THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1890.
risks, the following Interim distribution of profits is now recommended; -
Interest at the rate of to per cent on the
Contributions
A Bonus of 15 per cent upon Shareholders' And Interest accrued upon the Reserve Fund to 31st December 13s. 8d. per share.
DIRECTORS.
Mr. Westall, 'being about to leave for home, resigns his seat at the Board. The remaining Directors retire in accordance with the provisions of the Articles of Association, but, being eligible, offer themselves for re-election.
AUDITORS.
The appointment of Auditors rests with the Shareholders, and Messrs. Augustus White and Andrew Burman agnin tender their services;
By Order of the Court of Directors,
W. H. PERCIVAL,
Acting Secretary.
Shanghai, roth April, 1890, -
holding their own. Under Metals, Iron receded from 1,265,000 piculs in 1888 to 1,715,000 piculs in 1889, a fail of 12 per cent.; Tin, from 77,000 piculs 10 64,000 picùls, a fall of 17 per cent.; paid-up Capital. Steel, from 30,600 piculs to 39,500 picols, a fall of 22 per cent,; and Spelter from 33.600 picula. to 24,700 piculs, a fall of 26 per cent.; while Lead advanced from 230,000 pituls to 356,00 picals, a rise of 11 per cent. ; and Unmanufactured Copper, from 15,000 piculs to 36,000 piculs, a rise of nearly 150 per cent: Under Sunddes, most of the items, large as some of them are, must be left to speak for themselves; and I select five only for special remark, namely, Coal, Raw Cotton, Kerosene Oil, Matches, and Rice. Of these, one only. Kerosene Oil, is an unqualified Import of annually increasing quantity and benefit; its import rose nearly 25 per cent, from 16,613,000 gallons in 1828 to 20.655.413 gallons in 1889, but it has to be noted that some of the increase was due to the failure of the Ground-nut crop in Hainan, Kerosene Oil taking the place of Ground nut Oil an illuminant. Matches, valued nt Hk: T 1,123,022, came in great part from Japan, whither the main source of supply has moved from Europe-in time to move probably into China herself. The other" three items, Coal, Raw Cotton, and Rice, came to satisfy a demand which in this land, abounding in them, cannot in the nature of things last long. The Coal, 170,000 tons, was for the most part imported at Shanghai from Japan; but the time is no longer far ahead when Chinese coal will, out of its matchless store, meet all and more than all the home demand. The import of Foreign Raw Cotton, 113,500 plculs, large as it is and into the Kwangtung province afinest exclusively, may, in time succumb to Chinese cotton, now exported in quantity four times its dimension. Foreign rice entered China almost entirely through the Kowloon Customs, to take place of the 1888 harvests destroyed by floods. These payments for food, which amounted to Hk. Tis. 9,000.000 in 1888, and Hk Ths. 5,500,000 in 1899, should cease largely with the abatement of the consequences of nearly concurrent calamities of floods and dearth which in the two years just passed befell places so far apart and generally no mutually helpful as the north, the centre, and the south of this empire,
Exports 1889 were valued at Hk. Tis. 06 947,837. Those which tower over all others, Tea and Silk, fared differently in 1889: Tea fell behind and Silk went ahead, each in its respective race with its rivals of the outer world. The quantity of Tea which left China was, Black and Green, 1.548,880 piculs in 1889, against 1.751.587 picals in, 1888 and 1,814,562 piculs in 1887; Brick and Tablet, 318,051 piculs in 1889, against 412,642 picula in 1898 and 331,281 piculs in 1887, re- spectively, which altogether in estimated values stand out as Hk. Tis. 28,200,000 in 1889, Jk. Tle. 30,200,000 in 1888, and H. Ts. 30,000,000 in 1887.-those of 1886, the maximum year, having been Hk. Tls. 34 500,000. Thus, whereas, when 1889 is compared with 1888, the falling off is, as regards quantity, 12 per cent, for black and green tens and 23 per cent, for
SERIOUS CHARGE AGAINST A
CONSTABLE..
At the Police Court this morning (21st inst.), before Mr. Robinson, David Millar, P.C. 73, was charged with being drunic on duty, and assauit. ing a Chinaman, last night.
His Worship-Do you wish to have this case remanded, to get legal advice ? Millari-No, 1 plead guilty.
His Worship-Well, then I shall send the case back to the Captain, Superintendent of
Police.
a
Inspector Hennessy intimated that the Captain Superintendent desired it to be dealt with magisterially. He suggested that it should be adjourned by his Worship, however, as Millar was not quite sober, having probably been supplied with some drink by foolish friends.
