As we remarked in a former article, no atonement for the Yunnan outrage can well satisfy the British Government, at this distance of time, without such further concessions as will go to prove that the Chinese intend pursuing a more honest policy in future. The tale of an attack by savages inspired by sight of the baggage with a desire for plunder, is simple nonsense, in view of the facts and the evidence in our hands, The outrage was pre-arranged and directed by some one; and the failure of the Central Government during all the time which has since elapsed, to produce the instigator, leads inevitably to the conclusion that they are themselves responsible. When a Jong course of dishonesty and evasion of obligations is closed by such an act of treachery, it is more than time that very distinct guarantees of amendment should be given before we consent replace relations on their former foot ing. What measures would be likely to satisfy the British Government, with this object, we may infer from the terms of a despatch written by Lord Derby at the close of the negociations which resulted in Mr. Grosvenor's departure for Yunnan. After a significant hint that it is out of consideration for Chinese weakness, and not from avy lack of strength on her own part, that England has abstained from enforcing the conditions which China has systematically violated, Lord Derby goes on to say—"The treatment on a proper footing of the Ministers of friendly Powers, the representation of China in this and other foreign countries, the proper protection of foreigners travelling in China, the execution of the Treaty stipulations in regard to trade and other matters, the establishment of commercial relations between India and Western China, are all subjects to which Her Majesty's Government attach great. "importance." Wo can hardly be wrong, then, in inferring that concessions on these points will be required as essential to a settlement of the present difficulty. So far from the Government of China awake ing to a sense of its duties in respect of foreign relations, and taking advantage of the grace allowed it to gradually approximate its conduct to the requirements of trouties, it has rather increased than diminished the burdens on trade, and is as far as ever from admitting foreign ministers frankly to the position and the rights of audience claimed for them by Lord Elgin in accordance with the custom of civilised nations.
Werely that the present opportunity will be taken to put these matters once for all ona proper footing. As Sir Thomas Wade remarked in one of his despatches to Prince Kung, nota month has passed since the signature of the Treaty of Tientsin, that one or other foreign Minister has not bad occasion to complain of some act of bad faith on the part of the provincial mandarins. And there is only too much evidence that the spirit of their instructions from the Peking Government has tended to encourage them in this obstructiveness. Ina despatch of the 24th September last, when the withdrawal of the Legation from Peking seemed an imminent contingency, the British Minister wrote must warn her Majesty's Government that I have even less hope than some time since, of satisfactory termination of this enquiry; that I have, if possible, less confidence than ever in the security of the future; and that if the dignity of the Government is to be respected in China, and duo protection insured to the persons and interests of British subjects, Her Majesty's Government must reckon on other means than Treaties, of which the majority of Chinese officials are ignorant, or which the few acquainted with them never hesitate to ignore. A secret Decree of the 12th November, 1860, a copy of which I append to this despatch, prescribed the course of action to be pursued in the provinces in the regu. lation of trade. In the preparation of rules affecting it, care was to be taken that a spirit of restriction should abide. It is with sincere regret that I find myself constrained to admit that no other spirit has been manifested, when ther in the capital or the provinces, since the day the British Treaty first came into operation."—We may safely conjecture that the present occasion will hardly be let pass without insisting that the wrongs so forcibly described shall be clearly remedied; that a thorough settlement of the commercial question, withdrawal of the taxes which have been illegally imposed on trade and a distinct concession of the rights stipulated for in the Tientsin Treaty, will be required as an essential fulfilment of existing obligations, and as an essential guarantee of good faith for the future.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.