Through the Yang-Tse gorges; or, trade and travel in Western China

Front matter

THKOUGH THE YANG-TSE GOBGES. LONDON:' PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTOW, LIMITED, st, john's house, clerkentvell road. THEOUGH THE YANG-TSE GOEGES OB TRADE AND TRAVEL IN WESTERN CHINA BY AECHIBALD JOHN LITTLE, 1B.G.S. " Let mo journey down On the great river, that from town to town, Through meadow miles ; 'twixt gorges of the hills, Sweeps through the laud's whole length, aud ever fills Its widening channel deeper." Yu-Pe-Ya's Lute. "Good government obtains, when those who are near are made happy, and those who are far off are attracted." Confucius. " Lun yu," xiii. 16, 2. LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON {Limited) §t. ghmsfcm's g}*mts£ Fetter Laue, Fleet Street, E.C. 18S8 [All rights reserved] TO MY WIFE, to whose loving aid and encouragement this small liteeaey venture owes its execution, I bei. ixrate this Morh.

Preface

. The following pages comprise nothing more nor less than a transcript of the journal kept by me during a two months' journey from Shanghai, the metropolis of the Coast, to Chung-king, the commercial metropolis of Western China. This journal was written up each night, as I travelled along in the native boat, and was despatched home by successive mails for the amusement of my friends in England. I have been induced to publish it in the belief that impressions formed and recorded day by day on the spot give a better idea of the actual state of things in China, than many of the elaborate and carefully compiled books which attempt a more exhaustive description of the country. So much interest is now felt at home in the " Flowery Land," and such very erroneous concep tions appear to be entertained in regard to China, her wealth, her strength and prowess, and her value as an ally — qualities of which, in my opinion, Preface.

VIII only the remote potentiality exists at present — that no apology is needed for presenting a literal picture of the country I traversed. With the exception of the ubiquitous missionary, the travellers who have ascended the " Great (and sole) Highway " of China to its highest navigable point may be counted on the fingers of one hand. So tedious are the antiquated modes of travel, that of the thousands of European residents at the treaty ports, few have the leisure or inclination to journey outside of the routes covered by our "barbarian" steamers. Of the voyage to Chung-king, up the Yang-tse river, a distance of 1400 nautical miles, 1000 miles are traversed by steamer to Ichang in a week's time. The remaining 400 miles occupy from five to six weeks, a longer time than it takes to go from London to Shanghai.

Since the execution of the celebrated " Chefoo Convention " in 1875, the placing of steamers on this upper route has been under discussion, but Chinese obstructive ness has thus far succeeded in staving off the evil day, and nothing but strong pressure on the part of the foreign ministers accredited to the Court of Pekin will bring about this much needed innovation, an innovation as much desired by the native merchants and traders as it is dreaded by the official and literary classes. Apart from the laudable fear of injury to the livelihood of the existing junk-men, anything that leads to further contact between foreigners and the people at Preface. IX large is deprecated as lessening the influence of the profoundly ignorant ruling class ; and thus, notwithstanding the heavy losses in life and property that the present system of navigation entails, this further contemplated invasion of the inner waters of the Empire is strenuously resisted.

In reading this journal, in which I have depicted the existing difficulties of the route, it must be borne in mind that the Yang-tse is not only the main, but the sole road of intercommuni cation between the east and west of this vast empire. Roads, properly so called, do not exist in China; narrow footpaths alone connect one town and village with another, and, except by the waterways, nothing can be transported from place to place but on men's backs. In the far north, it is true, cart-tracks exist, and clumsy two-wheeled springless carts are there in use, but in Central and Southern China, land travel is absolutely confined to paths, so narrow that two pedestrians have often a difficulty in passing each other. Traces of magnificent paved roads, of the ancient dynasties, still exist in nearly every province ; but they have been destroyed by neglect, and have been disused for centuries past.

Since the date of the Mongol invasion (1279), every incentive to progress has come from without, and every foreign well-wisher of the Empire, especially if resident, is impelled to do his utmost to carry on this progress. Preface. X The rulers of China should take to heart Bacon's words : " Since things alter for the worst spon taneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly, what end will there be of evil?" Railways have been long talked of, but so far, the short line, built some years ago, which connects the Government coal-mine of Kai-ping with the nearest canal, is the only road in existence. Trunk-lines running north and south are said to have been authorized, but as long as the Govern ment eschews foreign aid they are not likely to be built. A line running east and west presents almost insuperable difficulties, owing to the precipitous mountains and deep gorges into which the whole country west of Ichang is cut up.