His Worship-He seems all right. Inspector Hennessy-I am afraid he is ast. The complainant, a young coolie, was then called. He said-I am an assistant in an ivory shop. Last night, at 7.30, I was in West Street, at a tea-stall, I had a cun, and gave the seller cent. He gave me six cash change, and just then the constable came up and struck me in the mouth, knocking two teeth out. He also hit me on the breast (showing a bruise) and other places He hit me five or six times, and then pulled my purse away. Then 'a Chinaman who karw English spoke to him, and he stopped...
His Worship-I shall remand the case now. Defendant insisted on asking, some questions Grat. In answer to them the complainant sa'i: I have not seen my purse since. I did tell the Captain Superintendent that you put it in a shop.
sights were taken as usual, and the position found. Capt. Craig cheered the passengers up
The Guthrie should be here about ten o'clock, all is well," he said. And sure enough, at 9-45, her smoke was sighted, and an hour later cordial cheers floated across to her from the hundred and ten white and yellow men on the Menmuir-cheers for Capt. Green for finding then, and as heartfelt thanks to Capt. Craig for his thoroughly seaman-like handling of his disabled vessel..."!
יני.
THE CUSTOMS DIPLOMACY:
I.
These opportunities have been fully used during of this article, It was a fallute, being not only the last twenty years, and the views put forward denounced by the Censors, but its unfortunate by Chinese emissaries are to this day habitually author condemned to capital punishment. The ncccepted, by some at least of the Western rejection of flint freaty led to exceedingly strained Governments in preferene to the reports of their relations, between Russia and Ching in con- own representatives in the country. Not perhaps hection with the Western frontier, and the Chi- intentionally; but the Minister's reports are nésé were as usual entirely at their wit's end for written on cold sheets of foolscap, numbered means of meeting the difficulty, War seemed and docketted and passed through the mill in fact the only solution, and troops were al of office routine amid carloads of similar ready mobilised for an attack on the Amur pro- papers and there an end. Information conveyed vinces of Russia, which were at that time most in such a form had no chance against inadequately defended. But Li Hung-chang, the living voice, choosing its favourable who know the value of foreign adjutancy, had moments and using all kinds of channels grave misgivings about undertaking a campaign for conveying, the desired impression Chinese against a disciplined foc without some such envoys could moreover use weapons which are indispensable auxiliary. It was at that critical forbidden even to the latest diplomatists of the moment when the Customs rendered hin West, while at the same time, by the addresss the most important service by suggestitig of their own foreign employés they were made and then carrying into eflect an appeal to General partakers of the full privileges of diplomatic Gordon, who had just resigned his uncongenial office of private secretary to Lord Ripon in etiquette.
India. Gordon answered the call with alacrity, and though that incalculable genius "gave away" China's diplomatic position by announcing all along bis route that he was the hearée of the olive branch, yet his scalding harangue to the Tsung-li Yamen was undoubtedly a main factor in
..
When reviewing a short time ago the various elements which seemed to make up the effective, as distinguished from the theoretical, Govern 'ment of China, we were led to consider the services which had been rendered to the State There was obviously a certain advantage to by certain foreign agencies, more particularly foreigners in getting the Chinese Government to by that splendid anomaly, the Foreign Customs. speak by a single mouth, which could never be But we stopped short at the threshold of the donc at Peking, and that no doubt helped to subject, which on a near view seemed suddenly reconcile the Western Powers to transacting to assume dimensions two large to be convéniently business with Chinese envoys rather than through dealt with as a mere pendant to a wider disquisi- their own Ministers.. What they said, indeed, tion. The subject nevertheless refused to be rele might not be true, or might be repudiated at gated to oblivion, and like an unlaid ghost discretion by their government, bat it served its has continued to haunt the editorial cham-turn for the day, which is about the measure of ber, pointing impatiently to the well-filled an ordinary politician's horizon, ink bottle, the paper and the pen. And as All these, and many more, benefits to Chinese no more appropriate occasion is likely to arise were completely realised by the Burlingame than the present juncture of events, we will with-mission, and so promptly that those foreign out further preface or apology, endeavour to Ministers who had assisted to hatch the egg bring out some kind of synthesis of the facts took fright when they saw the full-fledged bird connected with the diplomacy of the Foreign over-shadowing them in the spread of its wings,
and they made a sorry show of repudiating their own work. The principle of Chinese representa tion abroad was thus once for all triumphantly established, and Chinese legations in Europe and America now form a recognised part of the pageant of public life.:
Customs.
to
II.
