way, it would serve me to ask the question. I did immediately act upon Sir C. Clarke's first despatch & I have the honour to forward Copies of the note that I addressed to the Prince of Kump & of H. J. H.'s reply.
The unnatural Curtness of the latter is to be ascribed to the Prince's detection of my motive in asking a question which I was perfectly competent to answer myself. I could only have put an ulterior purpose, to wit, the purpose of reminding the Chinese Court that it was not only on the Yunnan frontier that international difficulties were possible.
I did not know at the time what the French have since learned, namely that they were pressing up here for permission to put one or more consular officers within the Yünnan frontier for surveillance of the trade of their newly established Protectorate.
To return to Sir C. Clarke's suggestion, China does not affect to control the forts of States tributary to her. They accept investiture from the Chinese Court, & in Anam the formalities proper to such ceremonies are supervised by a third Class provincial authority deputed from the adjoining province of Kuangsi. This shows the distance it suits the pride of China to place between herself and her tributaries.
Her dread of responsibility, at the same time, deters her from direct interference in the affairs of these tributary States. The remarks of her public men about Corea, which I have pointed out elsewhere, authorize this conclusion. On the other hand the same remarks tend to prove that when the Chinese Court does speak, it is not always listened to.
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