Sir Roraserorp Atcoc's rules for joint investigation in cases of confiscation were the subject of much unfavourable discussion at the time they were promulgated, and it was generally supposed that they had not received the sanction of the home Government. At all events, it is characteristic of the spirit in which British trade has been carried on in China, that for a space of upwards of seven years, no occasion had arisen for appeal to a set of rules which had passed out of people's recollection; and the prevailing opinion with regard to which was that, like similar despatches from the Into Minister on the subject of Tea Duties, Security Chops, Customs Totties at Swatow, é&c., &c., they had passed into oblivion, whence there was ho occasion to recall them. It was, therefore, with a feeling of some surprise that it was found those yules were to be put in practice in the ease of the Carisbrooke. There has never been, so far as we are aware, any public notification of their acceptance by the British Government. They seem to have been drawn up by the late Minister on his own responsibility, acting in concert with Prince Kung, and display all the one-sided disregard of mercantile usages which might be expected from such a source: Our Hongkong contemporaries have drawn attention to the fundamental injustice of rules which appoint the same official at the same time prosecu-for and judge; and, we may add, give him in addition a pecuniary interest in the result. The point is, in fact, forcibly put forward in a sentence of Captain Scott's defence, which Sir Robertson would not let him read in Court:—* "I beg respectfully to protest against the constitution of a tribunal which does or can or may include wholesale system of smuggling alleged to be carried on by British merchants in China, that it is only seven years after their promulgation that an opportunity has offered of putting them in practice. It is, however, very evident from what has transpired, that the interested parties, the Mandarins at Canton, are prepared to stretch to their utmost limits the rules so foolishly agreed to by the late Minister. There is an ancient parable of a man who was forgiven his debts by his creditors, and whose first use of the pardon granted him, was to attempt to exact from his fellow-servant. This case of the Carisbrooke is something of the same nature. Technically, the Carisbrooke had not gone to the port of Kiungchow, though practically her business was with it. It is now nearly sixteen years since the Chinese Government solemnly engaged to open the port of Kiungchow to British trade. Some five years ago, a Consular officer was sent down to take charge of the port, which it was announced would be immediately opened. By a combination of accidents—among which the death of Mr. C. D. Williams, who was to have been the pioneer merchant, was most prominent—and by the aid of much cold water from the Chinese, the opening was again delayed, and " trade which is in accordance with the Treaty, and should have been long ago declared legal, is still subject to be condemned by officials and outraged by Customs cruisers—as smuggling. The use the Chinese have made of the power left with them has been to attempt, by every measure in their power, to stifle the trade of the West coast. The so-called smuggling trade along that coast, which has excited the virtuous indignation of that peculiar class whose sympathies B,}are ever on the side of the wrongdoer, was a trade provided for legitimately, under the Treaty of Tientsin, and which is now only so far clandestine that the presence of armed vessels engaged in repressing it renders concealment necessary in order to carry it on at all.
an old rale at law, that a man cannot plead his own laches in furtherness of his suit. Yet were it not for the laches of the Chinese Government, they would have had no case at all against the Carisbrooke. Persistently we have been informed by the Canton authorities, that the trade of Kiungchow was of so paltry a nature that it was not worth while to open it; and our own authorities have been content to accept the plea, and permit the con. sequent injustice. We, however, find that the freight and passenger list of the Carisbrooke showed as earnings to the ship, from her call at Hainan, no less than twelve hundred dollars.
If the Chinese Government are so anxious to have treaty: stipulations carried out on one side, it is only fair that they should be made to bear the consequences of their own infringe. ments. Place against the value of the Carisbrooke, the wrongs done to British trade along the West Const by their own flagrant misconduct, and the Hoppo at Canton would have little reason to plume himself on the result,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.