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    TfaJP?*.' MABpfr 2g, f 185fe] Tja ff Jff...

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    EXPLANATION " " TffE Emperor's pen. has ...

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    THE BANK AND THE BILL-BROK.EK,S. The two...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    China. The Occupation Of Canton Rather E...

    w ould imply , in reality , that a part of the expenses would be liquidated , since it became notorious after the last Chinese war that the E mperor ' s Sycee silver was but an instalment of the expenditure incurred to punish his aggression upon British commerce . Q-uarantees more ample and indemnity more complete should now be exacted . The « m . r pire is rich in hoarded stores of the precious metals ; its enormous population is scantily supplied with the necessaries and comforts of

    life ; the natural resources of the soil have been as yet but imperfectly developed , and with proper securities , an immense and lucrative trade might be created , in addition to that which we now carry on with the Chinese ports . The points for consideration , therefore , are two : ¦ whether a treaty upon an entirely new basis should not be imposed upon the Imperial Government , and what concessions may be accepted in lieu of territorial surrenders .

    To retain Canton might appear a reasonable solution of the difficulty ; but there are objections to this course . The city was taken by us in partnersliip with the French , and before garrisoning it permanently we should have to arrange for a similar allotment in favour of our allies . Again , it would be impossible to remain masters of Canton without gradually becoming masters of China , and European no less than American jealousy would be excited by the

    bare hint of such an ambition . Besides , we believe the public opinion of this country to be opposed to projects of conquest in the Chinese Empire . "What we may rationally and justly insist upon is a convention that shall open , not only the ports on the coast , but the interior rivers , to our trade , so that we may compete on equal terms with Eussia in the inland provinces , whence an immense commerce would flow to the sea . There are three hundred

    millions of persons poorly clad , with abundance of natural wealth to offer in return for our manufactures , and no indisposition , so far as the people themselves are concerned , to traffic with the nations of the West . A steam communication might thus be created upon the most extensive water-way of Asia , and , within a few years , the cost of the present conflict would have been repaid a hundredfold . Of course , a proposal of this character would startle the Chinese Emperor ; but we hold Canton and Commissioner Y bii in pledge ; we may

    announce our intention of keeping both until a treaty has been sigued on terms of liberal reciprocity , and if the Imperial Q-overnment be obstinate there is no alternative except to open independent relations with the Cantonese themselves , and with the dense population by which they are surrounded . W ith ft rebellion in one part of his empire , and a foreign occupation in another , the Brother of the Sun and Moon must be a monomaniac if he continues intractable , especially with the prospect of a military and naval advance upon his capital . General Stiiau-BBNZBii ! has discovered the nakedness of the

    laud in a military sense , and the great city of Canton , with its monuments and armouries , turns out to bo a mass of dilapidation and a warehouse of stage properties . Such , we believe , will be tho result of every close inspection of China—ft rogion of lacquer and JZQ r y »—PJ > Ulti 6 d _ jt ^) ofs _ jnnci , fantastic ouvos , theatrical dragons , ^ Malbrin 6 ivcTtns , vornu-Hon boats , and paper lanterns . This immense country teems with opulence , and itB people are willing to carry on a profitable intercourse with the " West , but the first neoessity is to make termB with tho Government , and that must bo done with rogimonts and flotillas .

    Tfajp?*.' Mabpfr 2g, F 185fe] Tja Ff Jff...

    TfaJP ?* . ' MABpfr 2 g , 185 fe ] Tja ff Jffi jflLBjBSf- $ ffi

    Explanation " " Tffe Emperor's Pen. Has ...

