Of all' European nations, Portugal might be considered the least likely to come into with the remotest and most pacific of ie Powers; and some reflection may probably be needful to recall the point of contact at which disagreement could be Macao, ths little rocky peninsula guarding the western entrance to the Canton Tiver, is almost forgotten by all but the most diligent geographers, as a port once the emporium of our own trade in those waters; but the blue and white ensign of the Bra, gangas still fies over its imposing, even if obsolete, fortifications; and, with an unquestioning fidelity rare in these days of colonial fidgetiness, its "Loyal Senate" annually remits to Lisbon a round sum in aid of the revenues of the mother-country. The flag of Portugal hias indeed waved over Macao for upwards of three centuries; but even the Japse of time has not proved sufficient to establish a solid title to the ownership of the peninsula, On the contrary, nothing can be more clearly shown, although the fact may have gained little notoriety, than that China has never yielded her sovereign rights over Macao to Portugal, and that' the last named Power exercises but a precarious authority over the tract which she professes to govern as a colonial possession, from 1597, when the first Portuguese adventurers inthe China Sea were permitted to "erect storehouses" upon what was then an island, or barren rocky promontory jutting out from an unfrequented coast, until 1840, Macao was in fact an integral part of China, go: verned by a Chinese mandarin so far as its native population and its revenues wore concerned, the Portuguese being allowed, in virtue of ancient conventions, to regulate their own affairs on a footing similar to that on which the consular and municipal -government of ports such as Shanghai and Hankow is at. present conducted. Advantage was subsequently taken of the breakdown of the external power and authority of the Chinese Government which was effected by our war of 1841-2 to suppress the functions of the Chinese officials, and at last to drive them from their residence at Macao but simultaneously with the establishment of undivided authority, on the part of Por tugal over the peninsula, came the rise of a British colony on the opposite side of the estuary, when all legitimate commerce at once deserted the shallow and' inconvenient roadstead of Macao for the magnificent har-hour and abundant facilities ollred by! the port of Hongkong.
For twenty years past the business carried on by Europeans and Americans at Macao has been confined almost entirely to a traffic in human merchandize—victims for the siger plantations of Cuba and the guano diggings of Pers—which has revived on a large scale the horrors of the African Slave trade j- whilst the Chinese, who have found: tinder Pot guese rule 2 convenient footing for: illicit traffic, have made the port a: depot' for smuggling transactions in salt -ani@ opium with the adjacent: coast, Vessels: under every flag but the British—for our own is honourably free from: all connection with this infamous traflic—havo. been employed" conveying thousands of kidnapped Chinese annually to Havana and the Chineas; but it is only fair to add that. the Portuguese Government have, as a rule, shown: exemplary politeness in their. acknowledgments of the receipt of remonstrances which from time to time the British envoy at Lisbon' has been directed to address to the Ministry of For. eign Affaire. These remonstrances, based upon the clearest evidence ' supplied both: our Consuls in-China and by the Government of Hongkong, have thus far remained practi cally unheeded, and the yellow slave trade is shown by the latest advices from China, be as flourishing as ever. Appeals are made from time to time by Europeans residing in China for a joint action on the part of the Powers to terminate, by force if necessary, the scandal which the 'Portuguese: Government is either unable or unwilling to suppress but, apart from the difficulty: of concerting harmonious measures' in these days of strife and jealousy, there' is weight in the assertion that to the Chinese Government alone belongs the. duty. of forbidding. the: further exporta~ tion of its subjects from Macao,' 'There can be no doubt that-a Chinese blockade' of the fsction of the ink-loads of poor eroaturoswho, would effectually prevent the intro* after a sham of official inspection, "are transferred to the coolie ships and sent. actes the sea; but considerations of humanity have
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.