Hence the necessity of turning the great natural highway of the Yang-tse to the best advantage. Of the great gain to trade, and to British manufacturing interests more especially, which the cheapness of intercommunication be tween Eastern and Western China would effect, I have spoken more at length in my introductory chapter. I must not conclude without paying a tribute of admiration to Captain Blakiston and Dr. Alfred Barton, for their valuable and accurate work, " Five Months on the Yang-tse." These energetic pioneers preceded me over the same ground just twenty years before. Nothing has altered in the interval, and but for the fact that their want of knowledge of the language debarred Preface. XI them from free intercourse with the people, and so cut them off from many interesting social facts, the publication of this journal would have no raison d'etre.

Aechibald John Little. Ichang, 16th July, 1887. .AGE 1 18 42 86 CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY. The Government of the Chinese — Revolutions — Trade — Taxes — Our interests in Szechuen — Imports and Exports — Comparative trade of all the Provinces .

Chapter I

the physiography of the yang-tse valley. Length and fal_-*-*-Advance of the Delta — Direction of river's course — The Gorges and Rapids — Absence of roads — Coal-fields — The Flora and Fauna — Mineral wealth

Chapter II

Shanghai to Ichang — Hankow — A Yang-tse boat — Shasze — The plains of Hupeh — A Szechuen river-boat — Flooded districts — Approach to the Hills — Ichang

Chapter III

ichang and its environs. The foreign community — Fishing with otters — "Feng Shui" — The conglomerate country — Cave of the Dragon King — Underground Lake — The f' Dome " — Startling coup-d'œil — Cloud-Mist Mountain — Chinese country house — Unexpected hospitality — Master and servant — Auspicious site — Woodcutters — Steep climb — Chinese "Pahs " — Taoist temple — Magnificent prospect — Ascent of the Golden Peak — Chinese candles — A model hotel bill — Plank bridge — Return to Ichang . Contents. XIV .AGE 103 173 212 230

Chapter VII. Chung-king

The weather — Morning calls — Visit to a Chinese country-house — A fine road — A tedious meal — Personal uncleanliness — The Tung family — " Feng Shui " again — A tough yarn — An inscription . . . .

Chapter VIII. Chung-king

Return to town — Catholic and other missions— Visitors — The China Inland Mission — Native post — A Taoist temple — The priests hard-up — Chinese banks — An ephemeral town — Across the river — The Catholic Cathedral — Charming surroundings of the city — Filth within — Dull evenings — Chess — Malt liquor — A public garden — The walls — Slow progress ofthe missionaries

Chapter IX. Chung-king

Ponies — Silk weaving — Prehistoric caves — A fine country-house — A catholic chapel — A Buddhist oracle — The coalworkings — Cost of getting and transporting coal — An eviction scrimmage — Ventilation — A huge coal-field — A farm-house — Opium-smoking — Agile ponies Contents. XV 261 — Return by boat — Fine scenery — Legends — The river rising — Trade Guilds — Another country-house — Civility of the Chung-kingese — The women's feet — The Manchus — A pseudo-European dinner

Chapter X

Adieux — Acrowded boat — Change toa salt junk — Astrange manœuvre — A day on the rooks — Sham tea — Equipage of the junk — The gorges once more — Mooring for the night — Delays — Change to a Wupan — Pirates —Feng Tu 308 CONCLUSION. Return to Ichang — Hankow — Changes in the river — Lifeboats — Feasibility of steam navigation in Szechuen — Accidents — The " awakening " of China — Pliny on the Chinese THBOUGH THE YANG-TSE GORGES. INTRODUCTORY. The Government of the Chinese — Revolutions — Trade — Taxes — Our interests in Szechuen — Imports and Exports — Comparative trade of all the Provinces. The history of our intercourse with China, from the days of the East India Company until now, is nothing but the record of a continuous struggle O DO to open up and develop trade, with a people, who from the days of Pliny " ipsis feris persimiles, cœtus reliquorum mortalium fugiunt."