The conditions under which China was forced, much against her will, to enter into foreign relations could not but evolve many curious novelties; for the status and the antecedents of the two parties to the intercourse, China on the one side and all foreign nations on the other, were antithetical along the whole line. The most striking pheno- mena were consequently to be expected precisely nt the point of contact between the two unlikes, In order to appreciate justly the diplomatic and if we could have looked forward thirty years activity of the Customs it is necessary to bear ngo with the knowledge (small though it be) constantly in mind-a thing by no means easy with which we can now look back, it appears to do-that the ground work of it all is the in- to us that intense interest would have capacity of the Chinese themselves to carry on been aroused in speculative minds as diplomatic negotiations, or to effect any inter. what the upshot of that, intercourse would national arrangement on a basis of working be. It was like the bringing together of equality. Such a conception as an even bargain two heterogeneous metals or chemical sub-probably does not enter into their range of stances, under untried conditions, when erosion, thought. They must either kill or be killed. corrosion, explosion were as possible results as They thoroughly understand submitting to welding, blending, or fusion. That which oc- superior force, or, what is virtually the same cupied the point of junction and may even be thing, the apprehension of it; and they under aid to have formed the copula, was the Foreign stand even better how to trample on a weak Customs. Standing as it were between the two opponent. But the whole intermediate field of camps and facing both ways, the Customs nice adjustments, accommodations for the com- has thrown its light now on one side and mon good, the give and take of civilised inter- now on the other, preventing those blind colli- course, whether of nations or individuals, is to sions which result from common ignorance, and them-moral vold, into which they cannot enter constituting itself the buffer between two rough- without being immediately lost, Whatever is edged forces.
to another's advantage must be to one's own injury-is a doctrine still much too prevalent dominate their whole life; it leaves room for even among Western nations, but if does not
intrusion of the spirit of justice in inter- pational dealings. The etiquette which has been evolved by a thousand years of friction, sometimes exceedingly rough, limits the scope and prescribes, the weapons of diplomatic con- troversy, and excludes poisoned arrows. To all that the Chinese were, and are still, practically strangers, and when thrust into the society of nations polished like pebbles by their own in- teraction, they were as helpless as a fish when thrown out of its proper clement. If we seem to harp too much on this it is simply because it constitutes the true apologia for the strange adventures of the Customs, and the basis of its proceedings, both occult and overt, to which we propose briefly to advert.
condition of a mere way-side station, owing to the fact that it is by no means the terminus of our trans-Afghan railway, which, uning through a long tunnel under the Khojak Mountains is now within hailing distance of Elerat. in gigantic preparations to meet the Russians on level terms in Central Asin, England has spent and is a spending millions of money. Strategic lines run through impassablo ravines and tunnels pierced through enormous mountain ranges. Miles of perpendicular pre cipices have been blasted out along the sides of mountain ranges to make the summits inaccessible to an enemy. Miles of earth- works, flanked by heavy batteries; atretch across from mountain range to mountain range. England has been compelled by Russia to cat a good deal of humble pie during the past few years, especially with regard to the Afghan frontier. But the day now seems to be nigh when any further, arrogance of Russian comman ders will mest with prompt and well-deserved punishment by the Power which posscas:s the best right to supreme influence in Central and Far Eastern Asia. The impudent schemers, who over-awe the Tsar and try to over-ave the sovereigns of great and civilized nations, who the subsequent accommodation "everything within the dominions of the Tsar of all the Russias," who wink at corruption and between the two countries. Gordon's drastic
are themselves corrupt in the worst sense of the proposals shook the bones of the whole Imperial corpus like an electric battery, word, will possibly find, ere long, that neither and roused the Throne to serious appre- they nor their bluggering military commanders will be able to threaten the peace of the world hension. Other secret services rendered at the same juncture by the Customs poured oil on the much longer. Russia has made mischief.dc formy waters on the Russian side, and in a very every direction. She has cast the seeds of short time all the matters in dispute between dissension far and wide, in Asia Minor, in Russia and China were amicably arranged in India, in Europe, in Egypt, in Korea, and, in Peking, and the Marquis Tseng was sent from fine, all over the world. She is guilty of London to St. Petersburg to conclude the treaty, unjustifiable aggression and infamous perfidy. which, nominally at all events, got the Russians She has built herself up upon the ruins of edifice-universal sway-upon the ruins of out of Kuldja, while really leaving to them the other states. Are we to allow her to complete the the British Empire and the conquest of military keys of that worthless possession.
