nous range, at the passes of which tolls are levied
by the government, which are now said to amount annually to seven
millions. The assertion, therefore, of the Chinese government that they
do not care about the trade is very false, for they have derived a great
revenue from it.

The opening of the more northern ports, which was obtained by the war
with China, has already made a great difference, and every year will
make a greater. Shang-hai, one of the ports opened, and the farthest to
the northward, is situated on the confines of the great tea country, and
vessels going there to take in their cargoes avoid all the duties of
transit, and procure the tea in a much better condition. The merchants
of Canton, moreover, who traffic in tea, are all of them for the most
part people of the province of Shang-hai, who resort to Canton to look
after their interests, but now that the port of Shang-hai is opened,
their merchants are returning to their own country, the English
merchants are settling at Shang-hai, and the vessels are going there to
load with tea direct. Already a large portion of the traffic has left
Canton and gone to Shang-hai, and it is but natural to suppose, that in
a few years the tea trade will be carried on altogether from that port,
as the expence of transit over the mountains and the duties levied will
be avoided, as well as the advantage gained of having the tea in a much
better condition when shipped on board. How the Chinese government will
act when it finds that it loses the great revenue arising from the trade
being carried on at Canton remains to be seen, but it will, probably,
succumb to another war, if such is considered necessary. It will be a
curious subject of interest to watch the fall of Hong Kong, of Macao,
and also of Canton itself, with its turbulent population, which must,
when the trade is withdrawn, fall into insignificance.

The great error of the last war was, our selection of such an unhealthy
and barren island as Hong Kong as our _pied-a-terre_ in China, when we
might have had Chusan, or, indeed, any other place which we might have
insisted upon. We thought that Chusan was unhealthy because we barracked
our soldiers in the swamps, and consequently lost many of the men, when,
as it is a most healthy and delightful climate, had the barracks been
built on the hills, we probably should not have lost a man. Even now it
is not too late. The Chinese dislike our propinquity to their coast at