There is something pathetic in the honest persistency, with which the people and their officials have vainly struggled to keep themselves uncontaminated from the outer world, and it is impossible for any disinterested onlooker not to sympathize heartily with them. An enormous population has here solved, imperfectly of course, but to a comparatively successful degree, the problem of the greatest happiness of the greatest number Tie venality of the officials notwithstanding, the people are, if not well governed, certainly not misgoverned ; riches are fairly distributed, and the v, Mt contrast of grinding poverty with arrogant wealth, the rule in Europe, is the exception here. Taxa tion is nominal, and such is the innate and universal love of order, that the reserve of force behind the decrees of the magistrate is limited to a few hundred men in a Province as large as an European kingdom.

Competent investigators compute the total cost of the central and local governments at not more than 40,000,000.. a year, say two shillings per head for the whole population. Education is universal and voluntary. No wonder that such results, due to the uni versal acceptance of the Confucian Ethics, should make the people look askance at innovations coming from the West, where, as the Chinese say, notwithstanding their marked superiority in applied mechanics, nations live in a perma nent condition of armed peace, the monotonous pressure of which is only relieved by the still worse calamity of frequent wars, with their attendant burdens of debt and pauperism. Revolutions occur at long intervals in China, but the normal state of the Empire is peace. Thus since the last change of dynasty (a.d. 1644), the Chinese have enjoyed the blessings of peace and pros perity uninterruptedly, with the exception of the petty wars of this century with ourselves and the French.

Even the terrible Taiping rebellion (1848 to 1864) may be attributed to the unnecessary aggressiveness of the missionaries, which resulted in the conversion of its fanatical leader, Hong-hsio- Missionaries and Merchants. 3 choen, often cited as the one misguided although genuine convert to Christianity, which the Empire has produced, ancl who modelled his action on that of the Jewish leaders, his war-cry being " Sho yao," " Slay the idolaters." But we who have to make our living in China, merchants or missionaries, are not disinterested onlookers. We both have our gospel to preach to unwilling ears, and we both assume that outside our gospel, in the one case Free Trade, in the other Christianity, there is no salvation. Force has been freely applied in both cases, and each propaganda accuses the other of being a hindrance to its own success.

Hold ing a religion whose ethics commend themselves to the reason, and the obligatory practice of which literally accords with its tenets, the Chinese naturally mistrust a doctrine which, however humane in theory, they consider is not and cannot be literally obeyed in practice : not to speak of the, to them, incomprehensible antagonism of the doctrine exhibited in the literal translation of the Old and New Testaments, which we have forced the Chinese to allow foreign colporteurs to dis tribute, without comment or explanation, broad cast over the land. The merchant professes a more selfish doctrine, and the beneficial results of his propaganda are likewise not immediately apparent; but having committed ourselves to its adoption we are bound to continue the necessary pressure, in the hope of increasing still further the material benefits, as much to the Chinese as b to our own people, which even the restricted trade at present carried on undoubtedly confers.

For, viewing the enormous population, now again estimated at over 400,000,000, the richness of the soil, the genial climate, the inexhaustible mineral wealth, and above all, the untiring in dustry of the people ; the trade at present carried on is not a tithe of that which we should naturally look for. In the number of Great Britain's foreign customers China proper takes seventeenth rSnkj being just on a par with Scandinavia. Our exports to the Celestial Empire are not one sixth of those to the United States, with a population of 60,000,000; just one-sixth of our exports to British India, and not one-tenth of that to our Australian and other Colonies, all, except India, countries fenced in with hostile tariffs ranging from thirty to sixty per cent., while with China, according to treaty, our im ports have only to withstand a nominal burden of five per cent.

If we include Hongkong, which is a depot for many of the surrounding countries as well, we bring up the total figures of our imports to China to 9,000,000.., or about one-half of our total exports to the thinly-populated South American Continent. The great drawbacks, which prevent our trade with China attaining to dimensions ona par with the wealth, civilization, and num bers of its people, are the rudimentary condition of its roads, the discouragement of mining, and the vexatious multiplicity of the inland tax-stations. Obstacles to Trade with China. 5 These obstacles present themselves in the order named, the first of all being the difficulty of inter-communication. By the compulsory opening to steamers of the Great River as far as Hankow, 600 miles only, the trade of Shanghai was quickly quadrupled.

