A FEW MORE WORDS ABOUT CHINA.
AT the risk of appearing to repeat ourselves, we must direct atten- tion to the additional illustration of the real dangers of the war with China furnished by the last mail from India. More cities have been captured, and with them large quantities of artillery. But the very advocates of the war, who report these
victories, add— "That any satisfactory arrangement will be agreed upon before we reach Pekin, appears highly improbable; and even then, our attainment of the objects of the expedition is by no means certain. Suppose the Emperor, in- vincible and vainglorious as he is, should tremble at the approach of our n- vincible power, and seek to avoid the contest by withdrawing his court into the terra incognita of Central China: our only resource would then be to land our troops and march them through the country,—a course of policy fraught with innumerable dangers."
More respectable impulses than obstinacy and vain-glory may suggest this method of baffling our forces—to the Emperor if he is a man of talent and determination—if he is not, to the bureau- cracy which in his name governs China. If a system of local and independent resistance is adopted throughout the vast regions of China, each district and city acting for itself—resisting while it can, yielding when it must, and revolting again as soon as an oppor- tunity occurs and the last drubbing is forgotten—how long might the Emperor escape being brought to close quarters ? What amount of troops would be required to garrison strong places within cooperating distance of each other, and supply moveable columns to keep open the communication between them over the whole empire of China ? As yet we have not even been able to shut out the Chinese from foreign commerce. In spite of our paper blockade of their coasts, a greater number of Chinese junks
arrived at Singapore last season than in any previous year. But China must be efficiently shut up, and occupied in the way we have mentioned, before we can force the Emperor to treat with us, even on the assumption that the Chinese are not to learn the art of war and provide themselves with better arms in the mean time. But they are learning the art of war. " Our casualties are nu- merous," runs the report of the last battle. " The enemy served their guns extremely well ; and some of the vessels (particularly her Majesty's ship Blonde, and the steamers Nemesis and Sesostris) suffered a great deal from the heavy and destructive fire." They are procuring better arms. "Large quantities of cannon are said to he cast for the use of the Chinese Government, at a foundry near the foreign factories at Shenning, which is ostensibly private pro- perty. They have also procured shells of foreign manufacture for Paixhan guns." Already we have heard of some Dutch volunteers serving in the Chinese army : if the war continue long they will be followed by adventurers from every nation in Europe. If the ani- mosity the French bear us is as great as some say and the language of their journals would imply, here is an easy method of venting it. By encouraging volunteers to China, the French Government would at once help to prolong a struggle which must employ our armies at a distance and drain our treasury, and rid itself of some of its most troublesome subjects. If the Russian Government wishes to distract our attention, and render us powerless to pre- vent any acquisition of new territory it may contemplate in Asia, it has only to send the Emperor of China some good drills and a few artillery-officers. The Ministers who plunged this country into the Opium War have taught our enemies an easy method of baffling and wearing out the power of which they are so jealous.
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