IN the year 1786 a vessel of three hundred and fifty tons burden sailed from an American port for Canton. She was the first to carry the flag of the United States to the shores of Cathay, and to begin a commerce that has since assumed enormous proportions. European nations had carried on a limited trade with the Chinese before that time, but they were restricted to a single port, and their jealousy of each other prevented their adopting those measures of cooperation that have recently proved so advantageous. China was averse to opening her territory to foreign merchants, and regarded with suspicion all their attempts to gain a foothold upon her soil. On the north, since 1727, the Russians had a single point of commercial exchange, and by the treaty between Russia and China all the trade between the two nations was to be conducted there. Two small cities, one thoroughly Russian and the other as thoroughly Chinese, were founded, and grew up, side by side, for the purposes of international commerce. The name of the Chinese city (Maimaichin) signifies "place of trade." Along the whole northern frontier of the Celestial Empire there was no other settlement of its name or character. In the south was the single point open to those who came to China by sea, while along the coastline, facing to the eastward, the ports of the empire were sealed against foreign intrusion. Commerce between China and the outer world was hampered by many restrictions, and only the great profits derived from it served to keep it alive. But once fairly established, the barbarian merchants taught the slow-learning Chinese that the trade brought advantage to all engaged in it. Step by step they pressed forward, to open new ports and extend commercial relations, which were not likely to be discontinued, if only a little time were allowed to show their value.

As the years rolled on, trade with China increased; the merchants, of all classes, found that foreign gold and silver were desirable things to gather into their possession, and that the teas and silks and porcelain of the empire brought a remunerative price from those who came to purchase. For a long time the foreigners trading with China had no direct intercourse with the General Government, but dealt only with the local and provincial authorities. It was not until after the famous "Opium War" that diplomatic relations were opened with the court at Peking, and a common policy adopted for all parts of the empire, in its dealings with the outer world. Considering the extremely conservative character of the Chinese, their adherence to old forms and customs, their general, unwillingness to do differently from their ancestors, and the not over-amiable character of the majority of the foreigners that went there to trade, it is not surprising that many years were required for commercial relations to grow up and become permanent. The wars between China and the Western powers did more than centuries of peace could have done to open the Oriental eyes and teach the oldest nation of the world that its superiority in age had not given it superiority in every thing else. Austria's defeat on the field of Sadowa, whose cannons' echoes are still ringing in our ears, advanced and enlightened her more than a hundred years of peace and victory could have done, at her old rate of progress. The victories of the allied forces in China, culminating in the capture of Peking and dictation of terms by the foreign leaders, opened the way for a free intercourse between the East and West, and the immense advantages that an unrestricted commerce is sure to bring to an industrious, energetic, and economical people.

With a river-system unsurpassed by

that of any other nation of the world, China relied upon navigation by junks, which crept but slowly against the current when urged by strong winds, and lay idle or were laboriously towed or poled by men when calms or headbreezes prevailed. Of steam applied to propulsion, she had no knowledge, until steamboats of foreign construction appeared in her waters and roused the wonder of the oblique-eyed natives by the mystery of their powers. The first steamboat to ascend a Chinese river created a greater sensation than did the Clermont on her initial voyage along the Hudson or her Western prototype, several years later, among the Indians of the upper Missouri. The Chinese very speedily saw the advantages of steam-navigation on the great rivers of the empire, and were quick to patronize the foreign invention when it was fairly established. In 1839 the first steam venture was made in China. An English house placed a boat on the route between Canton and Macao, and advertised it as ready to carry freight and passengers on stated days. For the first six months the passengers averaged about a dozen to each trip-half of them Europeans, and the rest natives. The second half-year the number of native patrons increased, and by the end of the second year the boat, on nearly every trip, was filled with Chinese. The trade became so lucrative, that another boat was brought from England and placed on the route, which continued to be a source of profit until the business was overdone by opposition lines, just as the same kind of business has been overdone on the Hudson and elsewhere in America. As soon as the treaties permitted, steamers were introduced into the coasting-trade of China, and subsequently upon the rivers and other inland waters. The Chinese merchants perceived the importance of rapid and certain transportation for their goods in place of the slow and unreliable service of their junks, but the advance in rates was overbalanced by the increased facilities and the opportunities of the merchants to make six times as many ven

