of full sovereignty, they could not have again invaded
China with any show of reason.

On the breaking out of hostilities there was a general demand, on the
part of all mercantile powers, for the entire and unrestricted opening
of the Chinese empire to all foreigners. At that juncture we felt called
upon to remonstrate against such injustice toward an unoffending
country. In a series of articles, published in the _North China Herald_,
we attempted to show that an unqualified compliance with the demands of
chambers of commerce and the press would be inimical to foreign no less
than to Chinese interests: 'With one voice Christian nations demand the
entire opening of China, and an extension of commercial advantages,
regardless of Chinese rights in the matter. I believe that these rights
cannot be infringed with impunity. China, it is true, must succumb
before a requisite force; but the real difficulties of the aggressors
will only then commence. Let us consider the consequences of an
unconditional compliance with the demands of foreigners. You shall see
the horrid barbarities, which have devastated the coast, reenacted in
the interior. You shall see the adventurers, who shoot down Chinamen
with no more malice or compunction than they shoot a pheasant, go
further and travel faster than consul, merchant, or missionary. Murder,
robbery, rape, and the like, will be common wherever the arm of
authority is unfelt. Up her far-reaching rivers, along her interminable
network of canals, on the surface of her broad lakes, through her every
navigable water-course, China will be infested by desperadoes from all
lands, scattering misery in every valley and throughout the great plain.
Then will follow the assassination of the peaceful traveller; massacres,
foreign intervention, blockades and wars, and the lasting impediments to
commerce and civilization which these disorders engender.'

We proposed, as a check to the evil, a system of passports, limiting the
privilege of travel or residence beyond consular ports to responsible
persons--to those who could give some guarantee that the privilege
should not be abused. Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, the allied
plenipotentiaries, accepted the plan, and proposed it to the imperial
commissioners. It is said that the commissioners eagerly seized the
proposition, as, after the capture of Tien-tsin by the allied forces,
they saw that submission was inevitable, yet durst not propose to the
emperor unco