with China that have been removed by the
English treaty, were the following:—

1. The confinement of trade to the single
port of Canton, at the southern extremity of
China, far from the tea districts.

It was provided by the treaty, that four
ports should be open to our trade in addition
to Canton: Amoy and Foo-chow-foo in Fokien
province, Ning-po in Che-keang and Shanghae
in Keang-nan.

2. The restriction of the privilege of trading
with foreigners to a small body of Canton
monopolists called the Hong merchants.

It was provided by the treaty that the
privileges of Hong merchants should cease,
and that we should trade at the five ports
with anybody.

3. The oppressive burthens upon foreign
trade and fiscal regulations generally.

It was provided by the treaty that there
should be a fair and permanent tariff on
export and import duties. On this head it
ought to be noted, that no article at present
entering China is taxed by the Chinese at
more than five per cent, of its value, while
we repress with a duty of two hundred per
cent, the admission of tea into England.

4. Inequality of the Chinese law in its
bearing upon foreigners and natives.

It was provided by the treaty that the
subjects of England in China should be
amenable only to English law, under direction
of consuls at the five ports, and the
plenipotentiary.

5. Conceits of superiority displayed by
the Chinese in holding intercourse with
foreigners.

It was provided by the treaty that officers
of similar rank in the two countries should
correspond on terms of perfect equality.

The treaty obtained by the Americans
included all these points, and added a few
business privileges to which the English by
their compact then became also entitled. It
was provided for example,—

That a vessel having once paid her tonnage
dues, might go from one of the five ports to
another, without being required to pay them
a second time.

That a vessel might remain two days
at any of the five ports without paying
tonnage dues, if she discharged none of her cargo.

That any merchant ship, having landed her
cargo and paid the duties thereon, might
re-ship any portion of the landed goods and
take them to another port for sale, with a
certificate exempting them from a second
payment of duties.

That Chinese subjects might teach the
language of the country, and that the free
purchase of all Chinese books might be legalised.

In the French treaty, there was included
another important article, namely, that ships of
war, cruising for the protection of commerce,
should be received in a friendly manner not
only in the five, but in all ports of China at
which they might touch.

It was further agreed on all sides, that
twelve years after the exchange of ratifications,
the treaty might be revised through
ministers appointed for that purpose by the
respective governments. This revision of the
Chinese treaty will become due, therefore, in.
the year 1855, and the peaceful accord of the
chief European states in making their
requests for the alteration of such plans as have
not been found to work well in practice, may
lead to very good results, if the internal
condition of China be not by that time too
seriously altered for the worse.

Russia has increased her overland trade
with China on the north; Chinese and Usbeck
merchants meet the Russian traders at
Kiachta and Kokand, where the Russians sell
at a loss large quantities of thick blue cloth,
to buy in return tea that will produce an
ample profit. After traversing deserts, huge
piles, yearly increasing, of this Russian cloth
are to be found for sale in Chinese shops at
an exceedingly low price. On the other hand,
the tea and brick tea bought at Kiachta for
seven million dollars, will realise eighteen
millions at the fair of Nischegorod, and so the
Russian merchants are well satisfied. Russia
has courteously made it death to introduce
opium over the land frontiers into China.
The opium trade along the coast has been
connived at, though not legalised, by the
Chinese Government ever since the war.
Russia declines to trade by sea to the five
open ports. Its establishment at Pekin for
acquiring the language has been enlarged
into a political centre, and a diplomatic envoy
from Russia, it is said, has taken up a good
position in the Chinese capital. Possibly, in
1855, we too may ask leave to have a political
resident established at Pekin.

Our trade with China, since the war, has
not increased with any great rapidity. The
Chinese authorities do what they can to force
the teas down to the port of Canton, where
the people are riotous, the geographical situation
is inconvenient, and the harbour is bad;
ships cannot approach the town itself, but
anchor at Whampoa, eight or nine miles
lower down. Canton being, moreover, the old
trading port to which old-fashioned traders,
whose ideas run in a groove, have always
been accustomed, ships are still sent out to
Canton, that might be dispatched much more
wisely to Shanghae.

During the first four years after the opening
of the ports, the value of British exports
and imports to and from Canton, fell from
seven or eight to five or six millions sterling.
The exports and imports to and from Amoy
never reached two hundred thousand pounds.
Foo-chow-foo, which was granted by the
Chinese with difficulty, was found absolutely
worthless as a port. It was occasionally tried
in 1845, and then abandoned by the traders
altogether. At Ningpo, the exports and
imports were worth, in 1844, a sum of about a
hundred thousand pounds, which dropped in