Ovr Tientsin Correspondent lately suggested that, if the Chinese Government had had the grace to acknowledge publicly the service rendered by Mr. Wade in connexion with the Japan difficulty, it might have had good effect on our relations with the people. It is not unlikely; but, as he remarked, the act would have involved both common sense and honesty! Not only so, but it would have involved recognizing the existence of England as a power instead of a tributary nonentity. Obviously, intervention at a critical moment, and the bringing together of opponents who were at the point of rupture, implies some influence; and influence at an Asiatic Court implies power. Whereas the policy of the Peking Government has been to ignore the very existence of Foreigners in official print. Their corporeal existence and presence in the empire is a fact too pal-bably disagreeable to be got over, But the humiliation need at least not be acknowledged in print—not even when the Emperor had to receive their Envoys, who were too ill-bred to conform to Celestial ceremony. The escape of a criminal from a country gaol, the degradation of a petty magistrate for incapacity, or the interposition of snake at a critical moment in the fate of an embankment, are all matters worthy of notice, Even visits of Tribute-bearers from Liuchin or from Burmah, redounding as they must to glory of the Emperor and the vanity of the people, are dwelt upon at length. But it would be impossible to disguise that Western barbarians are here ati a somewhat different footing from Asiatic tributaries, Their claim to equality, however monstrous, would probably somehow crop: out; or some unrensonable Envoy would object to the terms in which his insignificant country was mentioned; and the result generally might be to shake the conviction of the masses in the unquestioned supremacy of the Emperor, and sosilenceis maintained. To have acknowledged in the Peking Gaxetto the action of Mr. Wade in the Tapanese difficulty, would have been to break through the established rule, and would'have involved all these possible inconveniences—for what purpose The Chinese officials have no wish to create friendly relations -between their people and foreigners; on the contrary, they prefer to keep us at arm's length, and to confine our intercourse to the narrowest relations of trade. They are incapable of conceiving the obligation to do a thing because it is in itself graceful and honorable; and their interest—from their narrow stand-point—rather pointed adversely to the proceeding.
As, however, they show no disposition to grow-wiser of their own accord, it is nearly time wisdom was forced upon them, and official recognition of our status demanded. Art. VIII of the Convention of Peking requires that, as soon as the ratifications of the Treaty of Tientsin shall have been exchanged, the Emperor "shall, by decree, command the high authorities in the Capital and in the Provinces to print and publish the aforesaid Treaty and the present Convention, for general information and we believe the Treaty was published in the Peking Gazette of 1860, but French missionaries in the interior discovered that the copies sent inland had been carefully expurgated just as, at the time of the Audience, the copies of the Gazette sent inland contained a satirical account of the whole affair, while those destined for the neighborhood of Treaty ports were decorously silent. Now the recent proceedings in Yunnan may be taken to show that it is as requisite inland mandarins should read Foreign treaties, as those who are condemned to intercourse with us at the thirteen open ports. Mr. Wade, in an able despatch written shortly after the Tientsin Massacre, blamed the Government for not educating their officials in regard to Foreigners, and elicited from Prince Kung a proclamation regarding their position, which was probably not all that Mr, Wade himself could have desired, but which would still have done good if it had been posted as required at the gates of every city in the Empire. This, however, was of course not done. What was done was to follow the precedent of the treaty publication' in 1860, A few copies in small type were posted at the treaty ports, but Missionaries in the interior generally reported that they neither saw nor heard of the document. The present occasion might be wisely taken to insist. on the publication of all the Foreign treaties in the Gazette, without equivocation or reservation, as the best way of making these important engagements known to the mass of the officials and the people. The people accept what is stated in the Gazette as gospel, and if the treaties were all published there and largely circulated, every official in the Empire would get idea of the true status of foreigners China. At present, we doubt if one in a thousand has over read a single treaty.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.