THE  PROVINCES  AND  THE  TREATY  PORTS  2il
veying  to  the  Mcinchu  garrison.  The  Chinese  estimate  of
the  population  is  1,300,000.  Considered  commercially,
Peking  is  a  mouth,  fed  by  the  provinces,  and  having  no
industrial  output  ;  and  yet  the  foreign  purveyors  and
hotel-keepers  who  have  gathered  around  the  Legations  have
found  it  to  their  advantage  to  act  as  if  the  city  had  the
status  of  a  treaty  port—not  one  with  the  duty-exemption
privilege,  but  a  place  in  which  they  are  permitted  to  reside,
to  buy  and  sell,  and  to  act  as  general  traders.  Against  this
assumption  the  Chinese  Government  has  repeatedly  protested. ­

Tientsin  (39 0  9'  N.,  117 0  ii'  E.),  “The  Ford  of  Heaven,”
is  situated  at  the  junction  of  the  Grand  Canal,  which  starting ­
  from  Hangchow  finds  here  the  end  of  its  long  course,
of  the  Peiho  (North  River)  leading  north  to  Peking,  and
of  the  Haiho  (Sea  River)  emptying  into  the  Gulf  of  Pechihli.
The  city  is  distant  from  the  sea  35  miles  by  road,  but  56
miles  by  the  original  corkscrew  windings  of  the  river,  a
distance  since  reduced  to  47  miles  by  the  work  of  the  Haiho
Conservancy,  and  in  time  to  be  reduced  to  36^  miles.  Even
after  all  the  improvement  that  has  been  effected,  there  are
few  cities  in  the  world  of  equal  commercial  importance  or
supplying  so  rich  a  hinterland,  which  have  such  poor  shipping
facilities.  A  bar  on  which  certain  conditions  -of  wind  and
tide  will  reduce  the  high-water  depth  to  three  or  four  feet,
a  channel  in  which  the  summer  floods  will  cause  the  mud
bottom  to  rise  faster  than  the  water  surface,  a  river  of
many  bends  and  restricted  width,  all  combine  to  impose
a  limit  on  the  carrying  capacity  of  steamers  entering  the
port.  The  eternal  struggle  of  the  enterprising  merchants,
foreign  and  native  alike,  of  Tientsin  can  only  be  compared
to  the  fight  of  the  farmers  of  the  province  against  the
forces  of  nature,  both  having  the  same  problem  to  solve.
Tientsin  is,  with  a  few  insignificant  exceptions,  the  one
official  city  of  the  Empire,  of  the  rank  of  district  city,  which
is  to-day  without  the  protection  of  walls  It  was  in  the
reign  of  Yung-lo  (a.d.  1403-1425)  that  it  was  permitted
the  privilege  of  walls  ;  these  endured  until  the  rule  of  the