POLICY OF THE OPEN DOOR. 367 



and no favour " ; but this variety of nomenclature in 

 no way affects the guiding principle, and it must be 

 admitted that this ideal has from first to last re- 

 mained constant, - however inconsistent the methods 

 by which it has been sought from time to time to 

 secure it. Other Powers that neither enjoyed the 

 same start that British enterprise gave to British 

 merchants in China, nor possess the same commer- 

 cial aptitude, entertain no such admiration for the 

 policy of the open door, and therein is to be found 

 one of the factors which are always threatening to 

 create a destructive upheaval of the Chinese vol- 

 cano. The other is the innate, indestructible, and 

 illimitable hatred of the Chinese themselves for 

 every one and every thing that is not of their 

 own race. 



One of the greatest blows that have as yet been 

 struck at the integrity of China, and de facto at 

 the British ideal, is the absorption of Manchuria; 

 and as it is only Northern China, if I except the 

 extreme western limits of that empire, that I have 

 any personal acquaintance with, Manchuria is the 

 core round which I weave my tale. 



The first mouthful of Manchurian territory which 

 Eussia swallowed was bitten oft' in the 'Fifties, when 

 the indefatigable Muravieff was pushing his activity 

 down the Amur river. The treaty of Aigun, con- 

 cluded in 1858, corrected some of the mistakes;;^,made 

 by Golovin in 1689, and a further treaty concluded 

 at Peking in 1860 gave diplomatic sanction to the 

 already eff'ected occupation of Possiet Bay, by ceding 

 to Bussia the whole of the coast-line of Manchuria 

 as far as the borders of Korea. The victorious 

 armies of England and France were in occupation 

 of Peking, and the nightmare of a prolonged^; Euro- 



