na increased. 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 Pekin, 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. Austria's defeat on the field of
Sadowa 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
Pekin 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 slowly
against the current when urged by strong winds, and lay idle or were
towed or poled by men when calms or head-breezes 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 their mysterious 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.[E] 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 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,