ENGLAND AND CHINA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1133, 18 January 1884, Page 3

ENGLAND AND CHINA.

The following interesting speech was delivered by tho Marquis Tseng at a banquet given in hia honour at Folkestone. Tho address was given in Chinese, and translated by the Secretary to the Chinese Legation : Words cannot express to yon my sense of gratitude for the honour which you and your fellow-citizens have done in presenting me with the address 1 have just received at your hands. I rejoice that the day has now come when, from the improved means of communication which is so characteristic of oi{r time,, peoples which hitherto space had ’ made strangers to each other are strangers no' longer, that the harriers, physical and moral, which separated them ard broken down,- and the products and the fkbrids of-distant countries r are as familiar to one ‘tables find our homes as those which are grown and manufactured at dnr door.' Tlje fabrics of the looms of Lancashire and Yorkshire aro now as well known and as much appreciated in China as they are in Manchester or Bradford, and we have only to look at the ladies who have come hero to grace this great assemblage, or to drop in upon them any afternoon to find where a large proportion of the silks and teas of China find a market. But it is not only in material articles that onr two peoples will find it to their advantage to make exchanges. In science and art we have already learned something, and wo have much more to learn from you. But have you nothing to learn from us 1 To say so were to deny that there is such a thing as progress, to deny the great law of evolnlut.ion, and which found such an eloquent expounder in the great apostle of nature who passed away from amongst you last year. No people can have lived and toiled through tho harrowing centuries whose record is to be found in the history of tho Chinese race, without having thought of some things worth remembering without having called from the Held of nature some thing worthy of heinj handed down to posterity. Yoor scholars have already done much to retell the history of Babylon, Nineveh, and Ethiopia, but in Chinese antiquity, they have practically done nothing. I feel perfectly confident that when taeso come to bo explored they will be found to contain mines of wealth perhaps undreamed of in your philosophy. These are the missing links of knowledge whose absence has hitherto rendered many a problem of humanity unexplained and inexplained and inexplicable Your Worships, I entirely reciprocate tho wishes for the maintenance of the friendly relations now existing between our two countries which Hnd expression in the ndilre-s which you and your follow-citisona of this ancient borough have just presented to me, and 1 am delinht-d to think that in the' very extensive commerce carric \ on between Groat Britain and China there are ' so many and such substantial reasons for hoping that they will he continued. Plai tonic unions aro seldom lasting. Sentiment may become perverted, wax-warm, aud then

. uivw cold a {tin hut it is nut so ’vfbli thef unions w|iic(ril--pmoi up .n-inaterial liiti?f j cals r tiut fu ' • •>* »J« V-*«*iiiii'-n• uf new, jntuit [ esis tlioau become stronger, closer, nnd nuira. i dissoluble fi<>. ll Il;vy .<« iUy. i > e<l nut I toll an Englishan lui-ce hmv uuii.in 16V), that great ami lies), giiaran w wwi.en nations, bis imt'seiM*.! between our two | coun.ri»s with) ■ tlio last. 2 i years, an I how erroneous aru thu virus .if these who, to hear them speak, seem to think that thal Groat Wall of (Jfiilia eneiriles the whole empire in such a manner tat contact .with Europeans could take place at only umr or two points, for yimr merchants must hj jvw told you that there are 1G ports in Cuul t n. not including the treaty ports of call— i where the ships of all nations tied wel» coni'', and to which your merchants cam send or carry their goods into every cormr of the empire upon conditions which, compared with the taritla of some Euro|jeam countries, may he called Free Trade. This may perhaps he news to some of those would-be pioneers of civilisation who would throw the aegis of their protection over you and your trade for a consideration of 25 per cent. We sometimes hear it asserted that the Chinese wish to avoid intercourse with the European nations. That is not true; We do not fear contact with foreign nations. Nay, we court it; for we know the advantages of that. *tut we refuse to have our hand forced. We believe that commerce to be beneficial must bo a free gift, and it is not to be compelled toflow i"U> the great ocean of the world’s wants. This is hot the place to discuss diplomatic qiustions. I will therefore observe the s'.oie reserve as you have done in the adiiuss when referring to the gieat question whioh uow occupies so much of my time ami attention. 1 will merely say that 1 still hup by mutual concessions that alfair may be given a pacific solution. My duty ami my inclination equally concur in commending such a solution, so that you may depend upon it that it will not he my fault should that he found impossible. Again I uesire to thank you for the hospitable welcome which you have given to me and to my family. ‘