    EXPLANATION " " TffE Emperor ' s pen . has distilled another dubious ana war to the alarming reports now circulating in France "with , reference "to the number of arrests taking place . If o one supposes , of course , that such , ia declaration will have the effect of soothing one single apprehension . The object is to throw dust in . the eyes of Europe , and furnish flatterers with a theme on whieh to enlarge . But in this country , at least , public attention has been too w-ell awakened to these manoauvres . " We can now see beyond these vague phrases ; and discover the afflicting scenes which they are intended to hide . The Moniteur tells us that " a few persons " have been arrested , because they were " notoriously dangerous characters , " and seems to expect this will reassure the country . The calculation , no doubt , is that , though everyone knows of an arrest in the next house , the next street , or the next village , he will fancy that his neighbourhood has been peculiarly favoured by the police , and that there has been no general onslaught on the supposed leaders of the Republican party . But this deception is no longer possible in presence of the previous confessions of the Moniteur , the repeated allusions to convoys being sent to Lambessa and Stora , and the widespread conviction , produced by the passing of the law , that something like a proscription en masse was taking place . Previously , isolated cases of arrest were very frequent . Had it not been desired to practise the system on a large scale , no new measure would have been asked for . It may well be that the reports , which are said daily to arrive , showing the discontent and alarm prevailing in the country districts , have induced the Emperor to put some check on the violences of the last two months ; and that the generous announcement that people who , having been punished for former , abstain from future , political offences , need not fear , may be meant as a promise that the remainder of the forty or fifty thousand people affected by the seventh article of the law will be let alone for the present . But assuredly the better plan , instead of this vague undertaking , would have been to issue orders that no new arrests should take place . Now , up to the afternoon of the very day ( Thursday ) on which this kind assurance appeared , it is reported that the activity of the police had not ceased . Under these circumstances , the promise—if promise there be—will not be believed . The most remarkable feature in all these recent proceedings of the Trench police or the French Government—for the two have come to be identical—is the secrecy with which they arc conducted , and the acquiescence of such Frenchmen as have been , allowed to speak on the subject therein . Neither in the Council of State nor in the Legislative Corps , nor in the Senate , though there was violent , albeit restricted , opposition in oach , was a single voice raised to say that if the French Government must be sovere it should bo severe in public ; and that in case of all arrests the names , addresses , and crimes of tho prisoners Bhould be made known . Such a provision , indeed , might have rendered the law inoperative ; for it ; would have been impossible to seb down in , the third column of a report " Suspected of being hostile to the Empire . " Yet for no ot 1 reTn : r eUBmrd' 0 "theso T nrrestS'take-place—Conspiracy , insurrection , libel , oven casual , words spoken , are definite cimesin France , for which persons are brought up before tho tribunals constantly nnd punished . Whenever nnything lileo a clinrgo can be trumped up tho ordinary lawtakca its course . But when nothing id known and nothing cim bo proved ,

    when the offence for which some worthy fj & ther of a family advanced , in years And j ? spected by fill who know hkn is to be sent to perish in an unhealthy climate , consists only in an -ambiguous smile , a sbrug of the shoulders , or the polite refusal to attend a Prefect ' s dinner , or simple silence when flattery aad servility are expected , of coarse it will not bear to be publicly stated . We may be quite sure that be the numberof persons arrested as small as the Moniteur would make out , or as vast as public rumour asserts , every one of them ib

    innocent of any specific crime . If they are dangerous it is because they are virtuous , or wealthy , or talented , or influential in some way ; and because they will not consent to become the humble servants of a transitory authority . For our own part , the communications whieh we have received leave ao doubt on our minds that whilst about twothirds of the persons recently arrested consist of the best class of workmen or peasants , the remaining third consist of notaries , advocates , medical men , and gentlemen of independent means , generally the most respectable of their order . They are seized without

    any motive being assigned , searched , treated most villanously , sometimes frightened to death , hurried away to the nearest prison , from thence to a central dep 6 t , from thence to Toulon or Marseilles , and from thence to Algeria . No explanation is given . The unhappy families only know a long time after , if they ever know , where their chief is confined . That this has been to a eertain extent the system adopted ever since the Coup d'Etat , we have often told our readers . That such is the system now adopted , no candid person will doubt for a moment . The very fact that the Moniteur talks vaguely of

    arrests , and neither says where , when , nor why they took place , is sufficient to show that the comparison which was once made of France to a huge Ear of Dionysius , from which prisoners who whispered treason were secretly led to execution , is scarcely , if at all , exaggerated .

    The Bank And The Bill-Brok.Ek,S. The Two...

    THE BANK AND THE BILL-BROK . EK , S . The two great mercantile communities of the Eastern and Western world - have drawn at least one profitable lesson from the financial troubles of the close of last year . They have both independentlyarrived at the same conclusion as to one of the causes that produced , or at least aggravated , the disasters of tlic commercial world ; they are bath , applying remedies of precisely the same character , though not quite the same in form . The Bank of England have docided that in future they will not make any advances to bill brokers , or , as they call themselves , money-dealers ; the New York banks

    have all but unanimously agreed to discontinue allowing interest on any money deposited with them . The effect in both oases will bo to keep the operations of these establishments within limits more in proportion to their capital and resources , to diminish their risks , and so to remove the fatal facilities that have boon given within the last few years to tho circulation of bills of exchange of a character purely fictitious , basod upon no real transactions , and frequently entirely fraudulent . Some misapprehension seems to exist as to the

    justice and expediency of tho course taken by the Bank of England . To some minds it appears to be a hardship that one pnrticulur class—and a veryimportant class—in the commercial world should he denied tho advantages of n connexion with that great corporation to whom nil mercantile houses uivo been accustomed to look up as a sure refuge in times of extreme need—wlicro they may confidently run should all other help fail . A few con-. 8 » 0 waLJbua , Jiw « f t ^^^^ that tho decision of I ho Bunk is not only notarbitrary nor unjust , but in tho highest degrco salutary

    and expediiiul . , Tho trado of u billbrokcr is ono of roocnt Uato , and whs for aomo yours curried on in an oxtromely humble wuy . Tho founders of it had probably a very roiuulu idea of tho importance to winch it would attain cvou in their own day ; they oould

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 27, 1858, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27031858/page/11/