The American Government has obviously decided not to allow any
further immigration of Chinese into the United States. So strong has been the pressure of opinion, that the Secretary of State recently proposed to Pekin that the Treaty allowing free entry should be rescinded, and the Government of Washington allowed to treat the admission of Chinese as a municipal affair, to be regulated by municipal law. Some commercial advan- tages were offered in return for the concession, and the Cabinet in Pekin, which is traditionally opposed to emigration, made little opposition. The Treaty was, therefore, signed on November 17th, and Congress can now regulate the admission of Chinese. The precedent is a remarkable one, but we do not know that the expedient adopted is not the best. It leaves it open to the American Government, the moment the prejudice dies away, to admit Chinese as readily as the people of any other nation ; and till the prejudice dies away, they are safer in their own country. It is believed that the Chinese were aware of the coming change, for immigration is ceasing, and every steamer carries hundreds of them away from San Fran- cisco. We should not be surprised to see a large immigration into Burmah, where there is plenty of land, and where, as in Siam, they can get along with the people. In India, though Chinamen thrive, the intense pressure of the cheap native com- petition daunts immigrants, who only maintain their small colony
in Calcutta, and teach tea-making in the Himalaya planta- tions and Assam.
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