Later on 400 miles additional, up to Ichang, situated at the foot of the first rapid, were reluctantly conceded as an equivalent for the murder of Margary in Yunnan and another great bound took place. But in Ichang we have omy a poor mountain town, which has derived a limited importance as the transhipping point for the rich Province of Szechuen, lying in the far west above and beyond the rapids. To reach this, the native merchants have to run the gauntlet of: the rapids in frail native craft, and the still worse gauntlet of a string of Custom-houses ; the delays and damage caused to goods by the thorough examination they have to undergo, more particularly at Kwei- Kwan, being even more injurious to traffic than the actual taxes demanded. To evade this obstacle, a conditional stipulation was inserted in the Convention under which Ichang was opened in 1877, by which it was hoped to open up the great mart of Chung-king as another step of 400 miles.

The establishment of this, the commercial metropolis of Szechuen, as a treaty port, would, in the words of a late Consu lar Resident there, create another Shanghai in Western China, such are the ascertained riches of the Great West, of which Chungking is the key. But the Chinese cannot make up their minds to this step, ancl although we have more than fulfilled our part of the Chefoo Convention by permitting them to establish a Customs-office for opium in our own free port of Hongkong, our Government has dealt so tenderly with the Chinese, as not yet to have claimed from them permission for a steamer to make the trial ascent. The difficulty lies with the provincial authorities, whose interests are menaced by the change; but a vigorous minister has only to press the matter home sufficiently upon the Central Government at Pekin, for them to give way, and in their turn plead force rnajeure to the provincials, who then, as in so many other previous instances, would promptly, though sulkily acquiesce.

Thus far the Chinese Government pleads for delay, on the ground of the junkmen who would be thrown out of work; but this argument, though good in itself, is dispelled by the experience of other ports opened to steam, where the trade on the subsidiary channels of communication has been so stimulated, that more natives are employed in the carrying trade than ever before. But to bring about a radical change like that of steam communication, and at the same time promote the prosperity of all classes, including those whose vested interests are threatened, what is wanted is permission to the people to avail themselves freely of their almost untouched Obstacles to Trade with China. 7 mineral wealth. It is the studious discourage ment of mining enterprise, on the part of the authorities, that forms the second of the three obstacles to increased trade, which I have just enumerated.

It is nothing less than a scandal, that at Ichang, 1000 miles inland, steamers should be driven to burn imported Japanese coal, when Ichang, as Richthofen points out, is situated on the borders of one of the richest coal fields in the world. The vast carboniferous de posits that underlie the Red Basin of Szechuen, and the outcroppings of which in the gorges of the Yang-tse and its affluents, arrest the attention of all travellers in that region, remain a sealed book. If these mines were allowed to be worked by Western appliances, and the coal, the iron, the precious metals, and the petroleum springs properly developed, not only would there be such a trade, that junks and steamers to gether would hardly be able to carry it all ; but even if the junks were displaced in toto, the saw thousand trackers thrown out of employment would not suffice to supply one-tenth of the labour required, and in lieu of the miserable pittance they now receive for their arduous and dangerous labours, they would then earn sufficient wages to enable them to live in comparative comfort.

The Chinese Government has a traditional mistrust of all enterprises, carried out upon private initiative. There is one steamer com pany in China, the " China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company," and one coal-mining company, that of Kaiping, to the north of Tientsin, whose operations are large and successful, but they are both worked under Government auspices, the managers being high Mandarins, although both employ a large number of European assistants. The capital of both companies is largely recruited from the trading classes, and these non-official shareholders complain bitterly of the absence of proper accounts, and of the few and arbitrary dividends doled out to them. So great is the mistrust, engendered by the official management of these two important enterprises, that the trading class so far, have utterly failed to respond to the recent Government appeals for capiital for the proposed railway from Tientsin to Taku, and it seems probable, that the authorities will fail in their endeavour to construct railroads, independently of the foreign aid which has been so lavishly tendered to them by the agents of competing European syndicates.

However, the fact remains, and has to be counted with, that the high Chinese officials are hostile to all trading enterprises in the country, which they do not themselves inaugurate and control. If they do not ultimately succeed in constructing railroads, and working mines on their own system, employing a few foreigners in subordinate positions only, the expected field for foreign enterprise in China, will be materially The Foreign Trade of China. 9 reduced, and the process of centralization which has been steadily going on of late years will lead to an organic change in the government of the Empire, the result of which it is impossible to foresee. If no disturbing revolution intervene, the prosperity of the people must slowly increase as the latent resources of the country, and consequently their consuming powers, are de veloped.

