NEW BOUNDARY COMMISSION WANTED.
Ai the present day Governments systematically strengthen them- selves by by recruiting the ranks of their supporters with members of ilie-more educated, restless, and influential classes. This has been the
*ey in almost every country of Europe, except one ; the existing
Kutch Government appearing to select its immediate supporters chiefly for the quality of sycophancy. In this country we have' a comparatively limited store of public offices to bestow, but the Whigs opened the great mine of "Commissionerships"; a mine from which their successors and rivals' have recently extracted that splendid specimen, a Lord High Commissionership Errtmor- ditairse.ini the Ionian Isles. Humbly we throw out the sugges- tiontetliat the Government may. make a new office, create a new esmanissionership, nay, commismonerships notonly with applause bent the public, but with positive utility to England, to man-
kindyand to history. -
: ..A. comnspondent of the Times who has studied the subject in silks raises a very interesting question. By way of America rather amimportant piece of news has reached this country from Japan. America seems to be becoming the highway for news, partly be- cause,it is not the system if' that country "to throw a veil," &c. : and well do we remember hearing a lamented natural philo- sopher illustrating this general diffusion of intelligence by the fact that the first discovery of the bones of the Dinornis in British New2ealandreachecl this country through America. Through the same channel we now learn that, by General Mouravief's new treaty with the Chinese Government Russia has appropriated a large territory, while the China papers lately received declare that the territory is even larger than the American statement re- presents it to be. According to one' the frontier between Russia and China is to be the 48th parallel of latitude, east of the River Usuri, and. to the westward of the River Armor. According to the China papers it is to be the left bank of the Amoor as well as the coast territory on the left bank of the Usuri north of the 43c1 parallel of latitude—a difference of only five parallels !—a tract of country rich in every natural resource and comprising important bays. But that is not all. By the treaty of Count Poutiatine with Japan, the island of Sagalin "remains as heretofore joint property of Russia and Japan. ' The correspondent of the Times, who calls attention to these important intimations, asserts that Sagalin "never was the pro- perty of Russia, but always has been claimed by China." Un- doubtedly; the Central Flowery Empire has put no bounds to its claims, including supremacy over the barbarian nations, our own amongst the number ; we are therefore in some degree able to judge the history of the validity of this claim. Not altogether in a dissimilar manner, China has claimed supremacy over Japan, while Japan has exercised a de facto independence ; and China has at the same time, claimed the islands bordering the west coast of the Pacific as far as the Kurile Islands. It is true that Russia has formerly set her foot in Sagalin, but under what circumstan- ces? More than half a century ago, in the autumn of 1804, Count Resanoff appeared at Nagasaki and attempted to open ne- gotiations, but he was with some courtesy kept at a distance by Japanese obstructions ; and in revenge for that failure, about two years later, Russian forces landed upon the island of Sagalin, one of the southern Kuriles—it may be said to block the mouth of the Amoor—and committed marauding outrages upon the residents, avowedly, according to papers left behind in the Russian and French languages —languages, of course, current in Japan,—for the purpose of teaching the Japanese their folly in rejecting Re- sanoff's friendly overtures. Russian encroachment may have continued subsequently, and undoubtedly has ; but here was a distinct recognition that Segalln was responsible for the misdeeds of Japan : while in 1858 Poutia.tine has recognized the civiliza- tion of Japan' and therefore her independence, so far as to make a treaty with her. Now to whom does Sagalin belong ? What are the bounds of Russia, not only on the Chinese main, but in the Japanese Archi- pelago? They know perhaps at St. Petersburg ; most probably they know not at Jeddo' but de we know here ? Could an Ar- rowarnith, or even a Beaufort, accurately construct a map of the world in those parts ? We are planning treaties, and commercial arrangements, without knowing the political geography of the regions which we treat. Here is a subject for a commission, and. a grand one too ; for it needs not to be limited to the Kurile islands, or even to the frontiers of China and Japan. It would be a royal, and, of course, a travelling commission, to ascertain the boundaries of existing states; with the fact also, which states are independent and which are not. What a mass of pregnant in- formation would such a volume convey. How would it illustrate the validity of treaties, or the actual working of some great powers at the present moment ; not excepting the manner in which our own Government, in times not far distant, has per- formed its dutiee towarde England and mankind.
Previous page