Europe? Let us hope not Her very attitude has amounted to a casus belli for some years past. The day has possibly passed when she can be allowed to play fast and loose with the best interesis of civilized Powers. Russia must either retire within her legitimate sphere of influence or do so at the point of the bayonet-there appears to be no middle course.
their attick one of the richest and at the same
The situation, as regards Russian aggression, appears to have reached the summit of forbearance. It is now retire or fight. Russia in the most reprehensible manner bis strained should not be surprised ifthey mele out toberasul- the patience of several great Powers, and she No other stantial return with powder and shot. will soothe the dignity, the honour, the vital interests, and the amour propre of Powers whose quiescence has been falsely construed into cowardice. The day of retribution appears to be nigh, the day when the pent up retaliation of the Peace Powers will find yant in one of the most terrible wars-universal wor-that his dry ever has, recorded'oraver will. Let us hope that when storm com, when the aging billows burst upon the warld's communities, that those Powers, the weight of whose influence has been on the side of the maintenance of peace, will not be found wanting; brit that, on the contrary, triumphantly, bringing their combined interests into a haven of safety, leaving all aggresiprs-- those who may be responsible for the outcome of seriously strained relations-a confounded, of revolting contemptible, crushed mass humanity,
brick teas, the falling oft in the total valse is no that the complainant should be examined by which the Customs have been called to perform reciprocity, and even for the occasional it the French commanders were drawn into they will ride over the raging main, successfully,
One of these, Raw Cotton, which as recently as
His Worship, at defendant's request, ordered
the Colonial Surgeon, to see if his teeth were naturally loose. He then adjourned the, case till Wednesday, fixing bail at $100.
THE ADVENTURES OF TRE
“MENMUIR."
more than 7 per cent.; but if the experts are to be credited, the end of the decline has not yet been reached. Silk, which quits China at two poris mainly, Shanghai and Canton, did well in 1889. Of white ri silk the export of 1889 amounted to 6.517 picula, against 54,704 piculs In 1888, 59.589 piculs in 1887, and 56,682 piculs 886; of wild raw silk in 1889, the export was 17,827 piculs, against 13.129 piculs in 1888, 12,041 piculs in 1887, and 12,554 picule in 1886.
The E. and A. S. N Co.'s yacht Menmuir, Ten years back a year's average export of Wild Raw Silk was 4.500 piculs. The total of the Capt. Craig, arrived in poit on the rgth inst., after export of Silk of all kinds, unmanufactured and her late luckless voyage from Australia. The manufactured together, was Hk. Tis. 39.400,000,"report which was furnished might have con- against Hk. Tis. 32,200,000 in 1888, a gain of 13 tained a good many interesting details if the për cent. Thus it is clear that in 1889 what was
The lost.over the short export, of Tea was more than writer had been less sternly practical. recouped in the larger export of Silk, from vessel had misfortune right along. She left the point of view of value. But though Sydney on the 29th January. On the 31st she Silk and Tea together vield Hk. Tis. met extremely bad weather, and by a defect in 64,600,000, or 67 per cent.. of a total of the value of all the Exports of China to foreign cour the mechanism of her soupper-cover had ber tries, there are other products also which have decks constantly laden with water, which broke asserted themselves in the markets of the world up a lot of her fittings amidships, twisted the and are developing a trade of large proportions. steam-pipes, washed all the live-stock overboard, 1887 was thought to prosper with a total export and smashed the boats. When the cyclone abated of 69,000 picuis, valued at Hk.Tls. 678,000, a small sailing vessel signalled for help, and the wes supplied with water. An hour or two later reached in 1889 a total of 504,000 pituls, valued at Hk.Tls. 5,000 000-nearly all having gone to the ill-fated Quella passed, and took the Japan to supply the mills there. I am indebted to the Shanghai Commissioner's Report, for the schooner in tow, but the latter was beyond re- Information that 10,000 piculs also were shipped nair, and sank as she was towed. Fortunately all to Liverpool; and, it has to be borne in mind that on board were saved. The Menmuir went on to great as the export was it would have been
Port Darwin, leaving for Java on the 15th even greater if the crop of 1880 had had an February. The carpenter got to work on the ordinary autumn and had escaped the 40 days of continuous rain which, beginning on the 17th boats, and patched two of them up so that they September, spread havocover the Cotton-growing would float, but they were far from being sea. provinces from east to west at the time when worthy. At 3.30 am, on the third day out, when dry weather was to be expected and was nearly to the west of Timor, all among Islands which a indispensable for the ripening and ingathering of the most promising crop of late years. The recent naval chronicler described as being export of Sugar, too, valued at Hk. Tis. 2,700,000, peopled by Malays, said to be ferocious head largely sought a market in Japan, but some hunters, but who content themselves with the also went to Europe. The trade in Wool, both lower