April 26, 1858.] LOCKHART ON THE YANG-TSE-KIANG, &c. 
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1400 miles from Calcutta. I found myself completely isolated. I was treated 
with distrust and suspicion, and I found my situation there so uncomfortable 
that I strongly recommended to the Government to withdraw the mission. 
They did not, but persevered for several years in maintaining one. At last 
the envoy was kept four months on an island in the Irrawaddy without being 
even vouchsafed an audience, until the whole party fell sick, and then the 
Indian Government came to their senses and permanently withdrew it. Now, 
an envoy sent to Pekin, 1000 or 1200 miles from the seacoast, and 15,000 or 
16,000 miles from Great Britain, would he in a much worse position than I 
was ; and I am perfectly sure that any attempt of the sort will prove a total 
failure. 
The President. — One of the remarkable facts pointed out by Mr. Lockhart 
has not been alluded to in the discussion, — the change of the course of the 
great Yellow River. By not keeping up its raised banks, that river has 
entirely changed its course. It was stated that this was a phenomenon almost 
unparalleled ; but I must remind my friends, that the Oxus, a very mighty 
river, is supposed by Humboldt to have also changed its course ; and that, 
having formerly flowed into the Caspian Sea, it was by some slight change 
of the land deflected into the Aral. Also in our own times the river Syr Daria, 
at the southern extremity of the Russian steppes, has equally been diverted 
into a new channel. 
Mr. W. Lockhart, f.r.g.s. — In respect to the remarks on the language, 
' I wish to state that it is not correct that either the spoken or written language 
of China is defective or imperfect : when properly spoken, it is as intelligible as 
other languages, and the action used in dramas, is not to supply the want of 
elocution, but rather to illustrate the subject^ If the Yang-tse-Kiang is not 
the longest river in the world, being 3000 miles long, it is certainly the most 
important, having so many populous cities containing 100,000,000 of people on 
its banks, and because it traverses the centre of so rich and productive a 
country as China is. In answer to the gentleman who says that the trade is 
carried on in China by a species of pedling, I remark that this is not the case, 
for the trade in China is characterised by larger transactions than are 
common in other countries, which is evident when it is borne in mind that 
the trade of Shanghae alone in exports, is about 12,000,000L sterling per 
annum, paid for by Manchester and Leeds goods, bar silver and opium. The 
lacquer-ware and rhubarb form a very subordinate branch of the trade. The 
Chinese who buy silk and tea in the interior are largely trusted by the 
merchants sending them, who commit to their care large sums of money, for 
which after some months’ interval the produce is sent to Shanghae. As to 
Mr. Crawfurd’s remark that he hoped there would not be a British Minister at 
Pekin, I, on the contrary, most fervently hope that in any new treaty the Govern- 
ment will not only secure the navigation of the great rivers, but will insist 
on the residence of a minister at Pekin, as without that, we could not secure 
friendly relations with China. If this be not obtained, we should as in 
the present instance be soon hurried into another war, the chief cause of the 
present war being the impossibility of communicating with the Court of Pekin 
when any troubles arose at the ports. I hope when entrance is obtained to the 
interior that a rigid system of passports will be established ; that no person will 
be allowed to enter China who is not answerable to the control of some consul 
at the ports, otherwise the same thing will occur in the interior as I have known 
take place near Shanghae, namely, that half a dozen Europeans and Americans, 
under the name of Germans, who have no consul there, banded together, took 
a walled city, levied contributions on the inhabitants, and retained possession 
for many months, the Chinese authorities having no power to displace them. 
