the merchants of England, in words which may be regarded as
his final and farewell utterance on the subject, that with them must now
chiefly lie the responsibility of aiding or retarding the development of
China, and thus of determining the place she shall hold in the commonwealth
of nations.

My Lord Mayor (be said), I should be very much to blame if, having an
opportunity of addressing an assembly in this place, I omitted to call
attention to the fact that the occasional misconduct of our own
countrymen and other foreigners in China is one of the greatest,
perhaps the very greatest, difficulties with which the Queen's
representatives there have to deal. We send out to that country
honourable merchants and devout missionaries, who scatter benefits in
every part of the land they visit, elevating and raising the standard
of civilisation wherever they go. But sometimes, unfortunately, there
slip out from among us dishonest traders and ruffians who disgrace our
name and set the feelings of the people against us. The public opinion
of England can do much to encourage the one class of persons and
discourage the other. I trust that the moral influence of this great
city will always be exerted in that direction. In addressing the
merchants of Shanghai some three years ago, at the time when I
announced to them that it was my intention to seek a treaty in Pekin
itself if I could not get it before I arrived there, I made this
observation--that when force and diplomacy should have effected in
China all that they could legitimately accomplish, the work which we
had to do in that empire would still be only in its commencement. I
repeat that statement now. My gallant friend who spoke just now has
returned his sword to the scabbard. The diplomatist, as far as treaty-
making is concerned, has placed his pen on the shelf. But the great
task of construction--the task of bringing China, with its extensive
territory, its fertile soil, and its industrious population, as an
active and useful member, into the community of nations, and making it
a fellow-labourer with ourselves in diffusing over the world happiness
and well-being--is one that yet remains to be accomplished. No persons
are more entitled or more fitted to take a part in that work than the
merchants of this great city. I implore them, then, to devote
themsel