jaw"--the shaft broke, about two feet from Sheep's and Camels', has grown creditably of the screw. Luckily it cracked clean ngress, for recent years, from 4500 piculs in 1880 to 43,000 picule in 1885 and to 102,000 piculs In 1889. had the fracture been at an angle the weight of the Even Tobacco pushes its way, since from 19.000 propeller would probably have caused a breach plculs in 1880 It mounted up to 24,000 siculs in the water-tight compartment, as has more in 1885, and in 1889 reached a total of 69,570 than once happened, and pumps would have plculs. In short, If the Tes from China has been beaten back from its old commanding been of litle use against the inrush of water position in the markets of the world. It is However, she was quite helpless, with no vessel abundantly clear that for this warfare the to look for for a couple of weeks, so Capt. Craig resources of the soil and the ability of the people determined to try and sali back to Port Darwin. of China have many other products ready to fill To do so with the prevalling sepbyrs he had to the gap thus made in the ranks of her industrial considerably increase the usual spread of canvas All hands were set to work; the engineers fitted constituents.
bands on the derricks so that they would do for
It would fill not a small newspaper article, bat a good big book, to detail the various functions in China; and we shall on this occasion confine ourselves strictly to one, and to only the outlines of that. Nor is it necessary to occupy our reader minds at this time of day with wondering at the strangeness of Customs! officials playing such unusual and important parts; for as is sometimes said of the Chris- tinn miracles, the capacity for wonder is, exhausted by the primary one of all, so when we have once realised the competition-wallah con trolling the Chinese Maritime Revenue we need not stumble any more over mere names. Con sider what power has been wielded by and what multiform responsibilities thrown on men bearing the modest title of "Collectors" in India. Euro- peats among Asiatics are anomalous from top to bottom.
The root principles of the Foreign Customs Service, the true secret of its growth and its utility, have been its loyal devotion to Chinese interests and its ceaseless endeavour to serve those in a Chinese manner. To do good to China was undoubtedly the object of Mr. Lay also, but
neglected to accommodate his bene ficence to Chinese modes of thought. His failure, however, laid the foundation of the suc cess of his successor :—
*
**
•
"Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in,
Mark but my fall and that that ruined me."
The old head on young shoulders did mark right well, and inwardly digest, and in an ex- perimental career of 27 years has with much delicacy of touch soothed the susceptibilities of the Chinese and slipped over their heads the vesture in which they now appear at the Council
CURIOS.
FOUND. Several Yokohamaites who, having a personal spite against some individual, are willing to furnish The Bar with personal, and libelous articles, that they have not the nerve to father the authorship of aver their own signatures,
but willing for us to be kicked to death, herause we are used to it. Their productions can be found in our stove, th
The part then played by the Customs we have characterised as hidden, and many have been the services it has rendered to the State in the like unobtrusive way. But a few years later this now indispensable adjunct to the executive government manifested still more clearly its indispensability, and during the Franco-Chinese War of 1884-5, when the Chinese were landed by their incapacity into one hopeless dilemma after another, it was again the Customs which played the part of deus ex machina. These events are so recent as to require, little detailed reference. The military successes of the French in the capture of Sontay and Bneninh exposed to time most vulnerable portions of the Empire, Canton; indeed, had the French followed the policy which military consideration dictated, and fillen immediately with a sufficient force on Canton in the Spring of 1884, they could have qujetly held China to ransom for any amount of money they pleased. A pious conqueror, perhaps, would he disposed to regard that populous and wealthy! city as specially designed by Providence for such & use. This blow had at all hazards to be averted, and the Chinese being, as they always have been and always will be, nonplussed in the face of every real difficulty, the Customs agency was once more brought into requisition, and by
The peace which negotiations for peace. was too hastily patched up by the eager negotiators was broken within two months in consequence of the natural treachery of certain individuals whom we need not now particularize. Then for the first time, in the summer of 1884, the Inspector-General appeared openly on the scene, and in conjunction with the Viceroy Tang Kuo-chuan, endeavoured to make terms' with the French Minister Patendre, in Shanghai. Fortunately, perhaps, even for the negotiators. We have before quoted extracts from that five little nader The Box of Curios, published themselves, their efforts came to nothing, and the famous war of reprisals commenced on August
at the Art Sill Parlors, Yokohama. We now repeat the offence and scissor the following !— 23rd by the destruction of the Chinese fleet in the
WANTED.-A Young Lady, sweet 36, blue eyes river Min, followed by ineffectual attacks by the French on various points of the coast. How it
