Ar a recent meeting of the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce, the Hon. F. B. Johnson paid a deserved tribute to the value of Chinese industry and Chinese trade to foreign mercantile interests in China. The interests of foreigners and Chinese la commercial affairs, he said, are one. "I conceive," he continued, (hat it is to foreign skilled enterprise and foreign capital in ce-operation with the immense industry, the undeveloped aptitudes, and the natural resources at the disposal of the Chinese that we must look for our common prosperity. T folly recognise the fact that we are indebted to our Chinese friends for the mainstay of our prosperity in this place, and I hope that under every successive Governor not only will their wants be considered and their opinions taken, but even their prejudices respected." The same remarks are most certainly applicable to the mutual positions of Chinese and foreigners in Shanghai, and we think the time is come when the policy of our Manicipal government us regards the Chinese living in our midst should be estabished upon some recognised basis, and the principles which actuated it accurately and clearly defined, A teat question arose on this point at the Inst Ratepayers' Meeting, and the discussion it excited was valaable as bringing forward opinions on all sides sides of the question and giving an opportunity for their free and un. biassed ventilation. It related to the increasing number of Chinese vehicles on the outlying roads of the Settlement, and the policy or impolicy of doubling the taxes imposed. Now it seems to us that there is one principle of universal application which is as ap. propriate to this particular question as to all cognate ones. Among the many sources of discontent alleged againat the Chinese by their American fellow. residents in San Francisco is that they are content with making money there, and afterwards spend it elsewhere. It is generally admitted that 2 mau who ives and grows wealthy in a given place should at any rate make such a return as is inyolyed in contributing to the welfare of that place and encouraging its trade. The one idea of the Chinese emigrant hitherto, how-over, las been to spend his American earned riches in China; and the policy has been condemned as a selfish and unproductive one, It behoves us there. fore to encourage the Chinese who acquire money in Shanghai to spend it on the spot, and thereby do their part towards helping it to prosper. Wo hold that it is to our interest, and the interest of foreigners in China generally, to render the open ports a centre of comfort, and luxury, and at. traction in the eyes of wealthy natives, The prejudice against foreign way till formidably strong among pro cials, and especially among provincial mandating, There is reason to fear that the influence of the uew Viceroy of Nanking will not be altogether in favour of those schemes and projects which foreigners entertain, and with which the more enlightened and progressive among his nationals are inclined to sympathise, It is therefore our wisdom to do everything in our power to bring home to the well-disposed Chinese the excellence of foreign iustitutions, in small as well as more important matters; and this cannot be done more easily or more practically than in allowing them the full benefit of such phases of civilised life as they are brought into contact with in the different foreign Settlements. Shang. hai is, to every Chinaman who comes here, an eye-opener in every sense of the word. The instrument of physical and mental torture known to foreignera as a Peking cart is, in the view of a native of the Capital, a dignified and commodious vehicle, sanctified by the patronage of Imperial princesses in our own day and by that of Confucius himself in days of yore; for its con struction then appears to have been much the same as it is now. But when that simple soul arrives in Shanghai,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.