he
deeds complained of; and the case must be rare, if not unheard of, in
which the initiative has been voluntarily taken by a Chinese official in
righting a wrong suffered by a foreigner at the hands of a Chinese.
Amicable relations prevail between the various foreign communities and
the native population by whom they are surrounded; but these may be
traced rather to the innate good-nature of the people, and the
forbearing conduct of the "strangers from afar," than to any direct
effort on the part of the native authorities to encourage and develop
friendly feeling. The Chinese Court still affects to regard the Emperor
as the Supreme Ruler of all People under Heaven; its recognition of
foreign Ministers accredited to it seems never to have advanced beyond
the not very flattering ceremonial which accorded them a so-called
audience in a body a few years ago; and the relations between the
representatives and the high officials at Pekin cannot as yet be said to
have entered upon a phase which may strictly be styled cordial; and all
this, notwithstanding that Chinese representatives to Western Courts
have been treated with all the ceremony and consideration due to their
official position, and have been received into the highest society of
foreign capitals, not only without demur, but with a warmth and
hospitality which, whilst on the spot, they have themselves been the
first to acknowledge.[3] Under these circumstances, with a civil
administration so effete and corrupt, a military Power so unpractical,
a style of warfare so barbarous, and a Government so wanting in the
honest desire to conciliate, can it be thought politic to go out of our
way in order to further its pretensions, and that to the prejudice of a
Power which, with all its faults, is progressive in its tendencies, and
prepared to acknowledge our international rights, and which more nearly
approaches us in recognising the duty of consulting the material
interests of the people subjected to its sway? The little experience at
any rate which we have had of the results of co-operation with the
Chinese Government has not been such as to encourage us in a repetition
of the experiment. Take, for example, the important aid given by England
in clearing the province of Kiangsu of rebels in 1862-63, and thereby
bringing about the eventual extermination of the Taepings. Such a
service, it might be presumed, would have earned the lasting gratitude
of the nation, and induced a c