Tr used to be the custom in the days of Sir Frederick Bruce and Sir Rather-ford Alcock, to represent the British Merchant in China as an individual continually fulminating threats of bloody retribution, and eager on every side to light up the embers of war. We do not know that the disposition of the average Merchant has altered since that time; but it is certainly noticeable that, during the present crisis, there has, amongst the mercantile community, been a general absence of any desire for war on its own account. The Foreign communities in China have been 50 often misrepresented, and their just complaints misstated, that it is only fair and reasonable that this statement of the condition of public feeling should be taken into account. In point of fact, the Merchants, as a body, would deprecate a war undertaken before every conciliatory measure had failed. At the same time, they have had no hesitation in stating their opinion that, of two evils, that of war might possibly be the less, The measures adopted by the Chinese to recoup themselves for the expenses of the last war, and in an evil moment sanctioned by the representatives of the British Government, aren't reassuring as to what might bathe result of another successful campaign. Viewed economically, it is uncertain even that the finances of Great Britain were really advantaged by the amount of indemnity paid by the Chinese Government. It is notorious that these payments were made from the revenues derived from our own trade, and that the British Minister, Sir Frederick Bruce, permitted encroachments to be made on treaty rights which have ever since weighed with an almost insuperable pressure on the development of our trade with Ohina, Doubtless Sir Frederick Bruce thought that, in yielding to the temptation induced by the momentary pressure of circumstances, he would still be ina position to check, when necessary, the downward movement. It is, however, often the first false step that determines the result, and the admissions made by the British Minister have since been steadily adopted and carried out by the Chinese Government. The indemnity has long ago been paid; the Taiping rebellion long ago extinguished; but the hardens on trade permitted in an evil moment, still continue in full force and vigour. This, however, forms but one of the reasons why the communities in China have not been anxious for war, War in fact may be dis metly described as the antagie element to trade, and this rule is as true in China as elsewhere, It is probable that the absurd picture of the British Merchant in China with a pistol in one hand and a piece of shirt. ings in the other, has ceased to scare the ordinary British official; and that those entrusted wi terests have learned that the ordinary merchant has sense enough to perceive that his success in business depends mainly on the good understanding he has been able to cultivate with his constituents, Of course there are always men who find it their interest to fish in troubled waters, but the ordinary merchant is not of this type; and the more essentially mercantile a community becomes, the less likely is it to provoke warlike measures. Still there are conditions worse than war, as there are states of the atmosphere when a thunder. storm is a godsend; and into this condition our relations with China had
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.