4 JUNE 1864, Page 1

Mr. Cobden on Tuesday bronght forward, amidst a very full

House, a motion for observing the policy of non-intervention in our intercourse with China. We have commented on his speech in another place, but may remark here that all English figures about Chinese trade are delusive unless accompanied by the statistics from India and Singapore. Lord Palmerston in his reply regretted that Captain Osborn's expedition had failed, asserted that trade must be protected by treaties, and denied that our wars had been waged in the interest of a few merchants. "Those merchants in reality only form the outlets by which the thousand rills of industry in this country find their way to the great ocean market of the world." It. was a curiously effective speech, the best the country has yet had from the Premier on the subject, but it meant this :—To trade with Asia successfully Eng- land must, directly or indirectly, rule Asia. The policy Eng- lishmen want to try is to trade without burdening themselves with more races to reign over.