A sort time ago we discussed in these colunins dhe question whether, by virtue of Article XII in the Treaty of Tientsin, foreigners had any right to establish mercantile establishments in the Capital of China, It will be re. membered that, in the article devoted to this subject, we expressed a cautious opinion that the phrase "ports, and other places," might bear an interpretation favourable to the privilege in in. dispute, The question does not arise now for the first time; and as our attention kas been directed to an authoritative deliverance upon the subject, made by the present Minister for the United Kingdom, we conceive it our duty to lay his explanation of the mutter before the public, The Treaty was framed with his assistance, when acting iv cho capacity of Private Secretary to Lord Elgin; and the Memoran. dum from which we are about to quote was drawn up by him in December, 1868, just ten years and a half subsequent to the date of the Treaty of Tiontsin, and published in the Blue Book of Correspoudouce on the Revision of that Treaty in 1871. The language of Sir Thomas Wade is sufficiently distinct and definite to need no amplification from ourselves; and is satisfactory, in far that it recognises the ambiguity of the phrase in question, and its liability to be miscontraed.
The next Article, Article XU, provid that British subjects, whether at the po or at'other places, desiring to build or open houses, warehouses, etc., should make their agrements for the laud or buildin, they require at the rates prot ing among the people, equitably and without exaction on cither side. The words ' other places? are hela by a large proportion of British subjects, if not by the entire community, to concede then the right to is themselves in the interior just as atthe perts. [am myself resper the suggestion that these words inserted, and 1 admit that some other form of expression might have boon chosen, which would have more exactly defined the privilege it was in contemplation to obtain. The words used have been misundersto:
By the Treaty of 1812, Article U1, it was agreed that British subjects, with their families and establishments, should be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.