England to retire from an advantageous position once attained by treaty. The recent modification of the treaty of Paris, giving up the neutrality of the Black Sea, is only one instance of a series of many within the present century. In her dealings with China, the same propensity has been marked. No Sooner was treaty agreed on, than the utmost efforts were made, by trade regulations and amended readings, to render inoperative ils most important stipulations. A few weeks ago, in reviewing the decision of the Supreme Court at Hongkong in the Nouvelle Peelope case, we had occasion incideutally to refer to a treaty with China inter mediate in date between those of Nanking and Tientsin, which, although now nearly forgotten, had for many years an important influence on our trade with © This treaty, signed at Hoomunehai or Bogue, 1 Sir R. Pottinger and Keying, ly intended to regulate the tariff' not finally fixed at Nan! " and to establish trade regulations for the five ports opened by that instrument. It was, however, taken advantage of by the Chinese to obtain the insertion of clauses ingeniously calculated to secure the isolation of Hongkong, ceded under the former treaty, from any participa. tion in the China trade. This was accomplished by the stipulations which required that junks or Chinese vessels trading with Hongkong should be provided with port clearances from one or ofter of the five ports, and that moreover an officer should be appointed in the Colony whose duty it was not only to see that all native vessels were provided with such passes, but to return said passes to the Chinese authorities as soon as the trip for which they were granted should have expired. And the clause provided for the extradition of "lawless natives of China having committed offences against their own Government," a claim under which, as noticed, was attempted to be set up in the Noucelle Penelope case. It may seem strange, did we not know the persistence with which Chinese officials stick to their joint, and the plausible colouring they are in the habit of applying to their propositions, that the British Superintendent of Trade, who was at the same time Governor of Hongkong, should have agreed to stipulations of suck a nature. How Keying received Sir Henry Pottinger, how cleverly he affected the outward signs and language of prayress, how the two dined and sung together, are well known in the history of our intercourse with China, as also the melancholy story of Keying's persecutions and final death. In China, however, the most natural results do not always follow from any definite course of action. It might have been anticipated, as it actually happened, that the granting of port clearances to native junks proceeding to Hongkong, could not be popular with native mandarins. Hongkong this respect placed in a worse position than Singapore, Siam or any other of the adjacent countries. The Chinese authorities were not to be troubled with granting port clearances for Hongkong, and in consequence the junk owners did not greatly care to subject themselves to squeezes by so doin, The trade which might fairly have cen-fred in Hongkong went to Canton in preference, 50 that the Factories increased in number and importance as the coasting trade grew. Hongkong was even more shut out from the trade with the unopened ports; it was made actually illegal for a Uhinese junk hailing from others than the five treaty ports, to attempt to discharge her cargo in a British port. The treaty of Nanking excluded from those ports likewise all British owned ships, but threw on the Chinese, not the authorities, the task of punishing infractions of the rale. British vessels, in the day when Foreign inspectorates were not, found that they could readily arrange with local officials to allow their vessels to load and discharge, and so it happened that, for many years before the outbreak of the " Arrow" war, the coast of China was practically more open to foreign trade than at the present moment. Although bound by a short-sighted treaty to seize Chinese vessels trading between Hongkong and the ports, no such obligation Jay on the Hongkong authorities with regard to British or foreign owned ships. The Kum-sing-moon, the Na-mea Straits, Chinchow Harbour, and even Wenchow in Chebkiang became regular stations for receiving ships, whereat the coast was supplied with opium, and to a limited extent with other goods. Hongkong itself derived from the irregular traffic some of the benefits which the more direct communication would have ensured for it, and ander the circumstances grew, thofigh slowly, in importance, till the acts of the Viceroy of Canton, in 1857, finally rendered it the emporium of foreign trade in South-China. In the new treaty of Tientsin, that of Nanking was finally ratified and held to be still in force, while no notice was taken of that of the Bogue which in consequence has lapsed, and only appears now and then in connection with some Ordinance of the Colony of Hongkong, such as that under which the rendition of the Chi-j nese in the Nouvelle Penelope case was claimed by the Chinese authorities. The whole episode of the new treaty, taken in connection with the somewhat similar convention of Sir Rather-ford Alcock, may be looked upon as fairly characteristic of British statesmanship, ready after hard knocks to enforce an arrangement to both parties, but apt without due reason to withdraw to its own disadvantage, from some abstract feeling of hardship or carelessness.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.