correspond with some young man who means Of the overt successes of Customs diplomacy harpened that the French authorities consented and red hair, rather good looking, wishes to the first conspicuous example was the Chiefoo to wear out their troops in Tonquin instead of business, and is matrimonially inclined. Hay. Convention of 1875, in which Li Hung-chang, making a sudden descent in force on the coasting been fooled several times before, triflers will under the direct tutelage of the Inspector-General, of China, and how they failed to realize the find a breach of promise suit on their hands, if obtained an important victory over the British supreme value and cheap tenure of the island of they are not sincere. Send Photo, and address: Minister of the day, which not only redounded Formosa, worth a dozen Tonquins, are problems "Maud," this Office. to the credit of the Chinese negotiator, but which it is not our immediate business to solve; indemnified China for the loss of the treaty but so it was, and after six months of tedious of 1869, a forgotten treaty, which had been campaigning both sides were quite worn out refused ratification by the British Govern- and ready to sign anything for the sake of ment at the instance of the foreign merchants peace. This psychological moment was skilfully of Shangbal. As a diplomatic feat the seized by the Inspector-General to interpose Chefoo Convention was a master-piece. Certain his good offices, after. witnessing many un- demands of Great Britain bad been pushed successful efforts by all sorts of people to to the verge of war, and under the deal with this knotty question. True now to stress of threatened hostilities Li Hung-chang the teaching of experience, he dexterously was dragged to Chefoo to attempt to appease shifted the venue to Europe, and by the clever the British Minister. Once there, however, the handling of a very insignificant incident of the war, the seizure of a light-house tender, brought ability of his foreign advisers converted his too possible defeat into a triumph, and instead of about a settlement between the two governments, submitting to the British scourge, he exacted in Paris.
The Chinese Ministers in Europe being thus from his opponent a concession which has trebled the Chinese revenue on Opium at the superseded in their functions equally with the sole expense of British India. The revenue clause French Minister then in China, the Inspectorate- of the Chefoo Convention, which was practi- General of Customs approved itself. master of cally its whole substance, could not, however, the situation, and thereby put itself in the way take effect until the further Agreement was made of still further conquests, which fallowed thick between the Marquis Tseng and Lord Salisbury, and fast. To the Corean imbroglio the Customs in 1885 neither could that become operative has shown itself possessed of vitality sufficient until the Inspector-General once more appeared to solve existing difficultiex-again, the creation of Chinese incapacity-ifits allowed free senpe; concluded the Hongkong and Macao Agreements but as we are, wilting a chronicle, and not of 1886; thereby finally setting the crown upon, prophecy, we need not open that thorny question his own work of ten years previous. A negota now, YAN tion so near, home as Chefoo, was a somewhat The Portuguese arrangement of 1887 was the
[Anar YakAlma is not noted for any hazardous experiment, but audacity, combined next diplomalle enterprise of the Customs, which grent activity, and for the purpose of creating a with good information, had its due reward. And was also ably managed, in Lisbon, and such good inspiression of the town, the Chamber of bere it may be noted that it is not the way of the sequently ratified, by a definitive treaty in Commercs have requested, these gentlemen to race up and down the streets. Then again Inspector-General to leave anything to charice Peking. This was a necessary adjunct to the which forethought can provide for for no Chief Important agreement respecting the Oplum the distances in Yokohama gre great, sad of the Staff ever worked his Intelligence Depart revente made with the Colony of Hongkong in often the Banks are one and two blocks away ment to such good purpose as he does, nor is 1886, which terminated many vexed questions from their offices, and it requires some fast there one of the foreign legations better served and at last secured to China the enormous addi- driving to be able to make the round trip during tion, at first hand, from the centres where matters
twenty year.RS
to the H. & S. Bank, ft fools the merchants, June, and at Mengizi, Yilanan, on-aith August forecastle-head pare sails were spread as gaff.have sprung, and it is therefore worthwhile to The introduction of the Foreign Customs to Had the diplomatic campaign of the Customs (those taking in their signs at night), Into the
awning booms rigged as stun-sall booms on the subsequent achievements of Customs diplomacy of Interest to China are debated:zman top-sails and a nondescript-looking, three- get a clear view of the distinctive principles the Society of Europe which war celebrated at terminated there it would have been a sufficiently bellef they have a comer on Exchange, and are Hopes the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 may be taken as brillant record, but there remained the two patronized accordingly. If I Stranger notices cornered top-gallant sall hoisted. The effect was which it embodied..
