SHANGHAI SETTLEMENTS 85 



now four of these classes. (1) Concessions pure and simple 

 dating from the treaties of 1858 and after. (2) Treaty settle- 

 ments of the ordinary kind. (3) Voluntary settlements 

 opened by the Chinese Government of its own free-will; and 

 (4) Settlements by sufferance. 



Each of these deserves notice. We will deal first with 

 the settlements and leave the concessions to- the last. 

 Shanghai will serve us with three examples. There was first 

 of all the British settlement. I call it British advisedly, 

 for in the beginning it could not have been other than British. 

 That will be clear to every one. The war which had dragged 

 along from 1839 to' 1842 was a war between two Govern- 

 ments. This is a frequent claim in wars. In that case it was 

 the literal truth. There was no> cause of quarrel between the 

 Chinese people and the British people. So when the Treaty 

 of Nanking came to be made, it was an agreement between 

 the British and the Chinese Governments alone. Nobody 

 else had part or lot in it. Capt. Balfour came here to 

 administer the affairs of a handful of British merchants 

 squatting on a tiny speck of Chinese soil. The whole position 

 was British if only for the reason that neither the British nor 

 any other Government has the right to legislate for any but 

 its own people. Still neither the British Consul nor the 

 British Government had the slightest desire to play the part 

 of the dog in the manger. There was no closed door where 

 British authority was. Everybody was welcome if he would 

 but subscribe to the regulations which experience had found 

 necessary. These regulations were drawn up piecemeal as 

 required, not as a whole on a certain date as some imagine. 

 They came from the Taotai and the British Consul. But 

 they were promulgated in the first case in Chinese. Thus 

 it came about that the first foreign authority in the settle- 

 ment was British, supported by the local and provincial 

 Government. 



Such arrangements might have prevailed even when 

 challenged, had our Government desired it. But when Mr. 

 Henry Wolcott, the sole American merchant in the place, 

 got himself appointed Acting American Consul, and flew his 

 national flag in 1846, a new influence was introduced. The 

 story is highly interesting, but as it is also voluminous and 

 covers some eight years of discussion, it cannot be entered 

 upon here. Suffice it to say that as the British flag flew 

 from the Consulate then in the city, the first foreign flag to 

 display itself in the settlement was the Stars and Stripes. 

 The question regarding its right to be there was bandied to 

 and fro between Shanghai and the Ministers down south 

 first of all; then between these and their respective capitals; 