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tures annually as by the old system. Probably there is no people in the world that can be called a nation of shopkeepers more justly than the Chinese ; thousands upon thousands of them are engaged in petty trade, and the competition is very keen. Of course, where there is an active traffic the profits are small, and any thing that can assist the prompt delivery of merchandise and the speedy transmission of intelligence, money, credits, or the merchant himself, is certain to be brought into full For the first few years the steamvessels in Chinese waters were owned by foreigners, who derived large profits from the native trade; but very soon the Chinese merchants conceived the notion of purchasing steamers and running them on their own account. No accurate statistics are at hand of the number of foreign steamers now in China, but well-informed parties estimate the burden of American coasting and river-vessels at upward of thirty thousand tons, while that of other nationalities is much larger. Steamboats, with a burden of more than ten thousand tons, are now owned by Chinese merchants, and about half that quantity is the joint property of Chinese and foreigners. In managing their boats and watching the current expenses, the Chinese are quite equal to the English and Americans, and sometimes display an ability to carry freight upon terms that are ruinous to foreign competitors.

Foreign systems of banking and insurance have been adopted, and work successfully. The Chinese had a mode of banking long before the European nations possessed much knowledge of financial matters; and it is claimed that the first circulating-notes and bills-ofcredit ever issued had their origin during a monetary pressure at Peking. But they were so unprogressive that, when intercourse was opened with the Western World, they found their own system defective, and were forced tr adopt the foreign innovation. Insurance companies were first owned and managed by foreigners at the open ports, and as soon as the plan of secur

ing themselves against loss by fire or other casualties was understood by the Chinese merchants, they began to form companies on their own account, and carry their operations to the interior of the empire, where foreign trade had not penetrated. All the intricacies of the insurance business-even to the formation of fraudulent companies, with imaginary officers, and an explosion at a propitious moment-are fully understood and practised by the Chinese.

By the facilities which the advent of foreigners has introduced to the Chinese, the native trade along the rivers and with the open ports has largely increased. In this respect China has only followed the rule that everywhere prevails where men engage in commercial pursuits. On the rivers and along the coast the steamers and native boats are actively engaged, and the population of the open ports has largely increased in consequence of the attractions offered to the people of all grades and professions. The greatest increase has been in the foreign trade, which, from small beginnings, now amounts to more than nine hundred millions of dollars anuually. As this is all from the open ports, it naturally follows that the domestic trade, tributary to those ports by means of the numerous canals and rivers, and coming from a population of more than four hundred millions of people, must be enormously large. Where formerly a dozen or more vessels crept into Canton, during each year, there are now hundreds of ships and steamers traversing the ocean to and from the accessible points of the coast of the great Eastern Empire. America has a large share of this commerce with China, and from the little beginning, in 1786, she has increased her maritime service, until she now has a fleet of sailing-ships second to none in the world and a line of magnificent steamers plying regularly across the broad Pacific, and bringing the East in closer alliance with the West than she has ever been before.

Railways will naturally follow the steamboat, and an English company is now arranging to supply the Chinese

with a railway-system to connect the principal cities, and especially to tap the interior districts, where the watercommunications are limited. Railways in India, where the population is dense, have been found profitable, and the promoters of the scheme are confident they will prove equally so in China. There is no system of mail-communication in China; the Government transmits intelligence by means of couriers, and when merchants have occasion to communicate with persons at a distance they make use of private expresses. Foreign and native merchants, doing an extensive business, keep swift steamers, which they use as despatch-boats, and sometimes send them at hundreds or thousands of dollars' expense to transmit single messages. It has happened that, on a sudden change of markets, two or more houses in Hong Kong or Shanghae have despatched boats at the same moment; and some interesting and exciting races are recorded in the local histories. Some of the native merchants have expended much money in purchasing and maintaining their despatch-boats, and occasionally, when business is dull, they get up private races, on which respectable amounts of cash are staked.

