Iv is an old truism that in China things go by contraries, but perhaps the general development of the rule is to be found in the elaborate manner in which the Chinese, with the aid in a great measure of the Foreign Customs establishment, have succeeded in building up a protective system, not as elsewhere of the native against the foreigner, but actually of the foreigner as against the native. It reflects honour, however, on the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, that that body has set itself to remove one, atleest, of the developments of that system, in its memorials on the Inland Transit Pass question, and it is owing mainly to its exertions, that " tardy order was sent removing the difficulties under which the native, as compared with the foreigner, Inbonred in his own country. That the removal of the restriction on native trade was more nominal than real, we may see in the fact that the native is still so distrustful of his own people, that sooner than run the risk of a difficulty occurring about the carriage of goods in his own' name, he prefers to fee a foreigner to take out the pass for him. How zealous is the determination with which this peculiar system of protection is carried out, we may sometimes learn even from such diplomatic documents as the Customs Trade Reports. Speaking of an increase in the import of foreign sugar at Chinkiang, we find the Commissioner delivering himself of the following statement, This increase, he tells us, "may be accounted for by the severe measures taken lately to prevent the Chinese dealers in sugar from declaring here as foreign—for the purpose of obtaining a Transit Pass inland—sugar which had been imported at Shanghai native, paying only the half trade duty." Now without some explanation, the foregoing utterance would scarcely be taken to mean that every measure which ingenuity could suggest has been adopted to throw difficulties in the way of the import of sugar by Chinese. The severe measures we believe consisted mainly in confiscating sugar bags which had been re-marked, and in.refusing to grant transit certificates in cases where marks had been obliterated. More than one consideration is to be taken in account before we can understand the true bearing of these arbitrary acts. In the first place it may be stated that all sugar imported, whether named native or foreign, is really of native growth, the so-called foreign sugar being merely sugar which, by native exactions, has been forced out of its natural course and sent to Hongkong, to enjoy the benefit of 8 foreign import. In the next place, it is hardly necessary to remark that marks on sugar bags are of a Peouliarly transitory nature, and that their preservation is a matter rather of wonder than the reverse. In the third place, the districts from which the sugar comes, have been able, by the force of circumstances, to throw a by no means inconsiderable amount of wealth into the district of which Chinkiang is the port, and have in fact by their demands for rice caused the recovery from a wilderness of large tracts of ground, which otherwise would have remained unproductive, or if tilled would have had no outlet for their produce. And it certainly deserves notice, that in face of those facts, the Acting Commissioner should have thought fit, not only to take the "severe measures" on which he evidently prides himself, to interfere with trade, but should have gone further, and attempted to gibbet respectable' firms by placing them in the black list at the end of the volume; the sum total of the offence consisting, not even in the substitution of one sort or one package of goods for another, but mostly in the interchange of marks, and this on such a commodity as sugar, where marks are notoriously fleeting and of little account. The injury to the trade of the port has probably only been temporary, though we believe that for some time the inquisitorial system in use had the effect of entirely stopping consignments. Such is the way in which the Chinese Government declares to the world its desire to uphold its engagements with foreigners. It gives with a sullen grace what has been wrung out of it, but plainly intimates by its treatment of those men over whom it can ex-excise control what it would, had it the power, do in the case of all, When we come to the case of exports we find the same system of protection in force. We might naturally imagine that an astute or perhaps unprincipled Government might so far attempt to annul the advantages to foreigners of forced treaties as, by a judicious system of differential. dues and preferences, to take the bread out of foreigners' mouths and place itin those of its own subjects. The progress which Prince Kung is fabled to have pro-phossied might take such a course, and foreigners to a certain extent might be stabbed with their own weapons. The class of men who live on declarations of peas and lily-flowers might find the ground cut from under their feet, and a Chinese merchant flag might become a possibility instead of a thing of the imagination. We have heard of men magnifying their office before this, and were to look for this exaltation of office anywhere in China, we should naturally turn to the Foreign Customs Service. We might imagine that a Commissioner would delight in the exercise of those acts which would swell his own returns, and add dignity and importance to the trade of the port over which he might be fancied to preside. Naturally this is what we should expect to see, but what we really do see is a thing of a very different nature. It would seem as if the rule of contraries were too strong for those who are in any measure brought even near its influence. We find, on the contrary, petulant complaints against the very measures whose adoption would add real dignity and importance to the trade of the country. We hear growls about foreigners acting for Chinese we hear of attempts to interpret trade regulations in the most narrow spirit as if intended only for foreigners; we hear of technicalities raised about goods simply passing through a port. - Every attempt is in fact made to force the Chinese to look on foreigners as the favoured nation, and when the Chinaman, baffled at every turn, has at last recourse to foreign assistance, the growl at the depravity of human nature rises higher and higher. We are quite willing to admit that every foreigner in the Customs department does not share those -retrogressive views. There are honourable exceptions, of men who, while they regretted the course of things, were far-sighted enough to retrain from unfounded abuse, or when open abuse has been discouraged, from innuendo. Unfortunately, for the present at least, this class of men is, judging from recent Reports, in a minority in the Maritime Customs.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.