A landing feature in Chinese diplomatic tactics its Brst appearance to its own character, after signal triumphs of Chungking and Sikkims which any of their coolles endangering the lives of not pretty, but it was successful ; at least when there was any breeze-In, two days she was has always been to keep negotiators as far off which successful but the diffidence engendered have just beed effected. The Sikkim affair women and children by the same reckless driv rigged, and again became, manageable. She from the Capital as possible; and the irksome by a dubious status completely disappeared, and reflects special credit on Chinese diplomacy, as Ing, he is at liberty to stop them, take them out salled on her backward course allright for a day ness of having to endure Foreign Ministers the Collector of Ching could thenceforth the Indian, officials are usually men of grit of the can, and break their necks 1 updat or two-making as much as ten knots an hour resident in Peking found a welcome salve be dealt with as an organism: having credited, with tenacity as to their frontier rights, EDITOR BOX-1 in grippe contagious, how рторова! to despatch Chinese independent functions. The apothecals of the and they needed no arrangement of any kind to does It act, who has it, and what is good for it? at times, but the strong beams currents carried } in the her unpleasantly near to the Hibernia Reefs. emissaries abroad, a scheme which had Imperial Maritimo Customs may thus be said to strengthen their position. Nothing probably
ENQUIRER. DE The third mate and a crew were, sent away in a }, moro attractions for them-hot all Sofa have been enacted in Vienna, where lis emlata". | could have Induced them to make the surrender The following is the report for presentation to boat, with money and arms, to Keepang, 160 very high order-then we need now stop to ries hob-nobbed with royalty and the stars except Irresistible pressure from the Secretary of It's just as you say. The in grippe wis the twelfth ordinary general meeting of share miles away, for help. Round and sound sailed enumerate But the measure strengthened and crosses which were then showered on their State Howsoever the exercise of such pressure brought over here on the last trip of the the Manmuir, now apparently making good way, Chinese diplomacy more substantially than was beads became the veritable seeds of the future was brought about, China at least has abundant Oceanic, br. Dr. Reynolris. It was found holders to be held at the offices of the Company, with the breeze filling her extemporised salis, but perhaps apparent to themselves at first, for. by aggrandisement of the Justílution which had reason to congratulate herself'on the result, and | lying around loose in S F. and; as it was Hankow Road, Shanghai, on the arst inst. (= ' really drifting at the mercy of the current, which shifting the venue from Peking to the various sent them forth as scouts in an explored country on the high capacity of her servants. The Cus cheap, he brought a small dose to help aut The Directors have pleasure in laying before by the 1st of March had taken her thirty-five miles Western capitale the Chinese turned the advan. The attitude of the Customs was undergoing a toms comes out of all its ordeals with flying bid medical confreres here. It has been a proves itself capable of forming the perfect harvest for them. Anything short of the Shareholders the daly audited Balance Sheet out of the Guthrie's tracks. Next day she made stages of the game entirely to their own side, so natural change, its garments of humility were colours, and and Working Accounts of the Company to 31st miles, back, however, always being headed for that it was a real master-stroke of policy as well gradually dropping off from a position of seem nucleus of all that is necessary not for the the small-pox is called a grippe, and as no one the track, although by then nearly 70 miles as an adroit tactical move. Of its advantages to ug dependence on certain influential: legations lubrication of the external machinery of govern- knows anything diferently, the Drs. have had 1888. In accordance with the terms of the away, from where she broke down. The passen China we need only allude to onsortwo. In the first a Peking it rose first to independence of, and ment merely but of those internal reforms which soft, Jobe The best Jove connected with the Resolation passed at the last Ordinary General gers made themselves very comfortable, although place it effaced the Foreign Ministers in Peking, then to ascendancy over its former patrons we maintain to be essential to the preservation whole thing is that the Doctors have had it Meeting this account has now been closed us a washed-out saloon, a circumscribed was, and who were well informed, had ample time to The transformation was scarcely perceptible to of the State: Our hope for the future safety and themselves and been compelled to take their own Total Profits of the year, amounting to Teels awningless decks made it lets easy Absorbed marshal, their facts and nothing to distract their those who were the most interested in its conse welfare of China, in a word; rests very largely medicines, consequently have been as sick as in chess or cards, catching or shooting sharks by minds from Chinese affairs, and It brought the gaences, and certainly up till 1876, the Brilsh on the Foreign Maritime Customs-Ct their patients, but not too sick to keep tally of 338.31.86, have been distributed as follows the deten, and putting off in bost on the whole diplomatte force of China to bear on Minister seems not to have fully realised that Timeri Edi P20 their visits. The Druggists have been taking their own vile concections, and have been to per cent upon the Paid-up
motionless water in order to photograph the Secretaries of State who were entirely pre the sceptre had become a mere spectre in his
hands.We
laid up in the shape. The Wine and Liquor. Capital
Tecla 12,310 29 curiously rigged vessel, they felt, or at any occupied with matters Infinitely more pressing,
RUSSIA, INDIA, AND CHINA
Merchants have spoken highly of their brands any rate shewed, no want of confidence in Capt, who could only devote furtive fragments of their The Chefoo, episode of course added fresh
of Scotch Whiskies, and from the way a fellow 377,108.57 Craig or his officers, who had done, all that time, and none at all of their more serious lustre to the Customs, whose power and influence
and its grasp of Fame, b
Communicated.]
