THE TREATY OF ST PETERSBURG. 215 



eluded in February of the year 1881, with the assist- 

 ance and advice of the British Government, by the 

 Marquis Tseng. 



With regard to the treaty, it must be observed that, 

 however much the authorities at St Petersburg may 

 have declared themselves opposed to the action of their 

 subordinates on the spot in 1871, and however loud 

 their protestations of their readiness to restore the 

 province to its rightful owners, they did not hesitate 

 to make the most of the advantageous position in 

 which they found themselves in 1881. The western 

 half of the country remains Russian to this day. Nine 

 million metallic roubles were paid by China for the 

 restoration of the eastern half. The towns in which 

 Kussia had the right of appointing consuls were added 

 to, and the exclusive rights of navigating the rivers of 

 Manchuria, accorded to the subjects of Russia and 

 China by the treaty of Aigun (1858), were confirmed. 



The position of Kulja to-day — Chinese in name, 

 Russian the moment it pleases her that it should be so in 

 fact — is the natural outcome of the proceedings already 

 recorded, which culminated in the above treaty. After 

 crossing the frontier you very soon receive intimation 

 of your having entered the dominions of the " Son of 

 Heaven," for the road leads through a walled enclosure 

 — the Chinese custom-house, where you dismount while 

 a Chinese scribe traces incomprehensible hieroglyphics 

 on your passport. Forty versts farther on you come 

 to Suidon, once an important place as the seat where 

 that high official the governor - general of Chinese 

 Turkestan held court, and kept his soldiers and his 

 guns and all his munitions of war. When the Russian 

 came, however, and built his post-road and his Cossack 

 post, Chinese exclusiveness rebelled ; but, being unable 

 to oust the " foreign devil," retired a few miles into the 



