To the Euditur of the Sim,—All, I believe, admit that the terms in which the Into audience was granted to Foreigners are disrespectful; yet there seems to exist some difference of opinion as to the amount of disrespect shown in the Edict of June 14th, A question of this kind, it appears to me, must be deter-ruined by the meaning and force attache by the Chinese themselves to the terms employed, us shown by their own use' of them in oficial and other writings, It is quite beside this question to inquire what construction Foreigners are willing to put upon these terms; for students of the language will naturally be guided in this spect by the opinions of their teachers, who are to them the ultimate source of all information on Chinese subjects of this kind.
The only intimation we receive from the Edict itself thatit applies to Foreigners at all, is from the phrase Tsung-lo Yamun," which we, in common with those Chinese with whom we have intercourse, happen to know is the Peking Office in which foreign affairs are attended to, In places in the interior, however, where it may not-even be known that there are any natives of Western nations in China, no information on that point can possibly be derived from this Edict. No term equip: Jent to.our work " Foreign" is to be found in the document, The use of the term designate Foreign
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.