176 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



have resulted greatly to the benefit of China and the whole commercial world ; and it may truly 

 he asserted that England, when possessed of unbounded control over the destinies of that singular 

 nation, retired from the contest without availing herself of the advantages which the fortunes 

 of war had thrown into her hands. This forbearance, more generous than wise, redounds 

 certainly to the humanity of the then ministry and the officers in command ; but it would have 

 been the more sagacious course, and perhaps tending to mercy in the end, if the occasion and 

 opportunity had been seized upon to establish throughout the empire a more liberal form of 

 government, and to insist upon the unconditional recognition of those reciprocal interchanges 

 of just and friendly intercourse which subsist between all civilized nations in time of peace — 

 the admission of foreign ministers at the court of Pekin ; protection of the persons and property 

 of foreigners throughout the empire ; the free exercise of civil and religious rights, when not 

 conflicting with the reasonable laws of the land, &c, &c. All this could have been accom- 

 plished by a continuance of the war another year, and probably without additional bloodshed ; 

 and all this is yet to be done, as a measure of paramount necessity, in view of the suppression 

 of the terrible state of anarchy which at present distracts the whole land, and the ultimate 

 reorganization of the political condition of the empire ; and inasmuch as the government ot 

 the United States and those of the European powers generally would be equally interested in 

 the consummation of a measure alike beneficial to China and the civilized world, it would be 

 the undoubted policy of all to unite in bringing about a revolution, civil and military, (and it 

 might be a bloodless one,) which would place China upon a footing with the most favored 

 nations. 



China proper, once disenthralled, Japan, Lew Chew, and the other countries already 

 mentioned in this paper, would enter of necessity into this new family of commercial, or, at 

 least, trading nations ; and the commerce of the East would be improved ten-fold by the impulse 

 thus given to the advance of civilization and the industrial arts ; and the benefits resulting 

 from such change — religious, moral, and political — could not be correctly estimated. The end 

 would therefore unquestionably justify the means ; and if ever an armed interference of one or 

 more nations with the political condition of another could be fully justified, it would be, as I 

 have stated, in bringing by force, if such result were necessary, the empires of China and 

 Japan into the family of nations, upon the basis of equal international duties as well as 

 rights. 



In further illustration of my argument, I may briefly quote from two communications of 

 mine, published a few weeks since in the New York Courier and Enquirer : "The equivocal 

 and unsettled relations of all Christian nations with the government of China, notwithstanding 

 the obligations of existing and pending treaties, render intercourse with that empire unstable 

 and difficult to be managed. The weakness of the reigning dynasty, the insurrectionary spirit 

 of the people, and the consequent injuries inflicted upon the agricultural and manufacturing 

 interests of the country, tend greatly to the derangement of its outward trade ; and it requires 

 the talents and energies of strong-minded men (and such are most of the American and 

 English merchants resident in China) to comprehend the mysteries and overcome the obstacles 

 which stand in the way of all mercantile transactions with a people well enough inclined, but 

 so stultified by national forms and prejudices as to make them, in many essentials, obstinate 

 and impracticable ; and even when disposed to act fairly and aboveboard, their government 

 has not the power to protect them from the extortions of the provincial officials, or the 