for gripped a lamp post after trying Curnow's Afew years later addition to the Reserve Fund. 40,000.00 a posible under the circumstances, so attention, to Chinese questions. It was the very became
they could only hope for a breeze, orthe Guthrie, idealsitostion for an envoy of average threwdness, affairs was
Everything seems to have become turned op rod, we think it works all right,” Drinking milk Chine
difficulties with Russia. side down in Afghanistan since the occupation as a beverage, we can't speak from expellence 1889-The Halance at credit on stat De- In the meantime all the arms were ready, the who, giving his whole mind to one thing, was ever
been concluded by of a portion ofitt by, the English after the Afghan The newspaper and curio men all escaped, but comber was Taels 797536.94, and, after de boats prepared and provisioned, and every cap on the watch for opportunities of Insinuating in the treaty of Li
provo, the truth of the war Quettairs Instead of being a flourishing the Mely post from Tokio still has it had, ducing Losses and Claims slace paid and full of wind made use of to get back to the information, putting his own glass on current reports Chungbow, and as
principle which we solensed to at the beginning trade centre, it now rapidly failing” into the Ballr estimad, and making provision for unexpired visible tradic" On the morning of the 4th and posing is one speaking" with = aut)
A noteworthy event of the year was the open-
board of nations.
The diplomatic essays of the Customs need not be traced farther back than the Burlingame Mission of 1868, a venture which succeeded so much beyond the expectations of its authors that they were eager to disavow it as one hides away who has loosened a stone from the mountain side and sees it crashing into the hamlets below, The origin of ideas is harder to localise than the sources of sivere, and though a dual parentage, at least, may be predicated of most fruitfal on the scene, this time is propria persona, and schemes, modesty itself cannot bar the affiliation of Burlingamism on the Inspectorate of Customs. With what precisedegree of prevision of the conse quences involved in the success of such a mission matters practically into fecurately set will by belief that a mind once accurately its own half-conscious intuitions strike the key-note of policy whose far-reaching effects are obscurely, but ao less surely, wrapped up in the embryonic concepilen, as the remoter stages of a journey are determined by the single step, that is taken at the dividing of the ways
..
A most rekerke affair took place at the Ban queting Hall of the noted Palace Art Silk Parlors, 61 Main Street, last week. It was's spontaneous offering of the affable Manager, to
of their fortunes at his store. A feast of bowl the many customers who had spent a large part and a flow of reason, was noticeable on all sides.. The representatives of the local Press were out in force to the free entertainment, and all were too fall for utterance, and as no note of the occasion has been made in their journals, sup- nose they are still full. Give a daily reporter a
reminder stores: d.)
EDITOR BOX-I notice several carts being driven rapidly through the streets by gentlemen, each accompanied by a native. Can you explain. the cause of their great hurry, as well as why their servants drive just as fast when alone?
STRANGER.
Ing of two new Custom Houses on the Tong, apars; the nisin top-mast was lowered, and step- Consciously or not, the launch of the Burlingame than is the bureau of the Custobis with information to it” Revenue for which the Inspector: business hours. Competition is' great, and the..
1889.
3
E. MCKEAN, Statistical Secretary.
Shanghai, rath March, 1889.
THE NORTH CHINA INSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED.
December last.
18 per cent on Shareholders'
Contributions a