THose not acquainted with China will probably feel surprise at the manner in which the case as to the Swatow Guild and its monopolies drugs on, After the abundant proofs of interfer. one, 60 complete as tu lave prevented the dealing in the drag by a single individual Leyond a favoured fow, the Court, the Magistrate of which did not hesitate to express his opinion during the progress of the pretended trial, finds it convenient to reserve judgment and, meanwhile, recording to the immemorial custom of Chinn, the abuse goes on unchecked ponding first decision and the reference to Peking. It is only when we look below the surface and examine into the actual position of affairs, Ubut some show of reason for these anomalies displays itself, Had the monopoly of the Swatow Guild been a merely mercantile organisation supported by the superior business capacity of its members or Council, there would have been no inducement for all this delay; practical justice would have been satisfied with the statement of the Taotni at the Mixed Court, that there was no such combine ation as was forbidden by the treaties between China and the various powers, Not only Ohinese mandarins but foreign merchants would have accepted the position that the foreign merchant had been fairly beaten in his own trade, and that superior energy, know. ledge of business, and the command of capital, bad resulted in the transfer from his hands to a ring of native merchants of a profitable staple. The lesson to have been learnt in such case was, however galling, a useful one, and importers and dealers would have had to review their ways and seek to discover, if by better methods of business and a little plainer understanding between themselves, they could not lift their staple out of the quagmire of despondency into which it hud fallen. Bat unfortunately this does not represent the entire of the position; nor are we justified, from the evidence before us, in looking to the Chinese Courts as a dens ex machine from whence justice is to proceed, and by whose notion the entanglement of the plot is to be unravelled and its difficulties solved. In other words, the officials sitting as judges in the Migdothemistic tribunal of mixed causes are scarcely to be looked upon us impartial or disinterested spectators of the game being played by silly mortals; but are, in the very nature of affairs, themselves really parties to the action, It ins been stated, and it has not been denied, that in Shanghai and Chinkiang, at all events, if not at other places, the relations between the Swatow Guild and the officials are of the closest nature. In other words, the Guild undertakes to collect on the opium the tax known as Tekin, and in consideration of doing permitted to make its own arrangements, to chouse out who shall deal in the article and who shall not, and to accept or refuse to clear the opium or receive the tax at its own pleasure. As no opium is permitted to enter the country till it has received the stamp of the Tekin office, and as this stamp is refused to all who do not belong to a certain wrgnnisntion, it will be seen at once that the monopoly, practically enjoyed by the Guild, is founded something beyond the on extraordinary capacity for business of its members, Ibis stated thnt at other ports where the monopoly is not quite fo strict, the Guild system Hy frees opium of lekin on lighter conditions for its own cou: its Uhan for strangers, Now, of course, on the one hand th Chinese Government is free to make ow angemenis for colle revenue, but on the other hand it is also bound to pat down all monopolies for concentrating trade in the hands of such a body as the Into Ca-hong at Gnuton, In many respects the position of that body was analogous to that of the Swatow Guild of to-day. Its importance arose, not from the fact that its members alone were permitted to trade with foreigners, but that, as a trading society, they were entrusted with the collection of due, and became the fiscal agents of the mandarins in their relations with the foreign (rade. Tu fact, there is a farcical resemblance between the recent action ut the Mixed Court and a somewhat. similar appeal made to the Tsung-tuh's Court at Canton, justo hundred nnd fifty years ago. The supercargoes of the Enst Company wished to lay certain grievances before the Viceroy, and succeeded in getting into his yamen, The great man himself did not deign to receive them in person, but sent deputy who soundly rated them for coming without their linguist. hey replied thnt he feared to come without the commands of the yamen. After a time it turned out that he and the hong merchants were all the while in the yamen. The officer rated the supercargoes for troubling him about such petty things, and told them they hud better apply: to the merchants, They replied that "as their grievances came fom the merchants, how could it be supposed that they (with the linguist ever in their interest and under their direct would become instruments in any just accusation against themselves; their present case witnessed they would not; what methods could they then adopt to obtain justice?" Tt, in fact, requires nice discrimination to discover a practical distinction between the position of the Ca-hong at Canton and that attempted to be assumed by the Swatow Guild of to-day. The abuses of the former sssteu, after being endured by the East India Company for upwards of a century, at last broke down when the trade between Great Britain and China became an open one. Indeed, before that time the position of the Ca-hong was becoming embarrassing for its members, 'I'he Chinese authorities had compelled its members to disgorge such large sums of money that it was with the greatest. difficulty its ranks could be filled, and more than once the Com: pany's superintendents asked to have some stable merchants appointed to the Guild in pluck of the bankrupt traders of which it had come to be composed. The Guild a profitable sponge between mandarins and foreigners 5 ib absorbed all that was possible out of the foreign trade and then was squeezed out, and the process was repeated at intervals as time and circumstances offered the opportunity. In much the ame manner the Swatow Guild is now being converted oacurrent to draw off the life-blood of foreign trade, For the nonce it is probe ably highly profitable for the members, and of course the pretence of ita being mercantile association will be held up.
The list of charges made by the Guild seems to point out that the squeezing process is well advanced. Benevolent taxes, levied long after the object for which they were started has disappeared, have un ugly look in the accounts of a mercantile institution, and at all events give rise to the iden that the Paotai's baste in making up his mind, and delay in giving judgment, amy proceed from other causes hesi above of justice in the abstract.
We are sorry to sco that the Chamber of Commerce, whose interests are largely concerned in this matter, has as yet failed to make its ideas.known, Are we to place its apathy-on this score in com. prison with its inertness in the matter of the Woosung Bar? It is difficult to help a community which takes no care of but we should have imagined that even in the midst of unexpected tea profits some time could have been devoted to tuke steps to ascertain the view of the merchants of the If comparatively fow members of the Chamber are directly ougnged in the opium trade, it is well to ree member that it constitutes an import. ant factor in the commerce of China, What to-day is possible with regard to opium, to-morrow muy be imposed on other staples; and thus one by one the developments of trade be effectually presented. In a matter of this sort it is more than unwise—it is suicidal—for the members of a community each to confine his view to the narrow horizon of his own immediate interest, forgot ful of the wider common interests, the neglect of which will certainly recoil on every one in turn,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.