We have noted with some surprise that the Continent is
disposed to be a little suspicious about this abolition of " likin," but the explanation is not an unreasonable one. The adhesion of Pekin as well as the Viceroys to Sir James Mackay's pro- posals is taken to prove that the Chinese Government are disposed on the whole to seek the friendship of England and accept her advice. Should that be the case Great Britain, which has already cemented an alliance with Japan, would be irresistible in the Far East, and might use her influence t3 obtain large commercial advantages for herself. Germans and Frenchmen have a difficulty in believing that the British Government never plots, and that, while it un- doubtedly seeks to obtain as many free markets as possible, it has not the smallest objection to those markets being open to all the world. This is not a piece of rhetoric, but a fact of which there is indisputable evidence. We own India in the completest sense, yet we give the British trader no advantage in India whatever. The Frenchman or the German trades with Calcutta or Bombay exactly as an Englishman does, may live there as a merchant, or, if he likes, open a bank. Nothing is forbidden to him except to offer military service to a native Prince, and that is practically forbidden to the non-official Englishman too.