A few figures, extracted from the foreign Customs return, will show what the present consumption is, how stationary our imports remain, and especially how trifling is now the import of European goods into Western China. The following table shows the annual value of the foreign trade of all China; the tax upon Avhich, levied by the Imperial Maritime Customs, amounted in 1886 to 15,000,000 Haikwan taels (or at 5s. per tael, 3,750,000/.). This is ex clusive of the internal taxation, which may be estimated at fully as much again. 1879. 1886. Imports from all countries ... £20,557,000 £21,870,000 Exports to all countries ... 18,070,000 19,300,000 £38,627,000 £41,170,000 1879. 1886. Imports from Great Britain ... £5,083,000 £5,508,000 Exports to Great Britain ... 6,531,000 4,936,000 £11,614,000 £10,444,000 Comparative table, showing value of imports of foreign goods into Shanghai, and proportion imported thence into Ichang, for transit to Western China, in 1886 ; reduced to sterling : — Shanghai.

Ichang. Cotton piece-goods £4,882,000 £158,000 Woollen piece-goods 932,000 110,000 Metals 705,000 4,000 Timber 156,000 nil Opium 3,811,000 100 Kerosene oil, coal, dye-stuffs, seaweed, and miscellaneous goods, enumerated under 200 heads, ... 2,390,000 75,000 £12,876,000 £347,100 Total value of imports into Western China in 1886, as above ... ... ... ... ... ... £347,100 Exports from Western China, vid Ichang : — Silk, silk waste and cocoons ... ... 247,000 Drugs, white wax, and miscellaneous produce 216,500 Silver in ingots (balance of treasure movements) ... ... ... ... 36,600 500,100 Surplus of exports over imports ... ... ... £153,000 This latter table exhibits a surplus of exports over imports, of over forty per cent., and this excess of exports has been a marked feature of the trade, ever since the collection of statistics was begun, upon the establishment of the Foreign Inspectorate at Ichang, in 1877 ; an excess amounting, in some years, to double the value of the imports.

Unfortunately, the figures published by the Imperial Maritime Custom*, are (as indeed maybe said of all statistics) imperfect, and therefore misleading, as they do not embrace the goods passing through the native Customs, and these comprise all goods which both reach the port, and Foreign Trade of Western China. 1 1 are despatched from it, in native junks. While resident in Ichang, I tried hard to obtain these missing figures from the native Customs authorities, but in vain : my efforts only resulted in dis covering that, as in all other Government business in China, accuracy is the last thing to be observed, ancl indeed, the amount of peculation from lowest to highest is so great, that it is to the interest of each and all concerned to conceal all the truth. Of exports from Western China not shown in the above figures, salt from the brine-wells in Szechuen is the principal, to the amount of several thousand tons annually, which further increases the preceding excess.

As it is probable that in the long-run the trade balances itself, I presume the balance is effected by the import of raw cotton, and native hand-woven cotton cloths, heavy junk loads of which are despatched day after day from Hankow, after the conclusion of the cotton harvest in November, in junks direct to Chung-king (the commercial mart of Szechuen), which thus escape all notice by the foreign Customs. A peculiar feature in the economy of Western China, and one of great promise to British manufacturing interests, once the disabilities that now hamper all intercourse are lightened, is the fact that the country is unsuited to the cultivation of cotton. Hence, with the exception of silk, which is abundantly worn by all classes, the clothing of these vast districts has all to be imported. Yunnan is scantily supplied from Burmah, Kweichow from the two Kwang Provinces, and Szechuen from Kiang-su (Shanghai).

Raw cotton, as packed by the Chinese, is an exceedingly bulky article, but it is light, easy to handle, and less liable to total loss in the rapids than are heavy bale goods. What the figures of this cotton import attain to, it is impossible to ascertain, but every traveller on the Upper Yang-tse in the winter season is struck by the endless procession of cotton-laden junks struggling up the successive rapids. The proportion offoreign piece-goods consumed west of Ichang, as compared with the total import into Shanghai, is accurately shown in the Customs returns, and in the following table the relative populations served, taken from Mr. Popoff's recent estimate, are added for comparison. (Mr. Popoff is Secretary of the Russian Legation at Pekin, and his estimate is based on the recent provincial censuses, and is believed to be fairly accurate.)

