1842.
Positions of the British and Chinese Forces.
OSA
of them all is involved in the germinating element of the first, the justice of the cause. This I have sought in the natural rights of man. Whether it may ever be my good fortune to address you again, is in the disposal of a higher Power; but with reference to the last of my four questions, What are the duties of the govern- ment and the people of the United States, resulting from the existing war between Great Britain and China? I leave to your meditations the last event of that war, which the winds have brought to our ears-the ransom of Canton. When we remember the scornful refusal from the gates of Canton in July, 1834, of Mr. Astell, bearing the letter of peace and friendship from lord Napier to the governor of the two provinces, and the contemptuous refusal to receive the letter itself, and compare it with the ransom of that same city in June, 1841, we trace the whole line of connection between cause and effect-may we not draw from it a monitory lesson, written with a beam of phosphoric light--of preparation for war, and preservation of peace?
Note. One of the strongest inducements to place this lecture of Mr. Adams upon the pages of the Repository has been in this manner to exhibit the principal arguments that can be stated in behalf of this view of the merits of the present struggle between China and England. These remarks are the views of a man of extensive experience in public life, and as such are worthy of attention and de. ference; and they also show in a lucid manner one of the strongest reasons why the Chinese government has not the right to shut themselves out from the rest of mankind, founded on deductions drawn from the rights of men as members of one great social system. While, however, we differ from the lecturer with regard to the influence the opium trade has had upon the war, for it has been without doubt the great proximate cause, we mainly agree with him as to the effect that other remoter causes springing from Chinese assumption, conceit, and ignorance have also had upon it. In its progress, these features have been more and more prominently brought forward, and on the part of this government, the war is probably at present regarded as one of supremacy or vassalism, according as the Chinese win or lose. We do not see how the war could have arisen, had not the opium trade been a smuggling trade,-we think it would never have gone on as it has were the Chinese better acquainted with their own and others' rights. But whatever bc its course, it must we think, be the hearty desire of every well-wisher of his race, that the almighty Governor of the nations would in his own chosen way educe lasting good to both parties, and cause that these two mighty nations may in their future intercourse be a mutual benefit.-Ed. Chi. Rep.
ART. IV. Recent military operations of the British forces in Chi-
na, and actual position of the belligerent parties.
IN Chekiáng, where the chief interest of the British expedition. Ix againist China is at this moment concentrated, and where the Chi- nese have, for months past, been assembling their high officers and select troops in the largest numbers, there have recently occurred, some more active operations than during the past winter. These, brought on by the increased daring of the Chinese, have resulted, as was to be expected in their signal discomfiture.
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