The barriers of Chinese exclusion were broken down when the treaties of the past ten years opened the empire to foreigners, and placed the name of China on the list of diplomatic and treaty powers. The last stone of the wall that shut the nation from the outer world was overthrown when the court at Peking sent an embassy, headed by a distinguished American, to visit the capitals of the Western nations, and cement the bonds of friendship between the West and the East. It was eminently fitting that an American should be selected as the head of this embassy, and eminently fitting, too, that the ambassador of the oldest nation should first visit the youngest of all the great powers of the world. America, just emerged from the garments of childhood, and with full pride and consciousness of its youthful strength, presents

to ruddy England, smiling France, and the other members of the family of nations, graybeard and dignified China, who expresses joy at the introduction, and hopes for a better acquaintance in the years that are to come.

During the time of his residence at Peking as minister of the United States, Mr. Burlingame interested himself in endeavoring to introduce the telegraph into China, and though meeting with opposition on account of certain superstitions of the Chinese, he was ultimately successful. The Chinese do not understand the working of the telegraph -at least the great majority of them do not-and like many other people elsewhere, with regard to any thing incomprehensible, they are inclined to ascribe it to a satanic origin. They.believe the erection of poles and the stretching of wires would disturb the currents of Fung Shuey (good luck), just as some of the residents of Tennessee and Alabama, ten or twelve years ago, believed the telegraph-wires caused a lack of rain.

Hence their opposition to the construction of the telegraph; and it remains for the prejudice to be overcome before electric communication in China will be a success.

Some years ago, as the story runs, some Americans erected a line fifteen or twenty miles long, between Shanghae and Woosung, the place where all deepdraught vessels approaching Shanghae are obliged to anchor. The Chinese made no interference, officially or otherwise, with the line during its construction, and allowed it to work for some weeks, which it did very successfully. They did not investigate its operations, but supposed the foreigners employed active and invisible devils to run along the wires to convey messages. these bearers of despatches confined themselves to their own affairs, their highway would not have been disturbed; but, unfortunately, a Chinese died, one day, in a house that was crossed by the telegraph-wire, and actually touched by one of the poles. It is not an unusual thing for a Chinese to die-thousands of them do so every day

Had

-but several friends of the deceased Oriental set a rumor afloat that one of the foreign couriers had descended from the wire, and caused the native's death. A Chinese mob very soon made short work of the telegraph-line.

In this the Chinese only followed the example of the Southerners referred to in the preceding paragraph. When the telegraph-line from Cincinnati to New Orleans was built, some of the people along the route supposed it would affect the fall of rain and injure their crops. A drouth confirmed them in that opinion, and a great many miles of wire were torn down in consequence.

To avoid all possibility of interference with the proposed line in China, Mr. Burlingame suggested that it be placed out of harm's reach by laying it in the form of a submarine cable along the coast. The Government readily adopted the suggestion, as it would prevent any disturbance by superstitious or illdisposed persons while the line was being tested; as soon as the people were accustomed to its workings and satisfied of its harmlessness, the construction of land-lines could be ventured. The concession granted by the Government was accepted by an American company, which is empowered to lay submarine cables, connecting all the treaty ports from Canton to Peking. Quite likely, the submarine telegraph will astonish John Chinaman a great deal more than a land-line; if intelligence can be flashed instantly along the bottom of the ocean, where there is no apparent communication, he will be compelled to admit that a visible, tangible wire on land is a safe and feasible route of communication. While the cable is in deep water, out of reach of anchors, and only to be touched by the apparatus specially designed for its recovery, it will hardly be liable to the calamity that befell the ShanghaeWoorsung line. Nobody will have a local habitation in its vicinity except where it is brought to shore, and even should it be charged with the death of some unfortunate native, the next of kin and the neighbors and friends of the