CHINA.
TEE Chinese folly appears to be advancing to a denouement. Among the Parliamentary notices of motions for next session, which impatient Members of the House of Commons have already entered upon the Notice-book, is one by Sir GEORGE STAUNTON, of certain resolutions relating to China. They affirm that the military occu- pation of various stations on the Chinese coast has placed a popu- lation of several hundred thousand persons under British rule ; that public pledges have been given not to restore the positions occu- pied except under certain conditions, and to provide for the se- curity of the inhabitants "if ever they are restored" ; that therefore a bill ought to be introduced into Parliament authorizing the establishment of civil and criminal courts in China; and that the Legislature, "although it may be expedient that the native popula- tion should continue to be governed generally in the spirit of those laws to which they have been accustomed for ages, and which are suited to their condition," ought nevertheless to interpose in the case of "many exceptions," such as slavery, &c. Sir GEORGE'S resolutions, if adopted, would sanction the foundation of a British empire in China, the counterpart of that which already exists in India, and would, moreover, proceed more boldly in the revolution- izing of the former country than the British Indian Government has yet dared to attempt. What reception these resolutions may meet with on the part of Government, it is not for us to conjecture : but, unless measures be immediately taken for putting an end to hostilities in China, something of the kind must ultimately be adopted. With an Opposition acting upon old Whig principles, even a Government willing to delude the national vanity into such a preposterous policy might have been checked ; but with the swaggering tone at present fashionable among Liberals with respect to foreign affairs, a reluctant Government is more likely to be pre- cipitated into it.
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