PROVINCKS SUPPLIED FROM SHANGHAI. 1. Eastern and Central : — ■ Chili Pop. 17,937,000 Shantung 36,546,000 Shansi 10,791,000 Shensi 8,432,000 Kansu 5,411,000 Honan 22,117,000 Hupeh 33,600,000 Hunan 21,005,000 Kiangsi 24,541000 Ganhui 20,597,000 Chekiang 11,685,000 Kiangsu 21,260,000 233,922,000 Foreign Trade of Western China. 13 2. Western : — Szechuen. 71,074,000 Yunnan 11,721,000 Kweichow 7,669,000 90,464,000 Leaving (Provinces supplied from Hongkong) : — Kwangtung 29,740,000 Kwangsi 5,121,000 Fukien 25,800,000 - 60,661,000 Total population of the eighteen Provinces... 385,047,000 Imports into Shanghai. 1. Total average 2. Quantity 3. Percentage annual imports of seut past received by past 3 years. Ichang. Western China. Pieces. Pieces. Grey shirtings 4,627,000 512.000 1M3 percent. Tea-cloths ... 1,969,000 65,000 330 Drills ... 541,000 21,000 3-87 Camlets ... 102,000 15,000 14-71 Lastings ... 103,000 38,000 36-90 Long ells ... 73,000 16,000 21-92 7,415,000 667,000 9-0 Percentage of Western population, as compared with Eastern and Central, supplied from Shanghai 27 "88 „ This calculation, which may be taken as approxi mately correct, shows that thirty per cent, of the population, and that the richest and the most in want of foreign piece-goods, absorb only nine per cent, of the total imports.

We now come to the third obstacle to the actual increase in our trade, viz. the multiplicity of in land tax-stations. Up to Ichang, 1000 miles from Shanghai, and the highest treaty port open on the Yang-tse River, the one import duty clears the goods with out further charge. Thence onwards to Chung king, the great depot of the Szechuen trade, a distance of 400 miles, a dozen Customs-stations, large and small, have to be visited. It is true, that under the Transit Pass system, an additional payment amounting to half the import duty clears the goods from further tax, but the repeated stoppages of the junks and the vexatious examination of the goods (mitigated to some extent by ample douceurs to the examining officers) have to be endured. One article in demand by the native photographers, who are found in all the chief towns of Sze chuen, viz. " dry plates," has been so repeatedly ruined by these examinations, that they are now all smuggled through at a heavy cost.

On reaching Chung-king, the Transit Pass goods are liable to be mulcted to an unlimited extent before being forwarded to their respective destinations in the surrounding country. The grand object to be attained in getting Chunoking made a treaty port, is the right to lay foreign goods down there, upon payment of one import duty, and hence to be able to despatch them all over Western China and up to the Thibetan frontier, upon payment of an additional half-duty only; this it will be possible to do under the transit regulations, when Europeans are once established there ; and to further in- Obstacles to Foreign Trade in China. 15 crease the purchasing power of the population, by exporting the inexhaustible productions of the region under the like comparatively favourable conditions. To sum up. — In the preceding resume I have endeavoured to show, that our trade with China, and especially with the West, is not one-tenth of what, seeing, (I.) the size of the field, (II.) the immense natural resources of the country, (III.) the industry of the people, it ought, under proper conditions, to be.

The absence of such proper conditions I have shown to be not irremediable, but due to the following artificial obstacles, viz :— I. The rudimentary condition of communica tions. II. The discouragement of mining and other enterprises, which might afford employment to the population, displaced by the introduction of improved methods. III. The multiplicity of inland tax-stations. •It is to the interest of all concerned in the improvement of our trade, and the prosperity of our manufactures, to do their utmost to bring about an alleviation of these conditions. Trade in China cannot be left to take care of itself as in Western countries. However invidious it may seem, we must admit the fact that past progress has been due to pressure, and that this pressure must be kept up. Our Chambers of Commerce should enlighten and rouse the public, and induce our Foreign Office to continue to send out their most capable ministers to this country, where the character of the individual minister is of far more weight in trade matters than it would be in Europe or America.