the court at Peking was totally ignorant of the strength and progress of the outside world. Intrenched in the conviction of their intellectual and material superiority, the Chinese were still resolved to hold as little intercourse as possible with the treaty powers, and to interpret strictly in their favor the conventions which had been forced upon them.

Mr. Davis, who was the United States representative from 1848 to 1850, was mainly occupied with installing the consular officers at the treaty ports with the judicial functions with which they were clothed by the treaty of 1844, growing out of their exterritorial jurisdiction. His reports upon the subject to the Department of State were made the basis of the peculiar legislation of Congress respecting the judicial powers of consuls, which with subsequent amendments has continued to the present time.

The most noted event of his mission was an interview held with the imperial commissioner, which was the only one since the treaty of 1844, and it proved to be the last had by an American representative with the resident Canton high commissioner. In place of being held at the yamen or official residence of the commissioner in Canton or on board a man-of-war of the United States, as official etiquette required, it took place at a commercial warehouse in the suburbs of Canton. There was present at that interview as a subordinate official the afterwards celebrated Yeh, who bore such a conspicuous part in the troubles which led to the second British war.

Mr. Davis had been selected for the post because of

his prominence in domestic politics, having been a member of Congress for several years and speaker of the House. The concurrent testimony of contemporary writers is that he discharged his duties modestly and well, and left a reputation for intelligence, discretion, and devotion to duty. Upon the resignation of Mr. Davis, Dr. Parker, the secretary of legation, became chargé d'affaires.1

In 1852 Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky, was commissioned and entered upon his duties as minister. The chief business which occupied his attention was in seeking to secure an interview with Yeh, who had been designated as high commissioner to transact affairs at Canton with the representatives of foreign governments. In answer to a request from Marshall for an interview, to place in his hands a letter from the President of the United States for transmission to the emperor, Yeh responded that he was too busy at that time to meet him, but that as soon as his pressing engagements would allow he would "select a felicitous day" on which to hold with the minister "a pleasant interview."

Mr. Marshall was quite indignant at the tone of Yeh's letter. He wrote the Secretary of State that "there was no probability that the 'felicitous day' will ever arrive;" that the French minister had been waiting at Macao fifteen months for a personal interview; and that he as the representative of the United

1 MSS. Department of State, "China," 1848-50; S. Ex. Doc. 22, 35th Cong. 2d Sess. p. 299; N. A. Review, Oct. 1859, p. 482; Littell's Living Age, Oct. 1858, p. 384.

States was not only excluded from the imperial court at Peking, but, practically, from personal intercourse with the high commissioner at Canton. He decided to go to Shanghai and secure, if possible, the transmittal of the President's letter through E-liang, the viceroy of that province, and, failing in that, to proceed to Tientsin in a man-of-war and demand an audience of the emperor from that point.

After some delay he was courteously received by E-liang, who undertook to send the President's letter to the emperor, but who said he was not authorized to transact business with him. In due course a reply came from the emperor, not in the form of a letter to the President, as courtesy required, but in a communication to the viceroy. The receipt of the President's letter was acknowledged, and the minister was informed that it was not necessary for him to come to Peking, as Commissioner Yeh was fully empowered to dispatch all public business with him. This reply made him the more desirous to proceed to the Peiho.

But another obstacle stood in the way of the execution of this plan; the commander of the American squadron on the Asiatic station seemed unwilling to support him. Commodore Aulick had not found it convenient to furnish Marshall with a naval vessel to transport him to Shanghai at the time desired, and when Commodore Perry, who succeeded Aulick, arrived at that place, he declined to yield to the minister's request for a ship to bear him to the Peiho, whence he proposed to make a demand backed by the presence of the man-of-war for an audience of his imperial majesty

at Peking. Perry had nearest at heart his mission to Japan, and besides he gave Marshall plainly to understand that he regarded the latter's scheme of a demonstration at the Peiho as chimerical and unwise.

This expression of opinion on the part of the commodore led Marshall to suggest ironically to the Secretary of State" the propriety of managing diplomatic relations with foreign countries through the instrumentality alone of the commodores of the navy, whose education and habits fit them peculiarly for the discussion of questions of international law! He also had his retort for the commodore's opinion of his Peiho project by referring to "the shadowy future which may be enveloped within the peaceful expedition' to Japan." Subsequent events, however, established the correctness of the naval diplomat's judgment in both

matters.

The subject of the proper relation between the diplomatic and naval officials of the government has been much discussed and has occasioned many unpleasant incidents not only in the service of the United States, but in that of Great Britain and other powers. Mr. Marshall's altercations with Aulick and Perry led to the issuance of specific instructions on the subject by the Department of State. Secretary Marcy, in writing to Mr. McLane, who succeeded Mr. Marshall in the Chinese mission, furnished him with a copy of the instructions given by the Secretary of the Navy to Commodore Perry, in which the latter was directed to render the minister such assistance as the exigencies of the public interest might require. But, he added,

"the President does not propose to subject him to your control, but he expects that you and he will coöperate together whenever, in the judgment of both, the interests of the United States indicate the necessity or the advantage of such coöperation." This in substance has been embodied in the instructions to diplomatic and naval officers, and this well-defined relation has in recent years prevented trouble and misunderstanding.

Mr. Marshall spent some time at Shanghai, where he found abundant occupation in the commercial troubles growing out of what is known as the Taiping Rebellion, in restraining Americans from taking part in it by rendering personal service or material aid to one or the other of the belligerents, and in repressing the lawlessness of deserting American seamen and adventurers. During his mission this revolt against the imperial government reached its highest point. Beginning in 1850, it had by 1853 swept over and occupied the provinces south of the Yang-tse-Kiang, except the open ports, had captured the Chinese city of Shanghai and the ancient capital Nankin, had crossed the great river, was threatening Tientsin, and even Peking was in danger of falling into rebel hands. It constitutes one of the most extensive, bloody, and curious insurrections in the annals of time. It threatened the existence of the oldest and most populous empire of the world; it is estimated that twenty millions of lives were sacrificed by it; and it had its origin in the vagaries of a dreaming enthusiast who claimed to base his movement upon the principles of Christianity.

A narrative of its events does not fall within the