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Address to Foreign Residents in China.
J'AN.
Major Pratt 26th regiment in command. Lt. Stransham of Royal Marines, from H. M. S. Calliope, acting Brigade Major. Lt, Stewart Mackenzie, of the 90th Light Infantry, and military secretary, acting ajd-de-camp. Capt. Ellis of the Royal Marines commanded the advance. Lt. Symons of the Wellesley superintended the landing and reëmbarkation of the troops.
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ART. VI. Address to foreign residents in China: the new year; re- trospect; present position of affairs; opening · prospects.;, and increased responsibilities.
ABOUT Commencing a new era, in the relations of foreigners with this country, a glance at the past may aid in the guidance of future conduct. With the opening year, too, it is customary and befitting, that there be made some recognition of that bounteous Hand, which guides the seasons, and assigns to every man his lot with the number of his years. Our limits, however, will not allow, nor is it neces- sary, that we dwell long either on the past or the present-suffice. it, that coming days find each one of us readily "doing the things that are right.'
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A retrospect, touching only on a few prominent points in the fo- reign relations with China, will furnish data sufficient for drawing a comparison between the past and the present.
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'Raphael Perestrello arrived here in 1516.' Adventurers from Spain, France, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, and England, soon fol- lowed those from Portugal. The impressions made here by these early visitors, like those made by adventurers from the same countries to the New World at the same time, were far from being salutary. Their's was an age of chivalry. In both the Indies, bold enterprises were prosecuted with no regard to the native įnhabitants, whenever their rights could be disregarded with impunity. The famed riches of Cathay had no inconsiderable attraction; but the Chinese, was not so easily beguiled as the Indian. Queen Elizabeth saw this; and accordingly she wisely framed her policy, and addressed to the empe ror letters commendatory, which she intrusted to the chiefs of an ex- pedition destined to this country. That, and various other efforts, Inade at sundry times, even down to the present day, failed. Between
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