On August 27, 1844, just six months after his arrival, Mr. Cushing sailed from Macao, for San Blas, Mexico, whence he proceeded overland to Vera Cruz, and thence to Washington.

The man who so skillfully conducted the negotiations which initiated the diplomatic intercourse of the United States with the great empire of China calls for more than a passing notice. He was a unique figure in American political affairs, and occupied a prominent place before the public for more than forty years. After graduating at Harvard College he devoted himself to the law, and began public life as a Jeffersonian Democrat; he successively held the offices of member of the legislature, member of congress, and justice of the supreme court of Massachusetts; joined the Whig party in the campaign of 1840; transferred his party allegiance to Tyler on the death of Harrison as President; for many years was an ardent Democrat, strongly supporting the Mexican war, in which he was a general; a faithful adherent of the Southern wing of the party at the Charleston and Baltimore conventions, which nominated Breckinridge as the proslavery candidate for President in 1860; became a supporter of Lincoln and the Union cause; a follower of President Johnson, and again a Republican during the Grant administration. Thrice was he nominated by Tyler as Secretary of the Treasury and thrice rejected by the Senate; he held the post of Attorney-General under Pierce; and was three times minister to foreign countries; and his last public duty was as counsel, associated with Evarts and Waite, before the Geneva tribunal of arbitration.

No man of his time had such a checkered political

career.

He was an accomplished scholar, and one of the ablest lawyers in the United States. Few men of his generation rendered such important services to his country. Yet, notwithstanding his acknowledged abilities, his character was not such as to command public confidence. He was nominated by President Grant to be chief justice of the supreme court, but the Senate failed to confirm him. He is one of several examples in American history, where moral obliquity has, in the judgment of the American people, been an obstacle to a public man's preferment.

The negotiation of a treaty with France soon followed that made with the United States in 1844, and both the Chinese and foreigners began to adapt themselves to the new conditions. But more or less trouble was experienced at all of the five treaty ports and more especially at Canton. Here the unruly population resisted the proclamation, issued by the governor-general in execution of the treaties, to open the city to the intercourse of foreigners; riots occurred in which the American and other consulates and commercial houses were threatened, and the opposition continued so serious that the attempt to open the gates was abandoned, and Canton remained closed till the war of 1858.1 In lieu of the observance of the treaties in this respect, the area of the foreign settlements outside the walls was enlarged, and in other respects the authorities manifested a fair degree of interest in the enforcement of the treaties.

115 Chinese Repository, 46, 364.

American commerce seemed to have received an impulse from the treaties. The arrivals of American ships in 1848 are reported as follows: 67 at Canton, 20 at Shanghai, and 8 at Amoy, standing first after the British. It is seen that Canton still held the bulk of the trade as against Shanghai, which was soon to become the centre of foreign commerce.

Upon the retirement of Mr. Cushing in 1845, Alexander H. Everett was appointed commissioner to China. He reached Canton in October, 1846, in ill health, and died at that place June 29, 1847. He had had large diplomatic experience, having been minister at St. Petersburg, The Hague, and Madrid, and was a gentleman of high natural endowments and literary attainments. His death so soon after his arrival at his post was much lamented, and his obsequies were attended by all the foreign officials, diplomatic, consular, and military. His successor was John W. Davis, of Indiana.

The residence of the American diplomatic representative was nominally in the foreign settlement outside the walls of Canton, but until the opening of Peking to the diplomatic representatives of the treaty powers in 1860 their residence was of a peripatetic character. The imperial government delegated a high commissioner to reside at Canton, with whom the foreign representatives were to hold diplomatic intercourse, but the sequel will show that audience with him was rarely attainable, and the diplomats found a residence at the Portuguese port of Macao more agreeable. The rising commercial importance of Shanghai led to frequent visits by them to that place, and Hongkong, where the British governor

was established, was also found a convenient place of call or temporary sojourn. It required another war and the march of hostile armies into the Chinese capital to open it to the visit and residence of the representatives of the foreign powers.

IV

INDEPENDENT HAWAII

THE situation and resources of the Hawaiian Islands pointed them out to early navigators as destined to play an important part in the commercial and political affairs of the Pacific. Standing alone in the great ocean, the group must necessarily act as an outpost of the North American continent. Lying in the track of navigation from the central part of that continent to the great islands in the South Pacific, and in the direct course from the Isthmus of Panama to Japan and China, it was plain their harbors would become the resort of the shipping of the world. The trade winds which constantly fanned their shores and the cold currents from the Arctic seas made for these islands within the tropics a most healthful and delicious climate. The genial sun, the plentiful rains, and the mountain elevations caused the soil to respond to every desire of man. It was verily the Paradise of the Pacific.

The islands were not discovered until two years after the United States had declared its independence. But in the very year that the new government was set in motion under President Washington, American traders established themselves there and initiated a commerce, which, with these islands as a base of operations, soon