OPENINGS IN CHINA.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 67, 17 June 1843, Page 267

OPENINGS IN CHINA.

[From the Doncaster Gazette, Dec. 2.] The opening of so vast a territory as China, with its three hundred millions of inhabitants, to all the operations of a direct trade, through five Chinese ports, which communicate with the most productive provinces of the empire, may well be hailed with feelings of universal congratulation, especially when the long existing depression of trade and the stagnation to which commercial enterprise has been exposed, are taken into full consideration. New life and vigour will be infused into commercial enterprise. The manufacturing community will be brought once more into the exercise of their labour, ingenuity, and skill. The maritime and shipping interest, after having experienced years of depression, will receive a stimulus to which they have been lately strangers. In short, with a country so vast in extent — so densely populated — so wealthy, luxurious, and, it will be found, enterprising — so desirous of receiving foreign luxuries— so prone to the habits of trade — industrious, skilful, and active— it is a matter of impossibility to calculate the advantages which will be produced upon the whole of the commercial world and the productive industry of the country, by throwing down the barriers which for centuries have been raised against the productions of the other portions of the globe. Compared with the success, or, rather, the concomitants of the success of British fortitude and British valour— qualities, which, with the truly mighty adjunct of" steam, appear to have clothed themselves with the mantle of invincibility, as witnessed, in the first instance, on the shores of Syria, and now in the mighty waters of China — qualities which, thus strengthened, would, once aroused by the infliction of injustice, sweep, with destruction and desolation, the seaboard of any country, and, if driven to desperation, leave not a stick standing in any foreign port ; compared with this success, we repeat, the discovery of the new world appears to shrink into comparative insignificance. That discovery, doubtless, has produced its marvellous consequences; but from this conclusion of the Chinese treaty may be dated one of the most important epochs in the history of the world.

[From the Morning Chronicle.'] The duty on tea, of all qualities, at present is 2s. Id. ; the revenue from it being rather above £3,000,000 sterling per annum. Bohea— that is, black tea, the article that enters chiefly into the consumption of the industrious classes — is laid down here at Is. per pound, so that the duty is 200 per cent, on the cost; while on green tea and the superior qualities, which cost ss. per pound and upwards, the duty paid by the dukes, the peers, and wealthy of the land, is not over 40 per cent. This is most unjust to the poorer classes, and calls loudly for redress by the imposition of an ad valorem duty in proportion to the quality. It may be said, and has been said, that the imposition of a discriminating duty on tea would encourage the importation of the inferior qualities. So much the better, for those are the teas consumed by the industrious poor. The port of Amoy, in the Foekien district, where Bohea teas are grown, is to be thrown open to British commerce. The British Plenipotentiary wisely insisted for that concession, which is most important, because Bohea tea will thus be shipped direct to England, without being subject to the transit duties, and it is thought may be laid down in London at a cost of Bd. per pound. This is the time, then, to enable the British artisan, the poor hand-loom weaver, and, in short, the operatives of all classes, to reap the benefit of a commercial treaty with China. We should begin at the right end tbis time, to make up for the error in the tariff, which began at the wrong. Let the duty on Bohea tea be reduced from 200 to something like 50 per cent., and the poor' of the country will rejoice. If Parliament will hot give the poor man a cheap loaf, they cannot now refuse to give him cheap tea, and, as a necessary consequence, a lump. of cheap sugar to mix with it.

HypocondriachismExtraordinary. — Among the dry, quaint, and philosophical scenes with which Mr. Neale's recent volumes of " Charcoal Sketches " abound, we think this soliloquy of a loafer, who has been sleigh-riding, and gbt " spilt," is inimitable :— " It's man's natur*, I believe, and we can't help it nohow. As for me, I wish I was a pig — - there's some sense in being a pig wot's fat ; pigs don't have to speculate and burst — pigs never go a sleighing, quarrel with their daddies-in-law wot is to be, get into sprees, and make t'arnal fools of themselves. Pigs is decent-behaved people and good citizens, though they ain't got no wote. And theo they haven't got no clothes to put on of cold mornings when they get up; they don't have to be darnin' andpatchin' their old pants ; they don't wear no old hats on their heads, nor have to ask people for 'em ; cold wittles is plenty for pigs. My eyes ! if I was a jolly fat pig, belonging to respectable people, it would be tantamount to nothin' to me who was President. Who ever seed one pig sittin' on a cold curbstone a rubbin' another pig's head what got chucked out of a sleigh ? Pigs have too much sense to go a ridin', if so be as they can help it I wish I was one, and out of this scrape. It's true," continued Dout, thoughtfully, and pulling Templetoc's nose till it cracked at the bridge joint — "it's true, pig* have their troubles like humans — constables catches 'em, dogs bites 'em, and "pigs are sometimes almost as doneover suckers as men ; but pigs never runs their own noses into scrapes coaxin' themselves to believe it's fun, as we do. ! never sees a pig go the whole hog in my life, 'septonrnm cherries." — American paper. Of all apparently innocent habits, lying in 'bed is perhaps the worst ; amidst all the different habits through which people have attained to a long life, it is said that in this one respect, and this only, they have all agreed. No very longlived man has been a Inte riser. — Leigh Hunt.