3881,
Xr, 57,
846
LIFE OF OOBDEN. td
interested in a permanent trade with China. All they aD
desire is that the duties shall be moderate, the trade regular
and that facilities shall be afforded at the ports of entry for
the quick despatch of business. All these conditions exist
in China to as great an extent as in any other considerable
maritime states. Indeed, comparing our trade with Chins
with that with our own possessions in India, it seems likely
that the duties payable in the former will soon be the lighter
of the two! Now all this leads me to press on you and the
other members of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce 0
take some step for the protection of your interests against
the risk of future collisions and wars in that country. The
only way of accomplishing this is by discouraging the British
Government from entering into closer diplomatic relations,
or forcing on that country a resident Ambassador at Pekin,
or seeking for free access for our countrymen to the interior
of that empire. The last is a very plausible but most
perilous situation. The idea of Englishmen ¢ opening up #
trade” in the interior of China commends itself strongly to
those who do not know how commerce is carried on. Bub
any one acquainted with the trade of Russia or other
countries in a low state of civilization, and speaking &
peculiar and difficult language, knows that it is impossible
for foreigners to carry on the interior trade of those countries.
It must all be left to natives. There is a proposal for carrying
our productions in English ships up the great arterial
river of that country into the interior. Now this would be
totally at variance with all international law, unless the trade
were confined to some one or more ports of entry to be
agreed upon. But once let an Finglish trading steamer find
itself 500 or 1000 miles in the interior of China, and how
could you hope to prevent irregular trade taking place, to be
followed by constant collisions with local authorities, who
would, no doubt, be exposed to a system of bribery by which
