Hongkong Estimate of the Treaties of Tien-Tsin (1859)

Source: The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu: February 19, 1859. 

The edits of the Honhkong Register in his paper of the 25th September, thus gives his opinion of the concessions of the English Treaty of Tien-Tsin:

It is not many days since one of the shrewdest politicians our here, on being asked his opinion of the Treaty of Tien-Tsin, observed “in that treaty there are ten battles.” Were there even an attempt made to carry it out, we fully believe that this would prove to be the case. But we are much mistaken if some time has not still to elapse before even this attempt is made. That some of the concessions that have been offered will be all be actually yielded we do not doubt. Ports which we have really had access to for years we shall now have a recognized right to enter. The privilege of developing the commerce of the Yang-tze-kiang we have accorded to us by treaty, and must get from the Tae-ping rebels when and as we can; while the great local sore of Canton, the source and origin of this and every other difficulty, will be unhealthily skinned over to break out and fester afresh at some not distant period, to derange again the whole constitution of our relations with China. Such, in a few words, we believe to be what would inevitably result from the attempted fulfillment of the treaty. But even so far the Imperial Court seems unwilling to go. Commissioners appointed, Commissioners coming, Commissioners waiting, Commissioners recalled, but ever and always, English and French Plenipotentiaries dancing attendance at Shanghae, treaty in hand and soliciting its fulfillment, such has week after week been the tenor of our news from the North.

This week the Celestial dignity, to amuse, we presume, and encourage our patience, exhibits a list of the staff by which the said Commissioners are to be attended on their journey southwards. This is the pageant, but behind there lurks the significant reality that even now the article which stipulates that the obnoxious designation of barbarians “E” should be discontinued, as applied to foreigners, is disregarded, and while our Plenipotentiaries are contentedly admiring their own great achievements, the Imperial sanction is given to the erection of extensive fortifications and defenses on the Peiho, avowedly erected for the purpose of keeping out the barbarians for the future.

It may be readily conceived that the fortifications are nothing in themselves. The fate of the Bogue Forts, admirably as they are placed, must, ere this, have proven even to those among the Chinese who are not blinded by the prejudice, that they can make no resistance to Western arms; but the intention, the animus, that this open announcement displays, speaks volumes. We have left the neighborhood of the capita; we have got our treaty under the threat of going to Pekin; and now, while we are waiting and talking, the Imperial Government will be doing what it can to avert the recurrence of such an unwelcome visit.