CHINESE SECRETARY TO HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S LEGATION AT PEKING. SHANGHAI: 66 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. BROADHURST TOOTAL, 'NORTH-CHINA HERALD" OFFICE, 7, HANKOW ROAD. LONDON: TRUBNER & Co., 57 & 59, LudGATE HILL. 1877. PREFACE. THE publication of the present collection of the Treaties and other engagements under which the trade and relations of foreign countries with the Chinese Empire are conducted has been undertaken in order to meet a requirement long expressed and widely recognized. Since 1861, when the Treaties and Conventions concluded in 1858-1860 with Great Britain, France, the United States, and Russia were issued from the publishing office of the present volume, no attempt has been made to bring together, or indeed to render available for general purposes of reference, the greater portion of the various Treaties and Regulations which have been successively agreed upon during the last sixteen or seventeen years. A few of these instruments have been separately printed after negotiation, for semi-private use; others have seen the light in the columns of newspapers, and others again have been recorded in European publications such as the "British and Foreign State Papers," compiled in London by Mr. Edward Hertslet, or in the " Archives Diplomatiques," the corresponding Parisian work; but for all general purposes, they have remained virtually inaccessible. The material difficulties in the way of remedying this deficiency having been removed by the enterprise of the publisher of the present volume, a collection has now been made of all the international agreements hitherto concluded by the Chinese Government, which are printed either in full, or, where circumstances have rendered this admissible, in an abridged form. Condensation has, in particular, been applied to such instruments as the British Supplementary Treaty of 1843 (abrogated in 1858), to the earlier Treaties with Russia, and to those portions of the Treaties with European powers, concluded in the decade subsequent to 1860, which are simple reproductions of the wording of earlier agreements. As is well known, the stipulations of the British and French Treaties of 1858 have been taken in most instances as the basis of the negotiations subsequently conducted on the part of Belgium, Denmark, Italy, and other powers; and necessary space has been economized, for the purposes of the present collection, by a system of references in the arrangement of all Treaty articles of an identic character. Where no publications in a European language have been accessible, recourse has been had to the collection of Treaties in Chinese which has been published by the Chinese Government, and from this source translations have been made of the Convention with Russia for the frontier trade between the two countries, and of the Treaty of 1871 with Japan, both of which are now for the first time printed. Other instruments, no longer in vigour, but historically interesting and important, are the French Treaty of 1844, and the United States' Treaty concluded in the same year at Wanghia, both of which are republished in their proper place; and similarly, for purposes of reference, the Emigration Convention of 1866 and the Articles of Revision negotiated in 1868-1869 by Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B., Her Britannic Majesty's Minister, although both have failed to receive ratification, are included in the collection. It has not appeared necessary to reprint, except in connection with the British Treaty of 1858, the Tariff of Duties and Commercial Regulations adopted as an annex both to that instrument and to all other Treaties subsequently negotiated, since the agreement concluded in this respect by the Earl of Elgin, with its subsequent modifications, is specifically recognized by all nationalities as the common rule. In order to facilitate reference, on a subject likely to be of increasing interest, the remarkable Treaty concluded in 1876 between Japan and Corea is admitted to a place in the collection. With the various regulations which have been agreed upon from time to time in fulfilment or extension of Treaty engagements, such as those relating to Trade on the Yangtsze Kiang, the Coast Trade, Transit Duties, &c., which are likewise included, it is believed that a complete compendium of all the provisoes under which the international relations of the Chinese Government are conducted is now brought within reach; and in order to assist reference as much as possible, an Index has been compiled for the subject-matter of the entire volume. The editor has been assisted in much of the labour of preparation by Mr. Alex. Hosie, of Her Britannic Majesty's Consular Service, and in the revision of a large portion of the proofs by Mr. Donald Spence, acting Interpreter of Her Majesty's Consulate at Shanghai. To both these gentlemen his thanks are due for the services they have willingly and efficiently rendered. PEKING, August 1877. |