10 APRIL 1841, Page 13

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

TRIUMPHANT RESULTS OF THE WHIG POLICY IN CHINA.

Tun Dogberries of Government are loud in their self-felicitations about the news by the overland mail. "There is no country in the world," says the Chronicle, '• in which a Minister is more fre- quently tried than iu England by the unjust test of the results rather than the principles of his policy ; and we think we may say with confidence, that there have been few Ministries that have stood the test more triumphantly than the present." It must certainly be a great subject of congratulation to Ministers to know that their foreign policy meets with approbation—when tried by an "urjust test."

The Chronicle has thus dexterously and judiciously sought to shelve "the principles" of the quarrel with China. There is so much of truth in the pithy axiom announced by that journal that Ministers are in this country most frequently tried by " the unjust test" of their success, that were their success in China beyond dispute, there would be nothing remaining for all who question their principles, but to enter a protest—an appeal from the people in the intoxication of success, to the people become sober again, and called upon to pay the bill, under the influence of a headache the consequence of their debauch—and drop the controversy for the present. Honesty is the best policy ; and a less restricted inter- course with China, purchased by an opium war, might have its advantages materially neutralized by the fraud and violence which procured it. But even the success may he questioned. The Chronicle tells us—" The wrongs of our merchants have been redressed; the position of our trade immensely benefited ; increased facilities given for carrying it on in future ; and our diplothatic intercourse freed from those offensive and humiliating forms, so long a source of serious embarrassment between the countries." And all this, we are assured, has been attained "in a single campaign—at an incredibly small expenditure either of life or means."

Let us contrast this magnificent verbiage with the meagre abstract of events upon which it rests. "The wrongs of our merchants have been redressed." By "wrongs of our merchants," we suppose the writer means the seizure and destruction of the opium. How have they been redressed ? "An indemnity to the British Government of six millions of dollars, payable in six yearly instalments," is said to have been promised by the Chinese Commissioners. This is not repayment to the merchant : it is a contribution towards the pay- ment of the expense incurred by the British Government in fitting out the expedition. "The Plenipotentiary has published officially his intention to urge the opium-indemnification claims upon the British Government, with the concurrence also of the Governor- 'G'eneral of India." It is uncertain yet whether the opium- merchants at Canton are to be indemnified for their losses ; and if they are, it is to be at the expense, not of the Chinese Government, but of the British people. " The position of our trade immensely benefited—increased faci- lities given for carrying it on in future." The clauses " said to be stipulated " in " the preliminary treaty signed officially by the Plenipotentiaries " are—" the cession of the island of Hong-Kong to the British Crown," and " the trade of Canton to be opened ten days after the Chinese New Year." That is to say—the Bri- tish have now in Hong-Kong,* an island thirteen leagues to the east of Macao, a right of property similar to that which the Por- tuguese have long had in the latter island ; and that the trade with Canton is to be reopened, for any thing that appears to the contrary, exactly on the same footing on which it was formerly conducted. Hong-Kong is granted merely as a fief of the empire— as private property : and the terms upon which trade is to be conducted are left for after-negotiation—to furnish matter for Palmerstonian protocols. " Our diplomatic intercourse freed from those offensive and humiliating forms," &c. The statement from China is—" Direct official intercourse, on an equal footing between the two countries." This is undoubtedly again, if real : bet the politic Chinese may dispense with the form of "pin" and yet keep the representatives of the British Crown as much at arm's length as ever. This ad- mission on the part of the Chinese, that Great Britain is not a tri- butary but an independent state, may place certain Consular and Diplomatic appoiptments at the disposal of Ministers—entail addi- tional expense on the country, and furnish Government with in- creased means of corruption—and yet leave our mercantile interests in China exactly as they were.

And all this has been purchased with " an incredibly small ex- penditure either of life or of means." Before we admit this, we must know the exact value of what has been gained. Expenditure is large or small in proportion to the return obtained for it. But we would say that, prima facie, the expenditure of life in the Chi-- • Cette ile et plusieurs mitres petites qui l'avoisinent sont nommies par lee Espagnols des des Larrons, parcequ'elles Fervent de retraite aux pirates : leur aspect est en general sterile. '—Dietionnaire Ge:graphigue Universal.

The name will be little less appropriate when the island serves as a retreat for opium trailers, who vend that contraband article from vessels mounting twenty or thirty guns, and Missionaries like Mr. GUTZ GAFF, who, provided they can find "an opening " into China, confess they are quite indifferent as to the means by which it is obtained..

nese Wakheren of Chusan has not been small ; and that the Chinese contribution of six millions of dollars (only 1,500,0001. sterling, taking the dollar at as high a value as 5s.) towards the ex- penses of the expedition, will fall short of the expenses already incurred.

In short, the result of the whole transaction seems to be—That the Directors of the East India Company, (who have a monopoly of the opium grown in their territories,) and some British mer- chants resident in Canton, having for some time carried on a lucra- tive smuggling-trade in opium, the Chinese Government seized their stock on hand at Whatnpoa ; that in consequence of this, the British Government fitted out a fleet and army, which took posses- sion of a town in Chusan, battered down two or three Chinese forts, lost a great many men by sickness, and frightened the Chinese Government into ceding to our Queen a barren island near the mouth of the Canton river, promising to treat English diplomatic agents with civility, and undertaking to pay by insialments in the course of six years a portion of the expenses of the expedition; and that the Governor-General of India is to endeavour to per- suade the British Government to indemnify the Canton merchants, for the purpose of enabling them to pay the East India Company, out of the taxes raised in Great Britain, and to defray the surplus expense incurred by the expedition over and above the contribution of the Chinese Government. Lastly, even this settlement has not yet been ratified by either Government.

The Whig organs must be sadly at a loss for something to brag of, when they make such a hallooing about this trumpery affair.